Day: January 4, 2011

Why Not Tax And Spend?

I hate to break it to all you conservs and TPers….that is what governments do…they tax and then spend their revenues to benefit society….well that is the plan, but unfortunately does not always work out that way….the politicians find creative ways to waste the revenue….like un-winnable wars, for one….

But there needs to be a better way of tax and spend…and it could possibly be a shot to the arm of the deficit….

This a proposal from the Center For American Progress……

  • Thus the need for revenue. In this report we offer revenue-generating plans that will hit four deficit-reduction targets: 33 percent of the way to primary balance in 2015, then 50 percent, 67 percent, and 100 percent. The most far-reaching of the revenue plans, the 100 percent tax revenue option, relies on seven distinct tax increases. This plan would generate $255 billion in new revenue by: Implementing a graduated surtax on adjusted gross income for households making more than half a million dollars per year
  • Imposing a $10 per barrel fee on imported oil
  • Returning the estate tax to pre-Bush tax cut levels—a $1 million exemption and a 55-percent rate
  • Removing the cap on the employer side of the Social Security payroll tax
  • Indexing the entire tax code to a better measure of inflation
  • Increasing the top rate on capital gains and dividends
  • Increasing the ordinary income tax rates on tax brackets between $140,000 and $380,000

Any deficit reduction plan is a balancing act between spending cuts, tax increases, the needs of the nation, and the wide range of views on which of these are most important. This report offers five different balances for getting to the 2015 target of primary balance. We believe the 50-50 plan, accompanied by a crusade to deliver government services more efficiently and effectively, offers the best option.

So tax and spend may be dirty words to conservs, but it is the way of government…like it or not…..

Okay, let us look at the states…..conserv commentators say that the reason industry left this area was because taxes are too high…..places like New York, Connecticut, etc….if that is the case why is not the South more industrial…you cannot find lower business taxes than in Mississippi and Alabama?  Answer us this!

We all want and need services provided by the government, like police, fire, education, homeland security, etc, but in this atmosphere of “smaller” government how do we find the cash to fund these services?  The answer!  VAT!

A VAT is like a sales tax in that ultimately only the end consumer is taxed. It differs from the sales tax in that, with the latter, the tax is collected and remitted to the government only once, at the point of purchase by the end consumer. With the VAT, collections, remittances to the government, and credits for taxes already paid occur each time a business in the supply chain purchases products from another business.

This could be sold to the corporations and businesses…..why?  They could recoup some of their taxes while the ultimate consumer, you and me, are screwed on getting any of the taxes back…this should make the conservs happy…this is a better plan than some of the others offered out there…..why not try….we might find the cash to actually have a country that lives within its means…….

Take The Honorable Way Out

An amazing story came to my attention recently and it deserves a look-see….

As many as 5,000 blackbirds and 100,000 fish have been found dead or dying within 125 miles of each other in Arkansas, but state officials say the two massive kill-offs are unrelated. State officials have also reportedly ruled out a toxic dump and low oxygen levels as causes of the fish kill.

The drum fish were found washed along the banks of the up ashore Arkansas River near Ozark on Friday. “The fish kill only affected one species of fish,” Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission told the Associated Press. “If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish.”

The fish washed up about 125 west of Beebe, where 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year’s Eve. “Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail,” Karen Rowe, a state ornithologist, reported to local media.

A tough situation to explain…..but all scientific crap aside….I am have the answer…….

I live in the South and have visited Arkansas……maybe the animals realized where they were and took the honorable way out….HARI-KARI!

2011 Info Ink Book Review #1

From time to time I am given a book that someone wants my opinion on….usually it is politically motivated or historically motivated……and for the Xmas we all celebrate I was given a book entitled “Revolutionaries” by Jack Rakove….about the beginning of this great country and the events that lead to its establishment……

The official title is….”Revolutionaries:  A New History Of The Invention Of America” by Jack Rakove,  a Pulitzer prize winner…..

We all know the general story of the founding of the country….the Tea Party, Paul’s ride, Concorde, Trenton Valley Forge…on and on…..through the Constitutional battles fought…to the swearing in of our first president……this is all generic and easily taught and more easily understood….but Mr, Rakove goes much further….like any political story or history, if you will, there are always back stories that seldom get talked about….this is where “Revolutionaries” begins….

He takes the reader from the Tea Party (the physical protest, not the political movement) to the ratification of the newly penned Constitution…all the battles fought in the political arena to find and then implement the “perfect” republic.

We all know the generic history of the founding of the United States of America, but Mr. Rakove takes the reader to the back stories of the founding from the firebrand Sam Adams to the snooze fest that was Washington (the man not the city), the intelligence of John Adams and Madison and all the in-betweens, the moderates, if you will.

All in all “Revolutionaries” is an excellent look at the early days of the revolution and the country……an excellent characterization of the players in the founding of the country…the inter-actions, the arguments, the radicals, the moderates and the wimpy…..

I recommend this book to anyone that has a deep desire to learn about the founding of the country, beyone the generic…..well done Mr. Rakove…..