Quote:
Originally Posted by VitaMan
Another little slugfest between 2 members.
Why not take it offline ?
|
I respect Blackman and he’s one of the people on the board who I’d most like to have lunch with someday. I usually don’t argue with him over legal issues unless it’s something philosophical like the death penalty, because I know I’ll get my ass kicked. He isn’t similarly cautious discussing economic issues. As to Pinocchio’s ass, he’s dished that out that and worse to me and I don’t usually take offense. Rather it’s funny. But by all means please continue whipping the board into shape, keeping us on topic, posting in the right forum, and considering whether we’ve posted enough reviews to participate in the Political threads.
Quote:
Originally Posted by txdot-guy
One of the reasons that these countries are so successful is that they are all involved in the financial system that helps people shelter their wealth.
https://theconversation.com/these-fi...x-havens-79555
The Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Ireland are among the rich countries that funnel major corporate money into secret offshore tax shelters, according to a new study. |
The only one of the five places I mentioned that’s on the list in the link is Hong Kong. As to your list (Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.), you should add Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada, although they're rich states instead of rich countries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by txdot-guy
The 5 trillion number is a what if. Right now some of the tax breaks Trump promised (and included in the bill) will expire in just a few years. If those are extended to the full 10 year period it increases the price of the bill to 5 trillion +.
|
What you're saying makes sense although I haven't looked at the numbers. So does the Republican argument that we should measure the change against the status quo, before provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire. Certainly Democrats would have kept some of the cuts, like the lower personal rates on all but top earners. Anyway, you do that and the loss of revenues during a 10 year period is $1.4 trillion according to Senate Republicans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by txdot-guy
But as I said before that’s not really the issue. If we want to get off the debt train we’ll need to start raising taxes when we are not in a recession. It’s straight up criminal to extend these tax breaks much less increase them with new giveaways.
|
Fair enough. I strongly prefer cutting expenditures to raising taxes. Either way the USA must lower the deficits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by txdot-guy
Cutting expenses are an option on the table except for the fact that most of our federal expenses go towards serving the elderly and the military. Cutting NPR might give a conservative little toad like the heritage foundation a woody but it is a complete distraction from the actual problem.
|
The USA spends more on the military than the next highest nine countries combined. Military expenditures can and should be cut. An aside, before long, maybe in a few years, the interest expense on the national debt will exceed military spending.
As to the elderly, the best long term solution would be to switch over with time to a system like Australia’s superannuation scheme or Singapore’s Central Provident Fund, where people fund their own retirement and have their own retirement accounts. Also our health care system is totally screwed. Other countries like Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and some European countries have systems that provide much better outcomes and cost much less. Copy them. Failing all that social security and Medicare contributions from employees and employers must increase or benefits must fall.
