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In order to present Obamacare as "deficit neutral," the Democrats had to find fictitious sources of money to pay for it. So they proposed taking a half-trillion dollars out of Medicare, and cut other funds which were intended to pay doctors and hospitals who treat seniors. According to the president's own advisors, these cuts would drive 1-in-5 Medicare providers into bankruptcy.
To keep that from happening, the Democrats have planned all along to add a whole new form of taxes to help pay for their vast, unfunded social programs. The "Value Added Tax" is essentially a national sales tax on everything...making every dollar you've scrimped, saved, and paid taxes on worth less in the marketplace.
As an added bonus, the VAT tax will also slow the economy, discourage job growth, and give bureaucrats in Washington additional power as they trade favors to determine exactly who and what will be taxed.
A VAT makes it easy for politicians to raise taxes a little at a time...rather like slowly raising the flames under a pot of water with a frog in it. Only in this case, it's not a frog who's going to get cooked.
I think I'm most alarmed by the politics that will decide what gets taxed. Europe taxes dog food differently depending on the breed of dog. Government control of everything here we come. And what a sad note to wake up this morning and read of the tragic loss of Poland's president and his wife and other top officials in a plane crash. I'm so sad for the citizens of that freedom-loving country.
ReplyDeleteI agree...what a tragedy for Poland. I can't imagine how difficult its going to be to put their country back together.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile our country is getting more and more difficult to KEEP together....
The problem may be all the vatheads we've sent to Congress (Say it quickly!) and the current White House!
ReplyDeletea 'reasonable' VAT INSTEAD of income tax kind of makes sense.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_faq_answers
But a VAT in ADDITION to 'regular' income tax is a guaranteed killer. Slowing recovery, impeding job growth, and in the end NOT raising the revenue projected. NEED to get some tax cutting / spend cutting folks in office ASAP, and the more the merrier..
Pete(Detroit)- Replacing the current tax laws with a straightforward VAT would probably be an improvement. But as you say, that's not being proposed. Instead, the Dems want to keep the horrible existing tax system...and throw a new one on top.
ReplyDeleteMake no mistake, the Dems voted in Obamacare knowing that their bookkeeping made no sense, and that it would spiral the debt so high that people would become open to the idea of new and higher taxes. Which was their main goal all along.
Obamacare does nothing to reduce medical costs but, as Senator Max Baucus said, it accomplishes an "income shift" which addresses the "maldistribution of wealth" in our country.
And four-fifths of typical, normal, average people believe government seizes too much of their income.
ReplyDeleteBut three-quarters of the political class thinks current tax levels are just fine, thank you very much for their salaries, grants, and other forms of liberal welfare.
66% of Americans Say They Are Overtaxed in New Poll
If Americans really believe they are overtaxed, they have an obvious remedy come November.
If they don't exercise their power to vote the bums out of office, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Kenyan official: Obama born here
ReplyDeleteStilt - Check this out :
ReplyDeleteThe Standard website, Nairobi- March 23, 2006
Kenyan-born US senator "exploring ways"of helping home province
Personally, not so much happy w/ a 'cashless' society. No one, and I mean NO ONE needs to know how much I spend on guns, ammo, booze, pr0n, fiber, cat food, hair die, Viagra, what EVER.
ReplyDeletePeriod.
The advantage of a VAT (as opposed to FLAT - and trust me, I prefer FLAT, mostly) is that it does 'catch' the 'cashers' when they buy stuff.
Drug dealers, pimps, etc still buy food, gas, clothes, pay rent, etc - and the VAT will tap them as well - in theory...
Pete, without a 10% flat tax and the abolishment of the IRS and all it's BS tax laws mostly to suppress the middle class and cover th rich peoples butts we will never have a society where everyone including the 20,000,000 illegals we have on our soil will pay their fare share in taxes. A flat 10% with a cashless society would capture the tax dollar at the time of making the wages and that's it. There would be no sales tax but then again no one would get paid for anything without an electronic transaction.My bet is this. With a 10% flat tax and a cashless society we'd have planty of taxes to pay for all the peoples needs and if we don't them the government CANNOT establish any thing they can not pay cash for.
ReplyDeleteAnon - depends a LOT on the definition of 'people's needs'... ((-'pb
ReplyDeleteStill, for a lot of reasons, we're not going to see a totally cashless society any time soon.
Just sayin'