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Raise Taxes and Cut Services? Why Not Stop Unneccesary Bailouts, Unnecesary Wars and Unnecessary Interest Costs Instead?
House majority leader Steny Hoyer - a close ally to President Obama - says the U.S. needs to raise taxes and cut spending .
As Agence France-Presse reports:
The
United States must embrace a blend of tax increases and spending cuts
to rein in its deficit or face a potentially crippling debt crisis like
the one in Greece, a top US lawmaker warned Monday.
"It is enough
to look across the Atlantic at Greece's extreme economic crisis and
understand: It can happen here. If we don't change course, it will
happen here," said Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer...
"It
seems to me that the only solution that can win the support of both
parties is a balanced approach: one that cuts some spending and raises
some revenue while avoiding extremes in either direction," he said.
Of course, many others have warned of the massive debt overhand in the U.S. as well.
But why aren't our government "leaders" talking about slashing the military-industrial complex, which is ruining our economy with unnecessary imperial adventures?
And why aren't any of our leaders talking about stopping the permanent bailouts for the financial giants who got us into this mess? And see this.
And why aren't they taking away the power to create credit from the private banking giants - which is costing our economy trillions of dollars (and is leading to a decrease in loans to the little guy) - and give it back to the states?
If we did these things, we wouldn't have to raise taxes or cut core services to the American people.
Our Constitution says that Congress is the only Body that can issue new money. If Congress created the new Money there would be no interest on the Money created.
We should not have a Central Bank. We should not have to pay interest on money created to Private Banks.
It becomes a double tax on Americans. They have to pay interest to the Banks for the creation of new Money and Americans existing Money is worth less because of the creation of new Dollars.
Interest on Money created and devaluation of existing Money.
How much of your Income Tax do you think goes to the interest on the Debt created from Zero to the Private Banks. I would bet 95%.
Plus, all of the Money can never be paid back because they lent you more than the Principal they also lent you the interest. So, even if you pay back the Principal where is the Interest created from? Nowhere. So, you always owe more than was created from Zero.
There is no way to ever pay back the Money Created as there is not enough Money in circulation to pay the increasing interest.
I am sure the Banks love this as it is a Never Ending Story.
It is also important to take the control of creating Money and gaining interest on Money created with no cost to the Banks.
It is widely known that Banks have "financed" Wars for both sides of the War. War is good for Banks as it creates interest to the Banks on Money created to fight thoes Wars.
I do not think the 2008 Financial Meltdown was by accident. As it created a huge need for the Creation of New Money with interest to the Banks to dig America out of the Crisis.
Loss of Jobs. Money needs to be created with interest to support the jobless and to create new jobs.
I think if you follow the Money you will see that most Wars and Crisis's are created or encouraged by the Banks to cause the creation of Money and the interest on that Debt.
The more Money created the higher the interest payments to the "Private Banks". This interest was never created and put into circulation so it is impossible to ever pay it off.
Check out lilsis.org....
You think that it is majic how people collect their wealth ?
Think again....
A 15% consumption tax.....would eliminate the edge that these people have....
Bought govt....bought media....the list is how long ?
YOU KNOW the story.....
Let's level the playing field...sound fair ?
Ok....Ok....Time Out....
Here it is....
Hit the reset button....
Eliminate individual and corporate income taxes....
Have only one tax....a 15% CONSUMPTION TAX....
Only combined with tangible consumed items....
Wow...what a concept....one pays for what they actually use....
.....................
Next...
The states ....not the Fed ....votes per internet as to how the 15% is to be spent....
Lobbyists out of the picture....
Debt out of the picture....
Want medical....roads....military....other services....
Then each township votes per internet....and reports to the state....
The Fed just becomes information assembly or focal point....
....................................
And you may not want to believe this....
But as taxes go up...tax revenues will come down....
And the end result will be some form of broad based tax....that all individuals will pay....
Wow....another interesting concept....everyone chips in....
