Leroy wrote:Let me use my last employer as an example of what I'm trying to get at. They make a boatload of money. And yes, they grumbled with every check they had to write to the IRS. And they are deeply republican. However, it wasn't sending money to the government that bothered them, it was watching the government urinate a lot of that money away.
Aren't these the same people, though, who applaud Florida for drug testing all welfare recipients? The one that will save $50k on a $178M program.
Just because the government pisses it away doesn't mean it's fair they are paying a lower percentage. I'm not a huge fan of the whole flat tax thing, but if we went to a 20% flat tax, Buffet would more than he does now and you and I'd likely pay less.
Social Security and Medicare aren't simple handouts, you pay in and receive benefits when eligible. I believe those are 43% of spending but should, in theory, be self funding. Defense is 20%. Things like 'welfare' and NASA and all that 'wasteful' spending these people groan about are a pittance compared to what we spend on the wars. So you see $0.40 of every dollar back, when eligible, of federal taxes. Then another $0.20 is going to defense.
Spending needs to get under control, yes. Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid could use some checks (though, single payer health care would help cap exploding health care costs). We need to work on ending two wars we can't afford. But even doing all of that we aren't balancing the budget and right now cutting spending on social programs like Unemployment, food stamps, student loan interest deduction etc is going to cripple consumer demand and be worse for employment. When demand and hiring picks up then you can scale back spending there, you let the Bush Cuts expire and raise tax revenues and cut spending so we can worry about getting our debts and deficits under control.
I don't think anyone can realistically balance the budget but curbing spending or raising taxes alone.
