We should pay our own bills and not forever rely on borrowed money. Okay, for now there is an immediate problem so we need a couple trillion more. A trillion here and a trillion there, pretty soon we will be talking about real money! But there needs to be a limit or we will keep digging and never get out of this hole.
As it stands it is as if 40% of your personal income went to the interest on your credit cards.
The advantage of borrowed money is that we never have to think of the consequences. There is no pain in
"doing the right thing". We can be generous.
On a city level this is usually voted for. We have "Bond Elections" and can choose as a populace to go into debt to support this or that. We vote for school improvements and Performing Art Centers and this becomes a debt against our property and raises our taxes. Normally these bond issues are short lived for a couple of years and then we can vote again.
On a National level we have Congress to do the voting for us, whether to borrow for this or that. The main difference is that this never raises our taxes! There are no consequences. It is like "free money"! We don't even have a plan to pay it back!
The Debt has become about $30,000 for every man, woman and child living in this country! It is like charging $30,000 to your Visa Card with no intention of ever paying it off and not even making monthly payments! Frankly, I would do that too if I could!
Clearly we have made some mistakes along the way. There is probably a misuse of funds. Money probably could have been spent, put to a better use.
On a personal level I would quit using my credit cards. I would pay one off and keep it for emergency
expenses and make payments more than the minimum to the others, finding a date to be free of debt. In addition I would discover a way to make extra income to pay down these debts even faster. It would be better for my whole family.
On a National level there is no difference. We cannot carry this debt onto seven generations!
I don't like debt and would like to pay it off fast. There will be some pain. It was fun to spend the money that wasn't ours.
Sure, I would make cut backs here and there and make things more efficient but I think we are talking pennies here, like collecting bottles or finding spare change.
Actually I would be pretty radical. I would increase taxes for everyone, say just 1%, some token amount.
Enough that a person could feel they contributed. And, I would raise taxes 3% on money OVER $200,000
but I wouldn't stop there either.
There is NO inheritance tax in the United States on the first MILLION DOLLARS. None.
I would propose a 20% inheritance tax when property is sold. Meaning if you keep the property there would be no tax until it was sold. Frankly, this would hurt my daughters but I am thinking the National Debt might hurt them more in the long run. It is hurting us now. 40% of all taxes collected goes to interest on the loan. That just has to stop.
There might be other ways. I have read that a National Sales Tax or "Value Added Tax" to replace our income tax would solve a lot of problems and increase revenues. There are so many loopholes to the income tax a lot of people do not pay their fair share.
I don't want our representatives sitting around a table like Mafia Dons in a back card room. I would prefer more honesty, a more open forum for discussion.
I am not always political, my Art is Here!
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3 comments:
Raising taxes, Jer? We are being taxed to death! I just heard yesterday that there is a bill floating around that will assess a 1% tax on every deposit we make to our bank accounts!! As if the govt. didn't already take a cut right out of the paychecks before we touched them! It wasn't the general population that caused this budget deficit but the idiot politicos we elect into office. Frankly it would be cheaper to pay $3 or $4 to cash a check at Walmart (in many cases) than to give another 1% to the govt. Maybe instead of hitting the people who could least afford it, they could cut away with all the ridiculous and wasteful spending they do for stupid things. And inheritance taxes? Again...when the money was originally earned it was taxed. Then it gets taxed a second time when it transfers hands. Sigh...
I don't have the answers but I sure don't like what I see and hear. Unfortunately if I have to live in my car again, I just don't know what I'll do.
The people on the bottom clearly can't pay off the National Debt. I don't want anyone living in cars...ever! 3% on money OVER $200,000, you could live in a Rolls Royce for that kind of money!
I don't know. It's got to be paid...off! and we have to go where the money IS.
I agree that the wealthy need to start pitching in their fair share and we seriously need to rethink the way we do things in this country and the people we choose to run things. I say on the next vote for congress and senate we vote "none of the above". That is if we all make it till then.
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