Your tax and spending proposals?

[Silent Hunter]

Since we're on the subject...

I'm no economist , but for the UK:
* The 20p reduction stays, but those who lose out by the abolition of 10p will be included into a new system.
* WTC will be reduced by WTR (Working Tax Reduction). Instead of the current system, people eligible will directly pay less taxes. Those included in WTC will be included, as those who lose out under 10p. Those without kids will need to prove their eligibility for this- a fairly simple process, probably involving a Job Centre Plus interview, since they're easy to get too.
* Inheritance tax threshold isn't moving.
* Let's see if we can't find some savings in the public sector. Top level salaries could do with a reduction, that's for sure. There are almost certainly heating and utilities savings out there.
* Minimum wage goes up at double inflation rate until it hits £7.20.
** Ultimately I'd like a Global Minimum Wage.
* The 40p tax rate. Maybe 41 or 42p, but you have to be careful. Don't want to drive away business- especially at this time.
* More tobacco taxes. Alcohol- see if we can't go after the fine wines.
* Road tax. Increase for the most polluting, definitely.
* See if we can't merge a couple of quangos.

[afleitch]

1. Workers pay no tax or NI until they earn £12.5 k.
2. Curtail the WTC credit system (retaining CTC's) to provide coverage for those who fall below national offical poverty line. Abolish the 25+ age limit on claiming WTC's
3. Put 1p on the top rate of tax
4. Reverse the corporation tax cut of 2p for small businesses and 3p tax rise for small businesses
5. Cap all public spending to inflationary rises only until National Audit is carried out on all public expenses.

[NDN]

Taxes: Lower corporate taxation to make us more competitive, eliminate the marriage penalty, eliminate loopholes. If necessary raise on the upper class (top 1-2%) to eliminate the deficit.

Spending: Outside of a handful of issues like providing Universal Healthcare the government needs to be cut. Implement a Balanced Budget Amendment. Cut corporate welfare in the form of subsidies to oil, agribusiness, etc. Scale back certain entitlements over the long haul such as social security. Scale back military involvement overseas.

[opebo]

Raise the top rates to around 70% and institute great efforts to catch those trying to steal by going overseas. 

Provide a very generous dole with no time limitation so working class people need not feel compelled to work.

Provide full socialized medicine, single payer, etc.

[jokerman]

Taxes: Stick a bunch of tax experts and economists in a room until they've produced a tax code that's ten-fold smaller than the current one (and maintains a good deal of progressivism).  Extend income taxation to new brackets of income with the higest rates at least 50%.  Boost the estate-tax.  Also a new tax on frivolous personal consumption.  Reduce corporate taxation but compensate with an equal cut out of corporate weflare.

Spending: Turn over all infrasctural spending to an executive department.  Pass Universal Healthcare coupled with sin taxes on fatty foods and cigarettes.  Create an Apollo Project for Alternative Energy, focused especially on solar power, investing several hundred billion dollars over the next 40 years.  Bring broadband internet service to all areas.  Keep Social Security solvent by raising the retirement age to 68 for people born in all years.  Full federal control over failing schools; have the military run them with strict discipline.  Overhaul urban development and welfare programs by creating a Corps of Urban Rejuvination, which can draft anyone into community service, taking prisoners, educating them, and turning them into workers.

[Person Man]

Taxes- Just repeal the Bush tax cuts. That should be just enough. Have a national war tax that conforms to the costs of the war over the repealed tax discounts.

Spending-
- Maintain Military Budget to Inflation
- Pass Bush's Social Security Plan
- Pass Obama's Health Care Plan
- Fully fund the Constellation Program
- Find a federal for the promotion of a constitutional school choice program
- Fully fund stem cell research
- Find a way to repair the highways and start funding high-speed commuter systems
- Cut tax benefits to oil companies
- repeal the gas tax
- More approval of Fission Plants and nuclear research for vehicles and buildings.
- Start a national program to develop inexpensive and deep-penetrating solar power for houses and fuel cells for cars by 2025.


Basically, I want a fiscal policy driven by the market, but allows universal access for basic needs through the needed subsidy.

[© tweed]

anyone who endorses cigarette taxes is an enemy of the working class.  and people in general, for that matter.  it's been proven that higher tobacco prices do nothing to stop people from starting smoking.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Taxes:
Create a flat tax with a rate around 17% and a ceiling of $25,000.  Also, allow for a $5,000 deduction for each dependent.

Spending:
   -Eliminate the Dept. Education and all national education practices
   -Legalize drugs and take them at rates similar to those of cigarettes
   -Close down the IRS
   -Eliminate numerous pork barrel projects saving untolds amounts
   -Eliminate welfare and Medicaid
   -End funding of cultural institutions on a federal level
   -Privitize the postal system
   -Make federal employees pay into their benefits if they do not already

Most of all make liberal use of the 10th amendment for other changes

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Taxes:
Create a flat tax with a rate around 17% and a ceiling of $25,000.  Also, allow for a $5,000 deduction for each dependent.

