Solutions: Taxes

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Hello all. We are going to embark on a series of articles here to try and bring the scope of problems facing America today into perspective. This is an open ended series which I don't expect to go beyond five articles.

The politicos of our day would have you believe that our problems are so deep and convoluted that it is nigh impossible for mortal Man to figure them out. This is lie number one always extant in modern political discourse. The purpose of said lie is to convince you the 'customer' that the politicians 'job' is so hard and complicated that you have no idea the extent to which their brilliance and intellect is challenged daily just to keep the wheels from falling off of this magnanimous and ever difficult thing we call government. The truth of course is that any God-fearing person with a basic understanding of our founding and an eighth grade reading level can discern the Constitutional mandates for federal government. In fact, most politicians are at best petty crooks and at worst radical idealogues that threaten our entire system. The second reason for the lie is to explain why nothing ever really gets done to change any of it. We will dispell that myth in the course of these next few blog posts, you and I. I doing basic research, applying common sense and principles of Liberty; You, reading, researching, confirming and finally agreeing with passion that if not exactly my conclusion; a simple conclusion can be had to every one of these issues so daunting to the supposed 'smartest guys in the room' today. The first article I submit to you is on Taxes. The ruse our politicians enslave us with is that this is a very complex issue requiring thousands of pages of federal regulations, an entire arm of government instilled with the power of confiscation of property, threat to citizens Liberty and even imprisonment or death if you dare to dispute their power over you and your finances. I submit to you, my fellow Americans, that it is not nearly that complicated.

TAXES:

The powers that be would have you believe that it's just impossible for the government to live on the tax receipts from hard working Americans income. Now commonplace in every legislative cycle is an attempt to extract more and more of Americans hard earned dollars to feed the veracious appetite of an all encompassing totalitarian government. To be sure, to try and deconstruct this Communist Goliath of socialist structure will not be easy. What I propose here is simply an intellectual exercise to prove beyond any doubt that major changes can be made, with dramatic positive consequences. All that is required is the will and fortitude to weather the maelstrom of negativity that will befall the unfortunate politician who dares to truly care about his country, his progeny, the Constitution, Freedom and his constituents.

The total income for the United States of America according to the presidents recent budget is approximately $13 trillion dollars (13,000,000,000,000.00). This number is low because the very tyrannical nature of today's government entices otherwise good Americans to hide cash transactions, perform accounting tricks and otherwise attempt to diminish the confiscation of personal property in modern day America. Now let us suppose that we levied a simple percentage tax on this amount. No deductions, no waivers, no excuses, no redistribution and no political favors. If you make a dollar, you pay the percentage. If you make 10 billion dollars, you pay the percentage. Let us further assume that if 10% is good enough for God, it should also be good enough for ungodly government. That of course would be the maximum and allowing for unforeseen circumstance we should provide a buffer. Therefore, I propose a 7% flat tax on all income, not to exceed 10%. All efforts to raise said tax must be approved by a two thirds majority of both houses of Congress. At 7% this would give the U.S. government 910,000,000,000.00 or $910 Billion. The following is a line item budget as gleaned from the presidents latest budget proposal. The first number is the 2010 actual budget amount and the second column is the proposed 2011 budget.

The bright ones amongst you have already noticed the glaring omission; Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Why? Because these are unconstitutional programs that have no business in the federal budget. They have worked exactly as intended and have become a 'toy manufacturer' for every politicians' consituency toy box. 'See the nice new toy that Daddy is going to give you? All you have to do is let me steal just a little more Liberty and it is yours.' Americans unfortunately have become addicted to the toy of the year and many polls show they don't want to give up these programs. Fine. Pay for them. These programs should be taken off of the books, run independently and more important funded independently. If Americans want their toys, they will have to pay for them. This alone will let them see the bright shiny toy they are buying for the kid who doesn't play with the rest of us or do his chores. All the while we are stuck doing our chores and playing with the old stick horse.

