Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

W is my man today. Tax cuts passed the House last night and will surely pass the Senate today. Praise to Bush for making it happen. I know how strange that sounds, but this is a great move by the President. I dont really totally buy the "it will stimulate the economy" rhetoric, that doesnt make sense to me, but I do agree that this country needs TAX CUTS.

Its another story altogether but if you add up what you personally pay in taxes, all of them, federal income, state income, property, sales, gasoline, car registration, drivers license, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc it will certainly be upwards of 50% of your income!

I dont think most people realize that, I did say UPWARDS OF 50%, in many cases 60% or more. Thats more than the tea party people my friends.

Is our government just that great and providing so many great services that cost that much that they need that much money? Or do services provided by the government often suck and government management is often wasting money paying much more than private enterprises pay to do the same things? I dont think we have to debate this one.

ALL of that said, props to Bush and his insistence at getting tax cuts passed, the cuts themselves are pretty damn stupid. Thats not the Presidents fault per se, but these "cuts" are again phased in over time, temporary and go away after a certain time period. What kind of dumbass move it that? Forgive me but what kind of cost does changing the tax laws every other year incur on businesses and individuals. What cost does it incur on the GOVERNMENT.

What we need is clear, simple, fair tax law that doesnt change and get 8000 pages added to the code every year. I would love to see FairTax make some progress and be instituted, but yeah like thats ever going to happen. The plan makes sense once you examine it, but unfortunately it wont pay the salaries of lobbyists and the IRS and generally wont keep the wasteful US tax machine in business, so it wont happen.

As to the economics of tax cuts helping businesses and therefore jump starting the economy? I dont see it. It might help a little, but if companies dont have a DEMAND for products or services that they provide they are not going to spend on capital, regardless of whether or not they have more money because of tax cuts? You could argue that tax cuts will create that demand, make people have money to spend, but I dont think the little that these cuts provide can make any huge difference. Dont get me wrong, I hope it DOES work, but I am just not that optimistic.

For more on the cuts see the linked ABC News story.
  Bush declares victory with tax cuts: ABC News