If there is a ceiling then it isn't a flat tax, indeed you've made it a very regressive tax.  A person who makes $1,000,000 pays only a 4% tax under your proposal.

I favor a true flat tax of Z% with the only deductions being a refundable one of $X per household plus $Y per dependent for someone who works full time  (defined as 2,000 hours per year) and pro-rated for those who work less than that.  (X, Y, and Z adjusted to provide both a guarantee of a living wage and sufficient tax revenue to meet expenses.)  The corporate income tax would be the same as the individual tax rate, and have no deductions either.  No capital gains tax, mainly because of the extensive record keeping it requires rather than its effect on the economy.  The tax system should be simple enough to put H&R Block out of business and require only that records from the tax year itself be at hand.

As far as excise taxes go, the carbon tax and sin taxes are both good.  The carbon tax should start small and keep increasing slowly with other taxes going down in response until the desired CO2 target is met or we run out of other taxes to cut.

[frihetsivrare]

Taxes:
Start with federal income tax reductions of five percent per year until it is eliminated.  It would take seven years to have no one paying income taxes.
Eliminate the payroll tax, keep the corporate tax at 12.5%.
States can raise or lower their taxes, or follow the federal government.

Spending:
Immediate 90% reduction in military spending. Close all foreign bases, bring all American soldiers here.  Have Swiss-style armed forces.
Dissolve the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, Energy, Health and Human Services.
Abolish the Federal Reserve and the IRS.
Legalise all drugs.
Gradually eliminate all government social programs.

[Frodo]

Taxes: raise to the level needed to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now, instead of passing the buck to future generations later on.  Also, pass a carbon tax to help fund our transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources with the ultimate aim of achieving energy independence with no reliance on fossil fuels whatsoever.

Spending: Until the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are concluded, no new major spending initiatives (except for an Apollo Program on energy independence) should be implemented.  Trim spending increases for Medicare and Social Security, as well as stripping benefits from both programs to achieve solvency (Why not?  The Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation in history -they can afford the sacrifice).  The payroll tax should only be raised in the last resort, and only by a 3/4 majority in Congress. 

Also, pass the Balanced Budget Amendment.

[2952-0-0]

If I became Dictator of Canada, my policies would be the following:

Taxes:
Phase in a carbon tax until it reaches an appropriate rate by consensus.
Cut income taxes to make the carbon tax revenue neutral (this could kill off the Athabasca Tar Sands, but who can challenge me?).
Okay, another percentage cut in GST.
Aggressively push for free trade, preferably by formal agreements.
Promote more tax credits for charitable actions.
Find a way to make the Bank of Canada build up some foreign reserves.
Above all, continue our structural budget surplus.
Close silly loopholes.

Spending:
Non-partisan funds would be created in each ministry, and each request will be handled by assessment so that spending isn't something the Finance Minister does every year.
Some non-essential private health care could be allowed.
Increase education funding, especially post-secondary funding.
Push massively for increased public transit infrastructure.
Declare all-out war on auto-dependency and force drivers to pay their full costs.
Kill off the remaining publicly funded Catholic school systems (somehow coercing the provinces).
Military will be just enough to provide domestic security, especially in the Arctic. No more.
More affordable housing, sprinkled among ordinary neighbourhoods.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Taxes:
Create a flat tax with a rate around 17% and a ceiling of $25,000.  Also, allow for a $5,000 deduction for each dependent.

If there is a ceiling then it isn't a flat tax, indeed you've made it a very regressive tax.  A person who makes $1,000,000 pays only a 4% tax under your proposal.

Perhaps my wording is wrong, my intention is that EVERYONE pays 17%, but the 17% is on your income-$25,000-$5,000 per dependent.  For example, if you make $50,000 and have two dependents, then you pay 17% of $40,000 or $6,800.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Taxes:
Create a flat tax with a rate around 17% and a ceiling of $25,000.  Also, allow for a $5,000 deduction for each dependent.

If there is a ceiling then it isn't a flat tax, indeed you've made it a very regressive tax.  A person who makes $1,000,000 pays only a 4% tax under your proposal.

Perhaps my wording is wrong, my intention is that EVERYONE pays 17%, but the 17% is on your income-$25,000-$5,000 per dependent.  For example, if you make $50,000 and have two dependents, then you pay 17% of $40,000 or $6,800.

I don't see where the $25,000 comes in under your proposal then.  Could you give an example where that has some effect under your idea.

[DWPerry]

Taxes:
Start with federal income tax reductions of five percent per year until it is eliminated.  It would take seven years to have no one paying income taxes.
Eliminate the payroll tax, keep the corporate tax at 12.5%.
States can raise or lower their taxes, or follow the federal government.

