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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (127225)	7/24/2005 12:32:33 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793717

But remember. I'm a hard case on this one. Of course you are. Accept a tax premise that is not based on "soak the rich?" Never happen to an old liberal like you.

To: JohnM who wrote (127225)	7/24/2005 12:54:23 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793717

Oh, sorry John, that didn't come across the way I intended it too. I was actually pointing more of a barb toward me for the simple way I described it previously. I have much to learn about writing. ;-) In my own words, I think the taxation issue is extremely complex and as the author highlights modelling always seem to fall by the wayside. There are just too many human emotional angles to account for accurately. What I do believe is low taxes are a good thing for the great unwashed middle class in America when compared to high taxes, and it's good for our society to create incentives for people to to achieve greater levels of prosperity. Instead of taxing them out of that motivational spirit. In the short term, obviously cutting taxes costs the government revenue, however, in the long run cutting taxes enables more growth 10 years out when other factors are brought under constraint. I also think the more money the government gets, the more ways they will spend it in a wasteful manner. So cutting off the faucet by giving law makers the fear of deficits is probably not a terrible way to go about it. In my conservative utopian world, we would pass a balanced budget amendment that could only be overridden during times of national emergency with a 2/3rd vote, but I'm not holding my breath on that passing any time soon. Additionally, middle class families with children have received a tremendous amount of tax relief in the past few years. Just a couple of months ago, I helped a friend do their taxes online using Turbo Tax. He had a wife and three kids, made something like 45K and ended up paying zero federal taxes. Which equated to an 8,300 dollar tax return? And before anyone asks, Yes, I counseled him on giving the government an interest free loan, but he and his wife would have none of that. That tax check was their savings and investment money, and they couldn't be convinced they had the disciple to do anything differently.