Raise taxes and cut spending - Well, someone has to pay for the permanent bailouts.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/12/giant-banks-and-their-congression...
As things are, the money can only come from one place: Social progams.
What George Washington cant come to terms with is the US is a political failure. Their famous unique experiment is a failure. It is being repelling not by feebler and feebler people all over the world as the US would like to get people to believe (at the start, the US sold the story that their political project was threatened by dangerous monarchies etc later by USSR, now by Islamic countries to end at the bottom with something like Somali pirates. One can notice the degradation of the threat credibility. Somali pirates are going to be the ones to derail the US benevolent world scale human project)
Their unique famous experiment is being repelled by US citizens themselves who no longer want it.
The US is a very successful military empire. Calling for cutting down the military is the road to disaster. The US has nothing else but its military and is an empire.
George Washington should think about it.
Whats the problem ??????????? Dick Cheney said the iraqnam war would pay for itself !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! would he lie ????????????????
Read stuff on this comment page.
Going to break an illusion.
Nobody produces more than he/she consumes.
Asserting that it is possible to produce more than to consume is pure fiction.
If you could produce more than you consume, the world would be a very different one.
Production itself is a consumption process. Not one production process exists without consumption at the start. Not one.
And in case some try to distort this little fact, it is meant here that to produce, consumption is needed and by this, not the consumption of the final production, not some drivel like demand to spur the offer or stuff. No, no.
It is meant consumption to enable the production process.
So no, the world is not divided between people who consume more than they produce and people who produce more than they consume.
The world is divided between people who consume big (for any purpose) and people who consume small (for any purpose)
George, I think you are right. We need to cut our spending, taxes, and wars. However, in order to achieve a positive result, we need to solve our complex energy problem. That is at the heart of our economic difficulties.
The majority of the world will rejoice when America finally sinks and we no longer have to put up with the incessant bullying.
Steny Hoyer: American Butt Plug
And Political Hack Extraordinaire
And why aren't any of our leaders talking about stopping the permanent bailouts for the financial giants who got us into this mess?"
TBTF Financial Giants to George: "I am Jamie Dimon. I OWN Barack Obama and I paid for this campaign ad."
"But why aren't our government "leaders" talking about slashing the military-industrial complex, which is ruining our economy with unnecessary imperial adventures...
Military-Industrial Complex to George: "Paws off our welfare, pal."
Looky here Big George... stop trying to make sense.
You see, with out all this corporate welfare and Wall Street looting... Hoyer and Obama can't raise the kind of campaign bribes they need to fend off Palin McMILF...
So they can get reelected so lobbyists can hand them more 1200 page loop hole ridden corporate welfare bills called "reform" to pass...
George... Hoyer NEEDS lobbyist to write bills FOR him...
Since we know Hoyer is far too stupid to write more than a phone number of a teenage male House page on a cocktail napkin...
Kreditanstalt, are you TaxHaven from Mish's blog? The avatar pic you use is one of the glamourous girl-pix TaxHaven used over there, and you make the same arguments. Which are BS sucking-up-to-teh-PTB, if you ask me.
I don't see anything that any Amercian needs to complain about. stop making wars. get off your asses. tax the shit out of everything to pay for was already spent and clear the budget to make good on Social Security.
OR be ready for more crisis one after another and the dollar to disappear, Reserve Currency of the Universe or not. it won't matter a damn.
BUT either way, place your bets on the Asean and India with your play money while it's still king.
Thus goes the quality of debate...
Kreditanstalt,
If thats your real pic, I'd sure love giving you a facial.
Close the following departments: Education, Agriculture, Transportation, and Commerce. Start a 10 year moratorium on cost of living increases in Social Security and Medicare. Stop the "stimulus".
There's no surer way to destroy our country, government and future as a people than shutting down the educational system. Great plan.
Yes, schools in the US are so astonishingly good because the federal government is heavily involved in them. Just look at student performance vs. federal government involvement - an ever climbing uptrend! Whoops, sorry - I had my graph upside down...
