If we balance the budget the debt will be retired over time. We just have to budget the payments. I just ran the numbers before I typed it. Remember going back to Clinton rates eliminates the 10% bracket, shrinks the 15% bracket and inserts a 28% bracket. Whereas presently my top marginal rate is 15%, under the Clinton rates my top marginal rate would be 28%. The Clinton rates in effect in 2000 would also remove about 3000 in tax credits that I am eligible for. I would go from presently paying 1900 in federal taxes to paying 7300. Not quite 400%, but pretty dog gone close. That would totally wreck my budget, and the budgets of millions like me. Ummmm no. Firstly, It appears you are confusing marginal and effective rates. But a tax increase from 15% to 39% is not going to increase your taxes by 24%. Using simple numbers reflective of our tax code... Say a dude has taxable income of 50 K today his first 17,400 is taxed at 10%. The rest would be taxed at 15%. For a total liability of 6630. That same dude also has 2 kids which gives him 2 child tax credits reducing his liability to 4630. Under Clintons rates that dude would pay 15% on the first 26,500 then 28% on the remainder. This increases his tax liability to about 10,600. That slightly more than doubles his taxes. Using your example lets say a dude had to pay 15% taxes on 100 grand. That would mean 15 thousand in taxes. If the tax rate changed to 39% he would pay 39000 in taxes. His taxes did not increase by 24%. They increased by 260%. Of course that example is over simplistic, but it illustrates the point.
you would like it very much if it didn't fit but it does. it does because GWB and the guys who claim to be the fiscal conservatives are the ones who got us into this debt debacle by passing out tax cuts (which amount to little more than government subsidies to the rich), starting wars where we were not threatened and passing medicare part D. now these same people want us to believe that the guy who has been there the past three years has caused this mess when in actuality the mess existed the day he took office. Republicans keep trying to change the narrative but fact is fact.
But I found this in all of 3 seconds: "Republican congressional majorities, led by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich, enacted the largest capital gains tax cut in U.S. history, slashing the rate by 40% from 28% to 20%. Along with some other tax cuts on capital, that helped to promote an economic boom that produced surging revenues. The Republican Congress then cut federal discretionary spending from 1995 to 1996 by 5.4% in real dollars, after adjusting for inflation. As a percent of GDP, federal discretionary spending, including defense and non-defense, was slashed by 17.5% in just 4 years, from 1995 to 1999. The Congress also adopted some entitlement reform. The AFDC welfare program was terminated as an entitlement, and sent back to the states with work requirements and federal financing in fixed, finite block grants. Agricultural subsidies were phased out under the Freedom to Farm reforms (later reversed under House Speaker Dennis Hastert). President Clinton deserves credit for going along with these Congressional Republican reforms. As a result, $200 billion annual federal deficits, which had prevailed for over 15 years, were transformed into surpluses by 1998, peaking at $236 billion by 2000. The national debt was reduced by $560 billion in surpluses from 1998 to 2001." http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/11/how-balanced-budget-last-time/ So the surpluses you keep raging about came from a republican congress who cut taxes and spending? Looks like it.. While Clinton RAISED taxes his first term and grew the economy, we saw better results after the tax cuts. The 1997 Tax Cut: The Economy Unleashed In 1997, the Republican-led Congress passed a tax-relief and deficit-reduction bill that was resisted but ultimately signed by President Clinton. The 1997 bill: Lowered the top capital gains tax rate from 28 percent to 20 percent; Created a new $500 child tax credit; Established the new Hope and Lifetime Learning tax credits to reduce the after-tax costs of higher education; Extended the air transportation excise taxes; Phased in an increase in the estate tax exemption from $600,000 to $1 million; Established Roth IRAs and increased the income limits for deductible IRAs; Established education IRAs; Conformed AMT depreciation lives to regular tax lives; and Phased in a 15 cent-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax. "In 1995, the first year for which these data are available, just over $8 billion in venture capital was invested.[5] Venture capital is especially critical to a vibrant economy because high-risk/high-return investment permits promising new businesses to blossom, rapidly spreading new technologies and new ideas into the marketplace and across the economy. Such investments, when successful, generate returns to investors that are subject primarily to the tax on capital gains. By 1998, the first full year in which the lower capital gains rates were in effect, venture capital activity reached almost $28 billion, more than a three-fold increase over 1995 levels, and by 1999, it had doubled yet again." http://www.heritage.org/research/re...-the-clinton-tax-hike-produced-the-1990s-boom
Bush was not a conservative. Not sure where you think we have said he is. Bush spent like a mad man, that was the problem..
That’s right. The 1997 Clinton-Gingrich-Lott bipartisan budget agreement cut spending enough to balance the budget and cut taxes. You can see from this table that over a five year period (1998-2002) the agreement: cut defense discretionary spending by $77 billion and cut nondefense discretionary spending by $61 billion; “cut” (reduced the growth rate of) Medicare spending by $115 billion; “cut” Medicaid spending by $14 billion; cut other mandatory spending by $40 billion; contained new “Presidential [spending] initiatives” that increased spending by $31 billion; and cut taxes by a net $85 billion (and a gross $135 billion, $50 billion of which was offset by other tax increases). http://keithhennessey.com/2011/07/09/last-grand-bargain/
But what does this have to do with Obama care? Let me guess, Bush caused the healthcare crisis too? Got it.
I said I was not in the highest income bracket. Not even close. I am self employed. I paid almost 25% last year. Over 25% if you count state taxes which are in fact taxes so they should count. I am self employed, so that hit me and you can only have so many deductions. Perhaps you are not self employed. I did not have any investment income last year.
then name a state. the only problem will be is that the states take billions in funding from the federal government so we will have to deduct that if we are going to compare an apple to an apple.
A balanced budget is a balanced budget. You can't just make up rules. LOL I mean, those residence pay taxes and all, god forbid the Fed give money back to the state. Nevertheless, I gave you an example of the Fed doing it, so keep reaching.
