Monday, June 27, 2011

National Debt, how to fix it.

Our country has expenses - police, roads, protecting the health and well being of its citizens and a host of other expenses just as we all do on a smaller scale.

These expenses have to be paid for. They are paid for with taxes that our country collects from us.

We cut taxes.

Not having enough money now to pay these expenses we borrowed money. We now need more money to pay interest on the loans.

So we cut taxes again.

We go further into debt.

Taxes are low, money is short, what to do? Republicans say cut taxes again, that will solve the problem!

You have a job, it pays for your house, your car, food, your children's schooling and care, taxes, and a host of other expenses.

Then your employer cuts your pay. You still need to pay for your home, car, food etc. So you borrow money. Now you need more money to pay interest on the loan.

Your employer cuts your pay again. You go further into debt. What to do? Republicans would say, ask your employer to cut your pay again, that will solve the problem!

What is the difference here?

We presently have the lowest tax rate in more than 60 years. Especially on the wealthy, they pay a lower rate of tax than anyone else. Our highest tax rate under Obama is 35%, under Bush it was 35%, under Richard Nixon it was 70%, Under Reagan it was 50% and under Eisenhower it was 91%. When tax rates were reasonable - yes I do call them reasonable because they are the HIGHEST rates, you only pay those kinds of taxes on incomes that are in the millions, and not even on all of it. You only pay the higher rate on amounts above certain levels, below those levels you pay lower amounts. In other words you only pay what you probably call exorbitant rates on exorbitant income (Or what I would call obscene amounts of income.)

It is simple, if we don't pay enough taxes we can't pay our expenses, we borrow money and get into huge amounts of debt, the answer is even simpler, raise taxes, especially on those rich people who pay very little. The average American pays 30% of his income in taxes, the richest 1 or 2% of Americans pay only 16% of their income in taxes. How much simpler can the solution be?

The country has the lowest tax rate in more than 60 years, we don't have enough money to pay our expenses. The solution seems simple to me - do what every other country in the world, including us, has done since time immemorial - raise taxes, and make the rich pay MORE taxes than the poor and middle class.

But the Republican solution is to lower taxes on the richest and raise taxes even more on the poor and middle classes. By taking away what they have worked all their lives for - Soc Sec and making them pay AGAIN for Medicare - privatising it makes it a For Profit business like Health Insurance Companies and would cost us as much as 2 or 3 or 4 times as much as we pay now, for LESS coverage - remember those terrifying words from your privatised health insurance company, "It's not covered." or "You got sick, so we can't cover you any more." or "Profits are way up, so we are paying an even bigger dividend this year. And our CEO will be receiving $60 million in compensation this year." Yes health care is VERY profitable. In my opinion if anything should be non-profit it should be Health care, as it is in every other country in the world!

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David.