The Great Peasant Revolt of 2010 by Charles Krauthammer

[bandycpa]

SnT,

What I mean is that, by demanding taxes to be lower and lower, we eventually are "purchasing" government services (infrastructure creation and maintenance, education, military and law enforcement, etc) at a price far below their worth. If a product or service is worth a definite price, and people refuse to pay that price, the shortfall has to be made up somewhere. In the government's case, we make up that shortfall by creating deficits.

I agree whole-heartedly that government spending must be curtailed. But, that alone won't do the entire job. I feel that we are far enough left on the Laffer Curve that an increase in tax rates (even back to Year 2000 levels) will increase tax revenue rather than decrease it. As Craigepo said, many don't have "skin in the game", but would if the tax rates were increased or the tax brackets were adjusted to include taxpayers with lower taxable income (in a lot of cases, it would simply meaning receiving less of a refund due to earned income credit or child tax credit).

If my utility bill is $400 / month (and, with AEP going wild on price increases, it's been a whopper lately), and I feel it's my right to only pay $200 / month, then I will still owe $200 on my bill. In the short-term, I'm stuck with the shortfall, and have to make up that shortfall in order to eliminate my debt, and more importantly, keep my lights on. In the long-term, however, AEP needs to become more affordable by either improving their product technology or simply trimming the fat in their organization so their prices (hopefully) will come down.

So, in my opinion, to clean up our current mess, we have to raise more tax revenue in the short-term. The government has to concurrently do its part by reducing it's spending as well.



Howard,

Texas has no income tax rate, but it does have a maximum sales tax rate of 8.25%. Could it be that they are helped out by the fact that more people pay taxes through sales tax than they would if they paid a state income tax?



Bandy