The Mammoth in the room of American politics is of course taxes. They have to be lowered every day. Jesus has removed the specter of death which leaves us with only the one real problem, having to pay taxes which may benefit the KINDS of people we don’t like.
A recent TIME MAGAZINE did a long spread on how to deal with the deficit. Though very long, very complicated and very boring there is something in it, unintended or not, that makes this all seem less complicated than it really is. How to Tame the Budget Deficit. Especially when one studies the graphic which accompanied the article below.
First off we must remove the flat out lies the Republicans tell about taxes. Sure it is expected that they lie on Fox News and AM radio, but far too many of these lies come from the Well of Congress claiming our tax rate is over 50% or that we work until September for Uncle Sam and that we are the most taxed nation on Earth.
Well those are all LIES told by Republicans who are LIARS. Our tax rate, whether it’s crunched from GDP or what you and I actually pay, averages out to about 30%. All kinds of taxes. all added together. This even includes Social Security and Medicare. We can all easily do the math each April and see this is the case. We all know it, even those who lie about it.
We are also the LEAST taxed nation on Earth not the MOST taxes.
In Europe – which Republicans not only discount but despise – the average tax rates are bout 40% of GDP. This includes Japan, Australia, New Zealand… So it’s not just Europe, it could be said the 40% tax rate is what civilized societies pay.
What do these civilized nations get for that extra 10%? They have better education systems, affordable health care for all and no wars draining their coffers. But most importantly, UNLIKE AMERICA, they have a contract with each other that draws a line to keep tens of millions of their people from falling into abject hopelessness that causes family failure, violence, overflowing punishment prisons and the need to have a couple guns just to go out at night. From free market barbarianism to free market civilization with just an extra 10% paid in taxes.
So we could easily solve all our problems, deficit, health care, social security, education and crime by just finding a way to raise taxes 10% with the least pain.
Okay? Got myself rolling on the floor here in the United States of DON’T TREAD ON MY MONEY/PROPERTY. Though it is all fine and well to tread on due process, search and seizure, reading our email, looking up our butts, listening to our phone calls, denying Miranda [Republicans especially hate that Miranda crap hey?] Wow!
LIVE FREE OF TAXATION OR DIE!
"In 2010 the budget deficit reached an unprecedented peacetime level of 10% of GDP. During the New Deal, deficits were around 5% of GDP"
"The total tax intake on federal and state levels is around 28% to 30% of GDP — at least 10 percentage points lower than total revenue collections in Europe."