(08-02-2018, 10:54 AM)MalabarJag Wrote:

(08-02-2018, 12:09 AM)lastonealive Wrote: What's wrong with taxing the rich and corporates?

So you would prefer to take services from the poor?

The government has a legitimate role in providing a safety net. A temporary safety net. The problem is that there are millions of people who are camped out in the net, never to leave. So yes, putting a time limit on "services" would be a good start. Clinton/Gingrich did that in the 1990s to good effect, but it was repealed by the 2009 Dem total control government.

Corporations don't pay taxes. Their customers pay the taxes in the form of higher prices. If you tax McDonalds, that poor person who buys a Big Mac is paying the tax.

McDonald's spent enough on stock buybacks last year to give every single one of their employees, from the corporate marketing people to store managers to burger flippers, a check for $4,000.  Not that they should have done that instead, but I'm just saying let's not rush to the "they're on a thin margin and would have to raise prices" conclusion.  They have LOADS of cash at the moment.

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(08-02-2018, 11:30 AM)pirkster Wrote: You're trying to sway those who can't handle observing more than a single variable at a time.

I can observe many variables at once.  I have a thing on my desk I'm updating that has about 20 independent variables.
I'm just saying, that to answer this question, you only have to look at one, and looking at more obscures the picture rather than clarifying it.

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(08-02-2018, 11:28 AM)jj82284 Wrote:

(08-02-2018, 07:59 AM)mikesez Wrote: Did Congress discuss cutting spending while they were discussing Trump's tax cuts? I don't think they did. Why should we?
In fact, Congress admitted that those tax cuts would increase the deficit by 1.5 trillion dollars. They budgeted for that.  As they moved dollars around, the idea was to keep the total right about there.  
Do we really think that we know the budget better than they do?
All else being equal, tax cuts increase the deficit.

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The question was for pirkster.  I already know the answer from our resident John Galt cosplayer.

No no no!  Tax RATE cuts do not directly lead to negative total revenues because the economy is a dynamic system. Simple question. Are we collecting more or less income tax revenue this year over last year.

The Laffer curve has an upslope and a downslope.  If you're to the right of the peak, you can expect a cut to marginal rates to correlate to an increase in revenue collection.  If you're on the left of the peak, you can expect the opposite.

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