Go baby, rock on, I believe!
I agree George; let me play devils advocate, how will the oligarchs make their monies once the crash happens? I know they own a lot of gold, so thats one reason, but when the doelarr goes, how will they fund their wars? do they care that they will be generating less revenue (sony will sell less crap for example), if that means they think they will control the population? what do these guys want with us? thoughts please!
Parasites need a host.
Look at who members of the House/Senate/Congress have their money invested in. Seriously, they have BIG exposure to those that profit from MIL action. This way they WANT wars and love no-bid contracts to companies that support MIL. Seriously.
GW, I agree with you 100%. The oligarchs who are getting all our money with their wars and their interest on the "debt", and who are then paying next to nothing in taxes, of course have to blame us working folks. Always always always blame your victim! Just as an alcoholic blames his wife while he beats her. It works! Look at how many (semi-impotent white) men "enjoy listening to" Rush Limbaugh.
1+
impossible .. the military industrial complex just show a movie of the grassy knoll.. read Douglas and JFK the uNSPEAKABLE ..
THE FED .. A PICTURE OF THE GRASSY KNOLL lol
Don't rain on my parade. I'm solving the world's problems .
Foundations are a haven for the elite to protect their money and should be taxed.
...and you don't want to protect YOUR money?
look kreditanstalt, no one here would not suggest protecting their own money, but none of us condone crony capitalism, bailouts, immunity for hank paulson or any of those chumps, these fools could not compete and survive, hence they cheat and bail themselves out. I say, let them topple down to a fair price, pennies on the dollar and then i may buy some, instead they say let them stay in our pockets and we shall continue to control all avenues of wealth in the country and world, i say that ain't no capitalism
I meant to say that tax avoidance/evasion for someone wealthy should be just as imperative for them as it is to us. In fact, it's downright patriotic, IMO...
Allowing caveat emptor in the trading marketplace is one thing, a good thing. But misrepresentation and fraud is quite another. Prosecute them.
+1
Hey GW,
Do not know if you have seen this but i thought you might like,
http://www.michael-hudson.com/
also, no one here gets out alive, 5 to 1, 1 to 5
They got the guns but, we've got the numbers...
Gonna win yeah we're takin over...
COME ON...
sorry for all the flags pal, i guess we don't have to many doors fans here
Cut spending?
Ok, let's go down that road...
The economy depends upon what 40% of GDP is now government. So you cut that off.
Vicious circle of business closings and tax receipts fall even further. Govt's have to cut more and tax more. Repeat.
Is this deflationary? Sure, up until the point at which the TWENTY FOUR TRILLION worth of gov backing and guarantees come due on all the distressed assets that will only become more distressed as spending drops.
This nation has been propped up for DECADES on a debt pyramid. Nobody even knows wtf the real economy IS anymore; it's been bullshit for so long.
But any meaningful cut in spending means an even more meaningful decrease in receipts (the gov recycles its own spending in taxes) which would need to be addressed by a further cut. And you have to do that until you back out a couple of TRILLION in "economic activity."
What would this do to housing prices, CRE? Um...implode it?
And they already FF&Cd most of this shit to the tune of $23.7T of guarantees. So, let's implode it and put the government on the hook for even MORE expenditures?
The bailouts make monetization inevitable. Cutting spending would start the avalanche. Sure, there is no way out of this mess and the outcome is the same either way.
But to pretend like we can just cut now that we've backstopped every fucking debt product to the moon and back and somehow become "fiscally prudent" and then that will save us? Nonsense. The die is already cast.
The die is already cast.
Have to agree there. Maybe we could start with the waste, inefficiencies,graft, and corruption. Billions in payoffs, billions of unaccounted revenue.
The CIA could pay tax on those drugs their selling too.
They should set the example of living within your means. Our budget is so big we can't even keep track of all the money, milions and billions gone never to be seen. Where did it go ? I don't know. Ok end of senate hearing. Also have some damn accountability in the gov. and corporate world.