Spending:
Immediate 90% reduction in military spending. Close all foreign bases, bring all American soldiers here.  Have Swiss-style armed forces.
Dissolve the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, Energy, Health and Human Services.
Abolish the Federal Reserve and the IRS.
Legalise all drugs.
Gradually eliminate all government social programs.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Taxes:
Create a flat tax with a rate around 17% and a ceiling of $25,000.  Also, allow for a $5,000 deduction for each dependent.

If there is a ceiling then it isn't a flat tax, indeed you've made it a very regressive tax.  A person who makes $1,000,000 pays only a 4% tax under your proposal.

Perhaps my wording is wrong, my intention is that EVERYONE pays 17%, but the 17% is on your income-$25,000-$5,000 per dependent.  For example, if you make $50,000 and have two dependents, then you pay 17% of $40,000 or $6,800.

I don't see where the $25,000 comes in under your proposal then.  Could you give an example where that has some effect under your idea.

Maybe the term "floor" rather than "ceiling" fits better.  Here's the point, if someone makes UNDER $25,000 they pay $0 in taxes. 

Here's the formula for taxes:
[Gross earnings-$25,000-(Number of DependentsX$5,000)]*.17=amount you pay

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

So you forgot to subtract the $25,000 in your example.  If someone ends up owing negative tax, do they get a check from the government?

[DownWithTheLeft]

So you forgot to subtract the $25,000 in your example.  If someone ends up owing negative tax, do they get a check from the government?

Under my plan, no, although if the idea were ever to come up for a vote and that was a sticking point I would be willing to accept

[Bono]

** Ultimately I'd like a Global Minimum Wage.

To quote Torie a while ago, the concern for the less fortunate of this world is indeed touching.




That's neither a tax or a government expenditure btw, unless you're also planning on global welfare for the billions that proposal would drive onto helplessness.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Tax:  Increase the tax rate on income beyond $150,000 for individuals ($250,000 for married couples) to 50% also while allowing the Bush Tax cuts to expire with a new round of tax cuts aimed solely for those earning under $75,000/year.

Cut taxes on small businesses (fewer than 100 employees) while raising taxes on the profits of large companies (over 1,000 employees), but not on re-investment.

Make the first $2000 in capital gains tax free, but subject to a tax of 30% for higher amounts.

Inheritance tax goes to 50% on non-farm estates over $1 million.  The first $100,000 is tax free.  This is indexed to inflation.

Revisit the gas tax twice a year to keep the price of fuel more constant and make public transit expenses tax deductible.

Spending:

Infrastructure:  Overhaul Amtrak, take over the nation's railroad tracks, and build high speed, electrified rail over much of the nation connecting the large cities with dedicated electrified track, with diesel high speed rail connecting large cities to regional centers.  Make the tracks to allow freight trains to travel at 75mph.  The eventual goal would be to have government owned tracks with private rail operators.
Provide funding to states to expand public transit systems with a focus on light and heavy rail.

Make an effort to maintain our freeway system, reserving expansion for only the most congested areas.

Education:  The federal government should apply broad standards to ensure basic things such as reading, writing, basic math, and American civics, while also funding education for the mentally handicapped.  The federal government should focus on the handicapped, school meals for the poor, after school program grants for the poor, and a set per student amount of money to help pay for the standards that the federal government sets.  Beyond that, the states and local governments have control over the curriculum, and other programs.

Healthcare:  Medicare should be expanded to cover all children under 18 (under 25 for those in college and still dependents), the disabled, the poor, and those over 65.

This would free up private insurance companies to providing care for healthy adults that are able to pay and would reduce costs there.  The expanded Medicare program would allow the government to better bargain for better drug prices.

The decision making should be between the doctor and patient, with good oversight to root out doctors who promote prescription abuse, etc. 

Environment:  We need to invest massively into renewable forms of energy and non-renewable forms that are proven and clean (nuclear).  A combination of geo-thermal, solar, hydro-electric, wind, and nuclear power could provide nearly all of our electricity.  Coal plants should be phased out as new, cleaner plants are built.
We need to work better to protect our national forests and grasslands from excessive logging and overgrazing.  We need to protect land that encompasses a whole ecosystem and not just fragments.
Strict regulations on fuel economy should be put into place. 
The government should limit the amount of garbage you can have.  If you have more garbage than is allowed, you should pay an extra fee (though not excessive).  These fees would be dedicated strictly to recycling efforts and the amount of recyclable material disposed of would be unlimited.

Ag policy:  Provide subsidies to small family and artisanal farmers while reducing and ultimately eliminating them for large agribusinesses.  Provide a subsidy of 80% for crop losses due to natural disaster with low interest loans for the rest.