This leaves the above outlined budget for federal spending; again notice that my flat tax does not include any SS or Medicare/Medicaid taxes, just a simple flat tax for running the basics of federal government. As stated above, the first line is the actual 2010 budget and the second is the presidents proposed 2011 budget. Let us first determine that in the dire economy in which we now exist we should revert to the 2010 budget and, as opposed to raising it, we should tighten our belts like any normal business entity would do under the circumstances. I propose a 5% across the board cut. Everyone gets cut, no exceptions. Any department head that says they cannot possibly cut 5% from their budget in lean times is either incompetent, a liar or both. Next since we have separated Social Security and Health programs from the government we don't need the Department of Social Security or the Department of Health and Human Services; that saves $93.7 Billion. Again these will have to be run and funded independently and will therefore need to be revenue neutral. If you want it, pay for it. Is there any more abysmal failure than the Department of Education? A Jimmy Carter legacy. Education should be controlled by states and local authority. That is the only way we can educate our kids the way WE see fit. Therefore, axe the Department of Education. That saves $64.3 Billion. No one can convince me that the Environmental Protection Agency has done anything but stifle business and given a home to the Van Jones, "Let's give human rights to Mother Earth" types of the world. Therefore, we don't need that in a federal agency. They can raise their own money and save the snails all by their lonesome. That saves $10.3 Billion. Everyone who has an ounce of common sense knows that the Department of Energy, another Jimmy Carter fiasco created to 'lessen our dependence on foreign oil' is an abject failure and in fact stifles production of energy hurting our economy. That's gone. There's another $16.6 Billion. By the way, please note that this is the part that excludes the National Nuclear Security Administration, we can keep that part. One of the few government programs that actually does something. How efficient is another story. Okay, Housing and Urban development, responsible for most of the slums in America today, partially responsible for the housing bubble and subsequent economic meltdown of 2008. If urban areas want to develop, then let them. Don't do it on my dime though. I'm attempting my own development. Gone. That saves another $42.8 Billion. State and International Programs; I think they can get by with $40 Billion baseline, that saves $9.8 Billion.

Well the results are in: Out of a baseline budget of $1.0844 Trillion dollars we have managed to slash $237.5 Billion. That leaves a baseline of $846.9 Billion. Now personally, I think we are not as appreciative of our veterans as we should be. Therefore, I propose we double their budget, we'll round it out to $100 Billion (adds $46.9 B). That gets us to $893.8 Billion. Now we slice off our 5% austerity measure and that puts us at $849.11 Billion. As you can see, this fits nicely into our 7% flat tax revenue of $910 Billion with $60.89 Billion left. There you go, budget balanced. Now we must of course pay the interest on the debt as well as pay down the debt itself. And that is the beauty of it. If the federal government balanced it's budget, took entitlements off the books and made them balance themselves, and taxes were simplified and only took 10% or less of anyones pay, our economy would soar like you have never even imagined. Freeze spending or minimize it to very small increases and the additional revenue goes to the debt. Additionally, a temporary 2% tax could be implemented by 2/3 vote of Congress and all of that put to the debt. That alone would bring in a minimum of $260 Billion a year. Add that to our $60.89 Billion surplus and that gives us $320.89 Billion a year that could be put to the interest and the debt. Again with rapid growth in the economy this number would grow exponentially.

So there it is. With a little homework and some down to earth sensible thinking, this government could have this problem licked in a weekend. But they won't do it will they? Why? If someone could cure our country's financial problems but refuse to, are they your friend or your enemy? You see, the tax code is how they subjugate you, give power to themselves, hold business hostage, empower lobbyist who in turn empower politicians. It is all one big rat's nest of corruption, selfish greed and idealogical social experimentation. Now that you know this can be done, will you vote for any politician who won't do it? I know, I know one man alone in the wilderness cannot possibly turn around this monstrous machine, blah blah blah. I'm sick and tired of hearing excuses how about you? Not a single politician who isn't working tirelessly to change the tax code and change the spending habits and devolving power from Washington D.C. deserves to set foot in our beloved capitol building. We must put up primary challenges to all of these snakes slithering around infecting our nation and stealing our childrens heritage. They are despicable swine and deserve nothing but your contempt and close scrutiny. The one or two who may indeed be working tirelessly for our Liberty deserve our help and respect regardless of which district they live in. We can no longer afford to marginalize ourselves to our districts. What each and every one of these crooks does affects us all. We must watch them all, network with each other to inform, notify and support opposition against every career politician who is unserious about turning this nation back to the Constitutional Republic we have been charged by history to protect for future generations of Americans.

by: Keith D. Rodebush

Sources:
Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Deparment of Commerce. News Release BEA 11-14 dated March 28, 2011 - "Personal Income and Outlays: February 2011"

"Fiscal Year 2011 Budget of the United States Government" dated February 1, 2010

Further information concerning health care and the government can be found in previous blog posts written in August of 2009. "A Case Against Government Health Care" and "Health Care Solutions for America"