I am not part of the 47%. I have paid Federal Income Tax for years. I am military retired and although many people think (for some odd reason) military retirement is exempt from Federal Income Tax, it is not. It is nicked at the same rate wages are, that is 15%. I have a few thousand dollars of savings in Certificates of Deposits which currently pay me 3% interest but all are due to mature this year and that for all intents and purposes will be the end of that source of our income. The average rate for savings interest seems to be about a half of one percent nowadays. Not to worry. The military retirement and benefits we receive are more than enough support our modest life style. I do not mind paying Federal Income Tax! I am happy to have enough income to be assessed at all.
During WWII our National Debt sored to way above what it is now and did not end in catastrophe. Most of the Debt was financed in Country. Taxes went up some, and remember War Bonds? Kids bought war savings stamps with pennies and pasted them in a book. When they had enough stamps accumulated the book was traded in for a War Bond. Some people, who owed no taxes what so ever, sent what money they could to the Federal Government as a gift to support the war effort.
I was shocked when the Republicans, in the last Presidential elections, nominated someone who had Swiss bank accounts and moneys in the Caymans, especially when they go on and on about what a threat the National Debt is to the Country. You can say: “Yea, well all that was legal.”, however, it's my personal view that, tricks to avoid taxes are as close to treason as you can get without actually selling the country out to a foreign nation. I was more than shocked to hear Sen. Lindsey Gram recently pass off tax cheats as something Americans do. Really?
I contend the average 6th grader could write a balanced federal budget without damaging the economy one whit, provided he/she had access to honest information.
I believe 99.9% of loopholes in the tax code were bought and paid for. The other .01 % were inadvertent consciences of stupid legislation. In other words, the 99.9% represents of the loopholes represent blatant rotten corruption. I wish I could state without fear of contradiction, the corruption was all on the Republican side, and whole lot of it was, but some Democrats dipped a hand into the rotten-pot as well. Someone should write an exposés book. When there is a political financing system like the one we have now, it’s almost an invitation to be corrupt. If you spend over half of your time in office raising funds and a lobbyist offers you a big reward if you simply slip a changed word or sentence into a bill, hey, why not? Just convince yourself if you can that it’s not corrupt and you’ll do just fine. I read somewhere there are close to a trillion lost tax dollars annually, in them their loopholes.
I donate to candidates whose ideas and principals I like, Grayson, Warren, Sanders and some others, but in my opinion it should not be legal for me to do that. Only people and entities in a District should be able to contribute to their Rep, or those in a State for Statewide elections. If you have a district of complete Assholes, they should be able to elect an Asshole to represent them, and I should not be able to interfere with the process by making a contribution to the opposition. It’s a democracy thing as I see it.
The 35% corporate rate the Republicans complain about is a joke. No company that I know of pays it. Those thousands of companies who have their address in a small building off shore is ample evidence of a system that is rotten and corrupt to the core. Just because it’s legal don’t mean it aint corrupt!
I will be surprised if I’m not ripped a new one in the comments.