End Tax Cheating to Balance the Budget

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Ah, a perpetual election year subject. Tax consumption not income. federal spending and tax policy incentivizes tax avoidance and evasion. No president is going to beef up IRS to a level where they will seriously cut this.

I avoid all the taxes I can, mostly through the minister's housing allowance, our Sacred Clergy Tax Break.

[KeithE]

[Tim Bonney]

[KeithE]

[Tim Bonney]

Interesting idea Keith.

[William Thornton]

I made the statement that no president would beef up the IRS sufficient to address tax noncompliance. To do so would mean that millions of small fry taxpayers would be criminalized because that's where the money is. That doesn't slough off anything.

I can't see the fair tax being enacted but can see a consumption tax overlay onto our present tax scheme. I hate to use a worn out phrase but the elephant in the room, the one you almost always ignore, is gummit spending.

I would be perfectly willing to relinquish the tax break that eliminates income tax altogether for thousands of clergy, the housing allowance income tax exclusion, were major tax reform to be offered, one that abolishes the IRS and perhaps a couple of other cabinet departments.

We have seen that the IRS can be used to punish citizens. NIxon did it, as did Obama. Clinton would happily do it and the lie about it like she has most everything else.

[KeithE]

[Tim Bonney]

You won't have any more luck getting tax reform pat the GOP than you would cutting defense spending. The only way to do either is to flip over congress and take it away from the GOP.

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

I'm afraid that the main purpose of the leadership in the GOP now is to support the rich and big business. Trump is just a result of the direction the GOP has been going for years. They finally got the self-centered billionaire at the top of the ticket that they've been placating for years. The funny part is that so many of them are surprised. Why wouldn't you end up with a Presidential candidate who represents all you've been pushing for all along?

[ET]

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

I'll respond more numerically next weekend. I'm at a bridge tournament in Tunica Sam's Town.

But for the time being only about $180B (going on memory) of Obama stimulus was spent in 2009 - not $800B. Who says we are at peace now- in fact we in 7 overseas wars at the present time.

The "one of" incident was the financial crisis fully attributable to Bush's time in office and Obama had to deal with. Most say the cause of the financial crisis was deregulated mortgages. We are once again in a period "deregulation" frenzy from the Trump and Johnson camps.

Obama has curtailed spending growth to just about nil, and has not increased tax rates. Yet the stimulus did it job and increased revenues a lot ( about 50% again by memory). This has been done by reducing unemployment from over 10% to 5% and reduced underemployment from 15% to 10% (going on memory but I know it has been a substantial reduction).

Obama would have improved the economy more with infrastructure jobs if it weren't for the obstructionist Republicans in Congress. I fault him for the extra wars he's got us involved which has resulted in adding DoD spending (up by $200B from Bush's last DoD budget - again going on memory). It has not helped one bit to our safety, imo.

More to come when I get home.

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[Mrs Haruo]

I know how Obama's stimulus program for first time home buyers helped this household. That $8,000 made it possible for a broken down Navy veteran who had nearly given up on the dream of owning her own home possible. Being eligible for a no down VA loan at very favorable rates didn't hurt, and a chunk of change from dear old Daddy made it possible for us to hire a building inspector and take care of unexpected expenses that always seem to surprise you when you move into a little old house in our modest price range. We have helped the local economy by spending several thousand dollars over the last few years on building materials and tools to fix this old house up and put a new roof on. A general contractor who we hired was able to support his family for a few weeks while we added insulation and replaced some piping. If it wasn't for Obama's program we would likely still be in that little basement apartment that had water dripping from the ceiling every time some absent minded grad student went off to class leaving the water running or a toilet overflowing from a wild party upstairs. With rent double what we used to pay. It's no palace, the oven still doesn't work because I can't quite reach the back of it to replace a broken heating element, there is a plastic bag duct taped over a hole in the wall in the bathroom where a previous owner did a terrible job of tiling the wall, but the toilet still works. For someone who spent one summer living in a borrowed truck and a year or two bouncing from homeless shelter to a friends couch, I have come up in the world. Haruo and the Mrs. are doing all right. Thank you Mr Obama for being a great president I am so sorry that a congress of baboons have been acting like dogs in the manger for the last 8 years.

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[Sandy]

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[KeithE]

[Sandy]

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[KeithE]