Posted on 12/29/2012 7:44:09 AM PST by Hojczyk
Barring a last-minute breakthrough, taxes will go up for every U.S. taxpayer on Jan. 1 — and that’s a development conservatives should welcome.
Don’t get me wrong: It would be better not to raise taxes on anyone, pursue pro-growth tax reform and cut the size of government instead. But that’s not what the American people voted to do last month. Americans cast their ballots for big government.
Now it’s time to pay for it.
Until now, the growth of government under President Obama has not hit the pocketbooks of most Americans. During Obama’s first term, federal spending grew to more than 24 percent of GDP — the highest it has been since 1946. Yet almost no one in the country (except smokers and those who frequent indoor tanning salons) saw their taxes rise. Quite the opposite: 160 million Americans saw their payroll taxes reduced from 6.2 to 4.2 percent.
How can we expect people to care about the growth of government if it doesn’t cost them anything?
Instead of paying for the current miasma of spending, we’ve been borrowing the money from our children and grandchildren. The national debt has grown by nearly $6 trillion in the four years since Obama took office. That generational theft cannot continue. We must not keep financing big government by passing the bills on to the next generation. Ideally, we would stop the spending binge and live within our means. But if the nation is not up to that, then we should all pitch in and pay for it — all of us.
Until then, Republicans need to stop protecting Americans from the consequences of their decisions to elect profligate politicians.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Fiscal cliff is avoided, but sequestered cuts proceed.
Predictions are there will be enough WH, House and Senate support to make Bush tax cuts "permanent" for all below 400 or 500,000.
No spending concessions now other than those sequestered.
Republicans then hang their hopes on major spending cuts or in exchange for a debt limit increase in a month or so.
IF Republicans do hold on the debt limit, this could work. Big IF, however, as York notes, but they are apparently girding their loins for that fight.
AGREE!!! We also need to raise the gas tax to about $5.00 per gallon (total), and let the Bush Tax Cuts expire.
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We part ways on gas tax. Cheap energy is the only way to grow this economy.
However, as long as VAT is not means tested, everyone feels it via higher prices.
The reality is that we voted for bigger government.
LLS
“Why not start taxing the 47% that pay no federal income tax at all?”
Ending the Bush tax cuts likely snags at least 10% of that bunch, as they lose the much lower tax rates at the bottom end, and the children’s tax credit - and probably other stuff too.
Remember that most of that 47% still do work - they just don’t pay any taxes because of the stupid Republicans giving them a pass on it.
LLS
>> I am SICK TO DEATH of the INGRATES, including many on this site
Remind me again what branch of the military you served within?
Why not let taxes rise on all those who say “why not let taxes rise,” and on all those who say, “I need to pay more taxes.”
And leave the rest of us alone.
“I am just a few years away from collecting but I would happily give up ALL of my socialist security and medicare if the government would just cancel those programs and get GTF out of my life”
I like you. Unfortunately, it seems that half of the people in your shoes just want their goodies and could care less how they get them. I’m sure they have kids - but they just unable to see any linkage to the damage they are doing.
“Remind me again what branch of the military you served within?”
No, sorry, but serving in the military DOES NOT give you the right to make debt-slaves out of my kids and grandkids. If you feel differently, then you should have fought for the other side.
>> No, sorry, but serving in the military DOES NOT give you the right to make debt-slaves out of my kids and grandkids.
I don’t believe I ever said it did. I merely asked you a simple question, the answer to which you side-stepped.
May I assume, then, that you have NOT served in our armed forces?
Dumbass GOP
The Demoncrats want to go where the REAL money is. That
would be the MIDDLE CLASS (sorry for screaming). They can’t
get there until the “middies” have been convinced that the
wealthy have been tapped out first. What the GOP would be
smart to do is to announce that they would not stand in the
way of increased taxes on those w/$500K plus income but that
the Demos would have to pledge not to mess w/the middle
class for ten (or whatever) years. Let them sweat for a change.
LLS
You DO NOT have the right to silence people you disagree with, for ANY REASON.
Sorry, again, but I will not stop fighting you guys.
I believe most people hold to the “our children and grandchildren will pay” doctrine so as to affirm that they will be paid Social Security and other various welfare schemes such as Medicare, government pensions. They believed they have earned it and are entitled to it and besides they were promised, the politicians squandered it, its an inter-generational pact, they sacrificed....
“What the GOP would be smart to do is to announce that they would not stand in the way of increased taxes on those w/$500K plus income but that the Demos would have to pledge not to mess w/the middle class for ten (or whatever) years.”
Sure, the Dems will promise ANYTHING now, just as they’ve promised spending cuts in the past - starting with their deal to get Bush Sr. to give up his “Read My Lips” pledge. In other words, that will never work.
Hold the phone BobL......you say there are those on this site that insist on their goodies like Social Security and Medicare? Uh, excuse me, but haven’t we ALL been forced to pay INTO it all these years?? How’s about the gooberment paying back the monies they’ve stolen from Social Security and go after the FRAUD in Medicare for starters? I’m down to my last nerve with those that think that 50 years of working and paying into these programs that we’re somehow responsible for all the ills of society and we should give up our benefits and dare I say our PENSIONS to which alot of us paid about 10% of our pay toward said pensions for years on end? Those that are the loudest about this better hope they never get old and if they’re in some kind of pension plan and yes, SS and Medicare....they better hope they get it back!
>> You DO NOT have the right to silence people you disagree with, for ANY REASON.
I think you have a chip on your shoulder. It’s not my intent to “silence” you.
>> Sorry, again, but I will not stop fighting you guys.
Who exactly are “we guys” that you will not “stop fighting”, and how do you know that I am part of “them”?
Let’s review the facts, shall we? I asked you the sum total of ONE question. I have made ZERO comments about the views you have expressed. Everything you have said since then is your own “allergic reaction” to my simple and innocent question. This reveals a lot about you, your views, your temper and you personality. Very interesting!
I'm in complete agreement. The problem with those programs is that they were turned into a slush fund for the politicians. We need to end them ASAP. I am 50 and I will gladly pay for SS for those older than me provided I can turn my IRA savings into a Roth. Other people who did not save should be given a bigger tax break for saving.
While we are at it, let's get rid of the Fed and their war on savers.
“Hold the phone BobL......you say there are those on this site that insist on their goodies like Social Security and Medicare? Uh, excuse me, but haven’t we ALL been forced to pay INTO it all these years??”
Doesn’t matter...the money you paid in IS GONE, and everyone knows it and they have known it FOR DECADES. I knew it nearly 30 years ago when I first started working.
So, with the money gone - we’re now talking about programs that are no different than Welfare - which is the TAKING of money by force from people earning to and giving it to the people that don’t work.
I simply have a problem with that, as it’s no different than me ‘investing’ my money with Bernie Madoff, losing it to him, and then me going to may neighbor’s house with a shotgun to demand he pay me back. It is NOT my neighbor’s fault that the money is gone. It doesn’t matter that Bernie sent me the nice statements telling me how rich I was - the money is simply gone.
...and no, we will NEVER be able to get it back from the politicians who spent it - it’s long gone, at least 99% of it.
Government pensions of any sort are purely political calculations. They are not earned and invested in any sort of actuarial basis. You got paid in promises of a pension. So those who made the promise should pay you. Disagree? Look up what Jefferson says about the theory of “inter-generational debt”.
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