So now that the election's over, there's all this jibba jabba back and forth about the best exact way to cut the national deficit in the grand bargain... everyone here knows by now I really can't stand shit that's presented in a needlessly overcomplicated way ALL THE TIME when it doesn't have to be, whether it's music theory or budget math or anything else constantly prone to that, so in the spirit of what I posted in the election thread here's simple arithmetic (in this case for what I'd suggest if I ruled the world):

Eliminate SS payroll tax cap ($100B/yr) + restore 50% marginal income tax rate from third year of Reagan Presidency ($190B/yr) + eliminate all tax deductions ($1.172T/yr) = Total Added Revenue $1.462T/yr

Lower taxes under $250K/income by $4000/yr ($542B/yr) + lower corporate taxes from 35% to 15% for companies owned by those earning under $343K household income ($90B/yr) = Total Lost Revenue = $632B/yr

$1.462T - $632B = $830B/yr Deficit Reduction = $8.3T Deficit Reduction Over Ten Years

Simple tax code, deficit nearly wiped, small businesses and the middle class pay either about the same or considerably less in income taxes. A panacea for conservatives, moderates, and progressives alike.

people have to understand tuning down to A or G and having a lot of breakdowns oesn't make the actual music heavy. for example, some n00b might think The Acacia Strain is the heaviest thing in the world, when in reality bands like ISIS, Suffocation, Job For A Cowboy, Engineer and Neurosis are much heavier bands

Not that anyone would care what I thought, but opinions are like assholes, and I have one.

Isn't that what I just said?

I wasn't sure whether to call this thread fiscal spliff or fiscal stiffy.

I like the idea of eliminating the SS payroll tax cap.

This plan does not account for Obamaphone.

PHONES ARE SOCIAL LIST

Thanks. Out of all the things I listed, it's the one thing that's already a part of what the WH is suggesting, so unlike the other stuff it might actually possibly have a chance of happening.

Yeah when I was in undergrad and we were learning payroll accounting was the first I learned of the cap. Never made much sense. I don't like eliminating tax deductions. I think it is inherently good for people to donate to charities and taking away the tax deductibility of charitable contributions would cause a lot of people to not donate as much or at all.

You know that's a good point, I was actually thinking of adding that as an expenditure to the math I posted: $43.1 billion/yr extra government spending on charities to reimburse them for lost revenue, distributed along the exact same lines private donations were last year so that there's no difference in who is getting the money.

With charitable accounted for, though, what other deductions are NECESSARY that couldn't be accounted by for a rate cut - I mean I personally do like the idea of energy efficiency tax credits as much as charitable ones - but then it just keeps going, doesn't it?

I guess it's just that the idea of simplifying the tax code and getting rid of deductions has been pushed for conservatives for so long, so if that could be traded to them in Congress in exchange for a rate hike on the rich and an overall monstrous revenue hike that got rid of the deficit, why not? From a common sense perspective, it is kind of ridiculous to have to pay someone at the end of the year to figure out what you have to pay, it's like a second income tax in a way - and a majority of Americans don't even know how to take advantage most of the deductions they qualify for, so the rich get the vast majority of the deductions, which then permanently distorts the tax discussion because it isn't obvious how little the rich are paying compared to what the rates suggest.

I guess that's progressive reasoning for a conservative policy position, but there it is.

Haha hey now, preparing taxes is part of my job, don't take that away! You're right of course that the system is far too complex.

Ha, part of my mom's job, too, actually.

YOU'VE BEEN H & R COCKBLOCKED

In no way was a spliff mentioned. This thread does not deliver.

It was a play on "fiscal cliff".

If the thread was just plain called fiscal cliff, then it would be called out for failing to deliver on Cliff content.

Problem solved - Cliff smoking a spliff:

Derivery!!!