In both of your examples the citizens of Florida and Texas help fund the Gov that pays for the disaster relief. Same goes for those people in the villages. They paid into SS and Medicare their entire working lives. NIH % of true pharma R&D is not that much of a %.
So the 4.4 Trillion in taxes last year weren’t enough to do all that you laid out above? The govt needs more? Seems logical.
Taxes are a 'I'm gonna stick it to the rich' scam, just keep printing it. It's not like we're ever going to pay back 35 trillion...
The wealthiest Americans have consolidated a historic percentage of the wealth and it is ridiculous that right wing knuckleheads think that is healthy. The wealthiest use an arsenal of method’s to avoid paying taxes on transactions that create immense wealth for them. That’s the problem.
We spend almost $800 billion on national defense, and I don't think that includes things like operating the V.A. My list was obviously a partial list. We actually spent $6.1 billion last year. If it makes you feel any better, it's only about one eighth of the U.S. economy. The biggest part of the federal spend every year is entitlements--Social Security and Medicare. People are living longer, but not working longer, and they do not want to pay more taxes. You want to fix the deficit, figure out how to deal with that issue (higher taxes, smaller benefits, or raise the retirement age?). I don't doubt that we could save a few million here and there, and we need politicians that can drill down and get rid of the useless spending where they find it. I do NOT support borrowing from our grandchildren to live high on the hog, and that's exactly what we've been doing. So if we need higher taxes to balance the budget, then raise the taxes until such time as we can motivate Congressmen to find the waste and get rid of it. I don't necessarily support higher taxes in general, but I do support higher taxes on things like gasoline. Why? Because we need to discourage Americans from wasting a precious, if not critical, limited natural resource. Also, due to inflation, the cost to build and maintain roads has grown, but the federal gas tax is still $0.18/gallon. It should be double that to pay for the highways. Basically, we're freeloaders if we drive on the interstates. Like I said, I would never vote for Kamala Harris and her crazy tax and spend plans under any other circumstances, but when the alternative is a deranged con-man who wants to be a dictator, I have no choice. My hope is that Congress balks at some of her spending ideas (just like republicans in Congress initially resisted Trump's moronic idea to build a 2000-mile wall on the Mexican border and have Mexico pay for it--in the end, Trump only built 54 miles of fence in an area that already had a fence). On Trump's own key issue, immigration, he was a complete failure as president. On your key issue, balancing the budget, Trump was also a complete failure. He increased the federal debt by several trillion dollars in 2017-2019, with no great need to do so (like Covid in 2020-2023). Not all of that was his silly fence, either. Trump is on record as saying that he "loves to play with debt". He played, we lost. Why would anyone be stupid enough to put him in charge again?
No. Problem is people like you have been convinced, by the govt, that wealthy people are the problem…instead of the problem being the govt and its inefficient methods for managing our money.
Seriously. Go back and look at pre covid Federal budget, it jumped with covid (kinda makes sense) someone had to pay all the shuttered business and citizens. But now it’s the new baseline, should have dropped back to near pre covid levels. Gov is like people they more they get they more they spend!
You could do what Tilly and I are doing, just vote the down ballot. A vote for her as a vote against Trump is perceived as being for her plans.
When they have gains the taxes are eventually paid. Now they can borrow against assets like stock that has appreciation it when they sell the stock to cover those loans like Musk did they pay the tax due. One could argue people living off buying and selling stock those gains could be treated as ordinary income and maybe the earned income rate should apply. But for small investors taking 1/3- 1/2 their gains is BS.
Not if they are passed on the the next generation via step up in basis at death, or given away as charity during their lifetimes. These proposals are only for those over $100 million.
Billionaires meddling in our society and politics ARE the problem. They have gotten tired of running businesses and now want to run the world through shadow puppet governments. Mostly they want to undo the industrial revolution and have slaves working for food 7 days a week and churning out children to keep the cheap supply of labor flowing.
Haven't read the thread and won't: Raising taxes as the democrats are wanting to do, will push the US into a Great Depression. You guys voting to take your money and give it to the federal government look foolish to me.
Psst...the GQP wants to raise taxes on the lower and middle classes so they can cut taxes for the upper class. It's all in the Project 2025 manual. Reading is fundamental.
Idiots who enable the wealthy to avoid their responsibility are the issue. I don’t blame wealthy folks. I blame the idiots. Not enough wealthy people to matter. Plenty of idiots though.
Always the same with the dems…jealous of other people’s money. Want more to go to the govt dumpster. I’m not sure you have correctly identified the true idiots. Keep trying.
That’s a naive take. The wealthy have always pulled the stings through govt. Even the powerful mafia did this. Wake up and understand the world you’re living in.
Good argument to make to me Mr Social Security check. Keep enjoying my generosity when you eat today.
That’s a tough one, let’s say I die suddenly and leave my kids stocks or a business that I’ve had for years. One might be forced to sell them suddenly to pay the tax due. In the case of a business the business may have to be sold just to pay the tax. My boss is wrestling with this issue currently. He isn’t that old but the business has a very substantial “valuation” depending on who you ask(upwards of $100 million). It was started with about 25k 14 years ago. He dies and his 16 yr old daughter now has a huge tax burden due very soon. So the company must be sold and now 50 people may or may not be out of a job. Perhaps the way IRAs that are passed upon death should be used for these situations. From what I understand if my dad leaves a % of his IRA to his grandkids they have a period of time (I think it’s 5 years) to withdraw the money and pay the taxes like you would on distributions. The value of the stocks in the situation we are discussing perhaps could be valued as say an average price over some time point (to take into account for inflation and the devaluation of the dollar). Then the tax would be due based on the gain from the new valuation and the heir be given the opportunity to pay/sell it over a time period say 5 years.
That only applies if he’s been on disability his whole life. Otherwise he paid into SS is likely getting back less than if he would have put that money into an index fund of the course of his working career.