I just don’t think it is productive to raise taxes on a sluggish economy when we should be growing the economy which makes for a larger pie and everyone can get a bigger slice.
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Will Higher Tax Rates Balance the Budget?
Published on Apr 11, 2012
As the U.S. debt and deficit grows, some politicians and economist have called for higher tax rates in order to balance the budget. The question becomes: when the government raises taxes, does it actually collect a larger portion of the US economy?
Professor Antony Davies examines 50 years of economic data and finds that regardless of tax rates, the percentage of GDP that the government collects has remained relatively constant. In other words, no matter how high government sets tax rates, the government gets about the same portion. According to Davies, if we’re concerned about balancing the budget, we should worry less about raising tax revenue and more about growing the economy. The recipe for growth? Lower tax rates and a simplified tax code.
Unhappy New Year from Washington
January 1, 2013 by Dan Mitchell
Here’s the class-warfare present that the clowns in Washington are giving us for the New Year.
According to some estimates, this “balanced approach” in this plan has $54 of tax increases for every $1 of spending cuts. That’s even worse than what’s been happening in Europe.
Keep in mind, though, that this assumes the dishonest Washington definition of a “cut,” which merely means spending doesn’t climb as fast as some artificial baseline that assumes an ever-rising burden of government spending.
But look at the bright side. Things have to get better from this point. Right? Maybe? Oh, wait, we still have the debt limit fight.