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AceHero said:Washington State recently legalized pot, and it'll be taxed three times:
25%, grower to processor
25%, processor to retailer
25%, retailer to user
It's estimated that the new law will bring in $500 million annually for the state. Could you imagine if this was national policy?Is that $500 million in revenue from pot tax alone, or is it combined with the savings from the criminal justice system of not having to arrest, prosecute and jail offenders?
Some anti folks believe that the public health and public safety costs of it being legal will dwarf the costs of the tax revenue and the savings in criminal justice. I find that more than a bit hard to believe, but I have no illusions that OWI will be more of a problem with it being legal.
Who knows though... after you folks give it a shot for a few years, we may well find a national pot tax might end up making a real dent in the national debt.
Annual budget deficits are added to the national debt. Balancing the budget is the first step toward not adding to the national debt.
Okays, time for my turn.
There was an interactive website out there a while ago that let you manipulate budget items to see if you could balance the budget. A useful exercise.
Here it is. Give it a try.
Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com
I don't believe that anybody is suggesting that. Raising taxes is part of the solution, not all of it.You may have noticed that ALL tax increases and NO spending cuts doesn't get you to a balanced budget by 2030.
We can never solve the budget problem by increasing taxes and cutting spending. We need to get labor force participation back up to the levels Reagan achieved and were held almost constant until 2009 began. Get Americans back to work, and a lot of our problems simply disappear. That is the secret to Clinton's budget surplus years. Yeah, the declined started with Bush Jr.
Washington State recently legalized pot, and it'll be taxed three times...It's estimated that the new law will bring in $500 million annually for the state. Could you imagine if this was national policy?
OK, let's say you find a way to eliminate the deficit (balanced the yearly budget.)
Now, how are you going to eliminate the national debt? Something like $12 trillion now.
Obviously, yes.
But the question is how we balance the budget. You need to axe out 13 "slices" of 100 Billion each to balance the budget. Where would you get those 13 slices?
(4) Social Security and Pensions
Change to a Norwegian style system where funds for pensions and in our case, SS as well, are invested in the global marketplace.
The economic downturn has gutted many pension funds that are invested in the markets. Thankfully SS is safe from those risks and should be kept that way.
Even throughout the recession, the Norwegian pension fund remained strong.This is a much better system than the pyramid scheme we currently use for SS.
SS has also remained strong.
The economic downturn has gutted many pension funds that are invested in the markets. Thankfully SS is safe from those risks and should be kept that way.
SS has also remained strong.
If your pension is invested TOTALLY in stocks, you are asking for trouble. Divide in thirds: cash, bonds and real estate/stocks. Have enough in cash and bonds to hold you over for 15 years. The rest in stocks and real estate. Distribute 4% of your money from stocks into the others opportunistically. You should not have to worry about market fluctuations.
If your pension is invested TOTALLY in stocks, you are asking for trouble. Divide in thirds: cash, bonds and real estate/stocks. Have enough in cash and bonds to hold you over for 15 years. The rest in stocks and real estate. Distribute 4% of your money from stocks into the others opportunistically. You should not have to worry about market fluctuations.
I'm a contrarian.
In the early '90's everyone was selling their rental property to buy stocks. I bought rental property.
Many who held real estate mortgaged it to the full to invest in the market. I paid off my mortgage in 10 years.
I recently sold my rental property and put the money in FDIC insured cd's, where I also had put all of the income from the building since I paid it off.
I started with $20,000 of my own money, which grew to over $500,000 in 18 years.
Sittin' pretty with no need to risk anything.
But you did not mention why Gambles thinks this may be needed. The article states:One analyst thinks we should go over the cliff and into recession. Maybe like letting forests burn in Yellowstone rather than putting out the small fires, then the big one comes along.
Why Itâs Best for the US to Fall Off the 'Fiscal Cliff' - US Business News - CNBC
Are you saying to force other countries to pay for our protection, or asking for donations, or selling worldwide police services?(1) Defence Budget
Many Counties around the world rely on our military power to keep them secure, countries such and S Korea and Taiwan spring to mind. Many such nations have booming economies and spend a fraction of what we pay on military spending as a percentage of GDP.
I say, If they would like our military presence, we should sell it to them at cost. Of course there would be a long phase in period as not to shock their economies.
This means Billions of dollars worth of foreign currency coming into our economy. Our defence spending would be drastically lower than current levels
Workfare already is the law, and has been for 2 decades.(2) Welfare to Workfare
All government assistance (Within reason) requires commensurate hours of work. Failure to meet requirements results in an end to benefits.
Cost of government is reduced as some jobs can be done by welfare recipients
With a larger percentage of the population producing goods and services, the economic pie just got bigger, YUM
In other words you are eliminating Medicare as we know it. This would be hugely unpopular, and would surely leave many seniors uncovered.(3) Healthcare reform
Moving to healthcare savings accounts for all Medicare and Medicaid recipients. More power in the hands of the consumer, medical decisions will finally have price as a consideration forcing hospitals to compete to offer patients a greater value,
Allow the buying of health insurance across state lines to enable competition amongst insurance companies,
Malpractice laws are ridiculous, those must be changed, enough said
I don't think we have a pyramid system. Most people break even in that they get about as much out of Social Security as they would have had if they had left the money to accumulate interest in their own account. Social Security, allows those who live longer to have more secure finances, and that is a good thing.(4) Social Security and Pensions
Change to a Norwegian style system where funds for pensions and in our case, SS as well, are invested in the global marketplace.
Even throughout the recession, the Norwegian pension fund remained strong.This is a much better system than the pyramid scheme we currently use for SS.
What is "unproductive"? Movies? Sports? Vacations? I don't think government should be deciding what is "unproductive" and adding taxes based on what they don't like.(5) Revenue Increase
Although many taxes must be slashed to make way for economic prosperity chiefly the corporate income tax, taxes on economically unproductive activities can be increased.
Although defining "Economically unproductive" may prove difficult, some classes of activities include advertising, and the production of certain non-durable goods, could fall into this category. What ought to be taxed specifically sounds like a topic for another thread,
In other words you would continue the current energy policies? We have been drilling, baby, drilling, and encouraging alternatives. The last 8 Presidents have all promised energy independence. Nothing to see here, folks. Keep moving. http://www.christianforums.com/t7695896/(6) Energy
Our largest import is oil, not only would becoming energy independent benefit our trade balance but our national security as well.
Encourage domestic drilling enthusiastically.
Nuclear, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, solar, and tidal energy options all need to be heavily encouraged as well.
Energy, transportation, food stamps, unemployment payments, have all been proven to improve the economy (up to a point). Eventually we WILL have to address the deficit, because we will end up paying more and more for interest on our debt. But right now, for the time being, it ain't a problem. Once the economy improves, increase the eligibility age for SS, means testing for SS and medicare and Medicaid, get rid of Medicare part D (make it so govt can't negotiate prices for drugs). Increase capita gains taxes. Decrease corporate taxes. Increase taxes on the wealthy. Eliminate certain loopholes in the tax code. Tax churches that decide they want to try and influence political processes.
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