FilmFestGuy
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2009
- Messages
- 2,120
- Reaction score
- 1,244
- Location
- Nashville, TN
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Liberal
Question: Does anyone here actually agree with the wars we're currently fighting? Talk about spending cuts, that'd save us a bunch of cash.
Truth of the matter here is that entitlements are sucking us dry and can't last forever, regardless of what X politician tells us (except for Ron Paul, just about). We have to cut eventually, as we're on an unsustainable path.
But yeah, raising taxes, I believe, would do pretty much nothing. Raising taxes takes away that much more money from individuals and businesses, making it more difficult to put back into the economy. 70,000+ pages in tax code don't help, either.
Actually, that's incorrect. Spending cuts tend to always come back with lower benefits than suggested (i.e. - if we cut this, we'll save $48 billion - and then it turns out to be more like $18 billion). Tax hikes tend to come in much closer or over estimates (the Clinton tax hikes brought in MUCH more revenue than originally estimated).
If the Bush tax cuts were to expire in 2012, it would mean $3.8 TRILLION in government revenue over the next decade (and that would mean higher rates than in Obama's current proposal). And this is according to the WSJ and one of the conservative columnists in the NYT today.
If you were to spend that increased revenue on REAL infrastructure improvements (better electrical grid, improved highways, railways and bridges) - you would also create hundreds of thousands of jobs and fix the economy.