The US is the latest target of the IMF and World Bank... time for some "structural adjustments". It worked so well in S. America that they're bringin' it on home, just as planned.
"Starve the Beast"
will jim bunning cut off money 4 the iraqnam war ?????????????????????????????????????????????? what would Dick cheney and his HAL buddies say ??????????????????????????????????
"If we did these things, we wouldn't have to raise taxes or cut core services to the American people."
Wait a minute. Oh, yes, you would...
Don't forget that the vast majority of "the American people" are net gainers from the tax system already. They don't even come close to paying for the full panoply of services they use and expect: roads, police, fire, parks, education, the TSA(!), sewage, water, urban planning, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, whatever...
Jerome Schneider, in his good old days, said it best:
"...there are basically two different types of people in the United States. Those who produce more than they consume, and those who consume more than they produce. In other words, there are the people who make money, save it, and eventually become rich, and there are those who lose it, spend it, and stay poor. The progressive income tax system, by redistributing wealth, puts a heavier burden on the individuals who produce than it does on those who consume. Now look at who has the voting power. It's not the wealthy people who produce more, but the masses of people who consume more. That means the political power is in the hands of the takers, not the givers."
There is no way on God's Green Earth that the entitlement-oriented, unproductive and expensive consuming classes can ever hope to come close to paying for their government bread and circuses today, the more so given that they are currently flat-on-their-backs in debt.
The core problem for western economies is not distribution - or whatever REdistribution - of financial resources. Not at all. It is a SOLVENCY problem. Insolvency can only be lastingly corrected through an increase in productivity, and that can only happen when western nations as a whole lower living standards and become internationally competitive once again.
As it stands, there simply isn't enough real wealth to support everyone in the manner to which they feel entitled...
Leider(Unfortunately) , the Ostereichen(Austrians) such as Mises and von Hayek sought a return to feudalism through economics, called "classical liberalism" in econo-speak which further devolved into the half witted ego-mania of Rand and the economic "flat earth" society, until today we have the likes of KreditAnstalt ("Credit Institute" in German)... there is no economic philosophy/theory here, only a religious fantasy about a god call "Free Market" who sees all and justly acts with greater wisdom than we humans can understand.
Sadly, they are mere knaves of their would-be feudal masters... ignorant and obliging in their fierce yet blinded loyalty.
Hmmm, I wonder how much wealth these elites would "produce" without the lowly plumber, cleaner, truck driver, laborer, postal worker, nurse, mechanic, electrician, farmer etc. etc. You know, the people that actually live and work in the real economy of goods and services, instead of the ones that make money on top of leveraged money...
Its a sad world that perceives eg. a bankers work as more valuable to society than the people that educate our children, pull you from a car wreck or grow the food you eat don't you think?
I get the feeling I have met you somewhere before? Maybe your the waffen ss soldier I pistol whipped after finding you dressed as a jewish prisoner at Auschwitz?
Wow...
Wake up, roach... There are zillions and zillions of plumbers, government employees, electricians and drywall installers out there, all competing to be hired. That tends to naturally drive wages DOWN, doesn't it? Unless you want protection from competition...
Seems that the real shortage lately is not labour, but CAPITAL. Everyone's screaming their lungs out for it, so I guess it's going to call the shots...
In case you haven't noticed lately, the capital has been off-shored.
cool - lets just kill the rich
you stoopid!
Yes, we are looking at more than 100 trillion in entitlements that aren't paid for. Interest expense and the military are chump change in comparison.
Over an infinite horizon, which is how you reach that 100T figure, what's the expected cost of the military? *Hint: In FY2010, preliminary estimates are $663.8B. So, approximately 150 years of military spending, assuming Zero increases.
Thank you...my sentiments exactly!
Yet all these "hate-the-rich/bankers/anyone-with-money" Hugo Chavez acolytes want to do is kick investors in the teeth...
not the investors. the people that direct that investment for the good of the individual at the expense of the masses.