tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post5487151837930240911..comments2023-10-20T10:22:39.636-04:00Comments on Workingclass Conservative: Is New Jersey a Warning to Oregon?...JMKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281344324964417974noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post-49112994043867482772010-02-09T13:50:57.622-05:002010-02-09T13:50:57.622-05:00Hi Jess!
Your logic ("...states should keep ...Hi Jess!<br /><br />Your logic (<i><b>"...states should keep taxes reasonable and have everyone pay = steady revenue = good economy = good for the people of that state."</b></i>) requires some fiscal discipline by those in government and the willingness to say NO to Municipal Unions and others who always push for MORE spending.<br /><br />Our current tax system, one in which nationally, the top 10% of income earners pay over 71% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% pay less than 3% is hopelessly flawed.<br /><br />As you correctly note, "EVERYONE should pay" something.<br /><br />While the top 10% of income earners in the USA do take in about 44% of the total aggregate annual INCOME, there tax burden should be closer to THAT than the over 70% it is today!<br /><br />In New York City, it's even MORE skewed! In NYC a mere 5,000 tax filers pay 40% of the city's income taxes...a city with 3.8 MILLION tax filers....1.9 MILLION of whom pay no income taxes at all (as they earn below the minimum taxable income of appx $34,000/year for a family of 4).<br /><br />Fiscal discipline and a more equitably and widely distributed tax burden is what's needed now.JMKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281344324964417974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post-33614741428915828252010-02-09T10:03:00.166-05:002010-02-09T10:03:00.166-05:00Love your description "I can't afford to ...Love your description "I can't afford to be liberal!"<br /><br />I was reading my recent Tax Foundation newsletter where they talked about New York and New Jersey being pummeled by higher taxes. It doesn't make sense to me to push the wealth OUT. These folks are gladly setting up business elsewhere in tax-friendly states.<br /><br />My logic is states should keep taxes reasonable and have everyone pay = steady revenue = good economy = good for the people of that state. But if you raise them and have fewer pay = instability = weak economy = bad for the people of that state.<br /><br />Oy! Jesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04341552847782764780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post-22162928384929772732010-02-09T10:01:43.659-05:002010-02-09T10:01:43.659-05:00This comment has been removed by the author. Jesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04341552847782764780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post-59030168748652627102010-02-08T20:37:57.926-05:002010-02-08T20:37:57.926-05:00I think the coming disaster will impact us all.
A...I think the coming disaster will impact us all.<br /><br />Anyone who cares to can check out the ongoing Misery Index at http://www.miseryindex.us/<br /><br />It's a great site.<br /><br />Ironically enough, 2009's MI declined slightly from 9.6 to 8.9 despite the fact that unemployment skyrocketed!<br /><br />Inflation was THAT low.<br /><br />That (low inflation) will not last, because it cannot last, given the amount of money we've printed and the debt we owe, along with the cost of servicing that debt set to go up.<br /><br />Should the cost of servicing that debt rise significantly, that will put an incredible UPWARD pressure on interest rates here.<br /><br />Everything's in place right now for a "perfect economic storm" - high unemployment (that shows no sign of abating), rising inflation rates (with so much money recently printed that's going to hike inflation significantly) and rising interest rates.<br /><br />The fed is set to hire 1 whopping 600,000 people under the current administration!<br /><br />That's why it's a VERY GOOD thing that the GOP looks poised to take back one, or perhaps (dare we dream) BOTH Houses of Congress come November.<br /><br />At that point, they've got to make eradicating that federal expansion priority one....slashing the federal budget priority two...after that they can focus on reducing taxes and unleashing the private sector!JMKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281344324964417974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post-10701562811857257882010-02-08T09:25:35.939-05:002010-02-08T09:25:35.939-05:00I agree, JMK...the coming fiscal 'storm', ...I agree, JMK...the coming fiscal 'storm', set up by all that this administration is recklessly doing, will likely dwarf that bestowed upon us by Carter. Watch the Misery Index peg in an entirely wrong direction. And I so wish I were wrong about that, 'cuz the Index needle will impale me, too.Skunkfeathershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04563552997319253167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post-30470910094796069742010-02-07T12:47:55.027-05:002010-02-07T12:47:55.027-05:00It certainly doesn't make any sense SF.
We ha...It certainly doesn't make any sense SF.<br /><br />We had a Keynesian implosion after nearly two decades of reckless and irresponsible Keynesianism (1964 - 1981)....and in 2008 we fund ourselves reeling from yet ANOTHER Keynesian inspired disaster (G W Bush spent more, even adj for inflation, on social spending than LBJ did) and boosted the National Debt from the $5.6 TRILLION he inherited to about $10 TRILLION when he left office.<br /><br />But after screaming about "the debt crushing our economy" for 8 years, the liberal Dems began borrowing EVEN MORE $$$ at an EVEN FASTER RATE!<br /><br />This administration's "solution" to the problems they were electd to fix have been, <i><b>"I know the Bush administration had us headed for a cliff at 40 mph, so we'll fix it...by stomping on the accelerator and heading for the same cliff at 110 mph."</b></i><br /><br />People HAVE to stop making excuses and laming the prior administration for our current woes. when Reagan came into office in the wake of the Carter-led Keynesian implosion, the economy IMPROVED EVERY YEAR Reagan was in offic until the Misery Index (which stood at 22 when he took office) reached single digits by 1986, where it stayed throughout the rest of his administration.<br /><br />By that standard, the Obama administration is already a FAILURE....it's first year saw the Misery Index rise, not get better and with government expanding at the expense of the private sector (<b>the federal government plans on hiring 600,000 employees over the next three years!</b>) the economy will only get worse.<br /><br />Without a vibrant, productive and PROFITABLE private sector to fund it, the public sector CANNOT be sustaned.<br /><br />The current policies, expanding government and hiking taxes leads inevitably to STAGFLATION.....we already have double digit unemployment, and we've printed more money since 2000, than was printed from Colonial times until 2000 - that will ultimately and inevitably be incredibly inflationary.....and if China and some of the other debt-holding nations ratchet up the cost of servicing our debt, interest rates here will skyrocket.<br /><br />STAGFLATION looks to be on the near horizon.JMKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281344324964417974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559661241465229945.post-41905865332865207432010-02-07T06:01:11.102-05:002010-02-07T06:01:11.102-05:00Seems the Left is bound and determined to put ideo...Seems the Left is bound and determined to put ideology and populist appeal ahead of fact and evidence. And where they succeed in doing so, the economic wheels fall off.<br /><br />Hard to fathom, but example after example (New Orleans, NJ, CA, probably Oregon in a short time) point it out as plainly as can be. The exodus of wealth and the giant sucking sound of entitlement-mentalitied hands-out drag down the quality of life and opportunity for all, wherever fact and evidence are ignored in the interests of promoting a failed ideology.Skunkfeathershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04563552997319253167noreply@blogger.com