JUST SOME POSTS

I have been thinking about doing a somewhat (or overt) political ad for this election season. I had decided not to. This is not so much a political ad as it is an attempt at 'spainin' about the deficit and tax revenues in relation to the tax cuts that went into effect last year. First some numbers on what has happened to the economy due to the tax cuts and the reduction in regulations that the administration has put into place. Unemployment at record lows, employment participation growing for the first time in decades; more importantly, black and hispanic unemployment both at record lows. Consumer confidence is at an 18 year high which bodes well for the important Christmas shopping season and the economy in general. More importantly, tax revenues are UP! (if you car to follow up on that - I did a study on tax revenues following every major tax change over the past decades. I have facts and figures and even a spread sheet where I combined most of the numbers I crunched. Bott...

I have written a few posts throughout the history of this blog about taxes. With all the talk (and hyperbole) about the "Republican tax plan" working its way through Congress now, I felt compelled to do another. I do recommend and ask that if you care about this subject that you go back a few posts and read a series of three posts where I investigated and reported on tax cuts and their effect on tax revenues. There are three posts. The first is: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2017/06/death-and-taxes-ok-just-taxes.html  Then the next two follow consecutively. Since I know most of you probably will not - the quick and dirty bottom-line is every time that tax cuts have been instituted they have paid for themselves. I even included a spreadsheet with the data if you care to review it yourself. If you have read many of these posts you know I have some "lessons" and truths that I am trying to get across to the readers. The idiotic games being played in Washington (...

OK, I have the soapbox* out again - time for a refresher course. 1) There is NO government money! Do not expect government money to ever solve anything. When you hear the words "government money", "federal (or state) funds", "federal grant", "state grant", or anything similar, just substitute the words "tax dollars" or similar. 2) Corporations do NOT pay taxes! People pay taxes. You can tax a corporation all you want but the money comes from the customers or the owners. If the tax laws change to make corporations pay more, they just raise prices. WE pay the corporate taxes. So, when you hear people talk about raising taxes on businesses and/or corporations, just substitute the words "raise taxes" or similar. 3) (pay attention, most people seem to have a problem with this one) Companies and corporations do NOT exist to provide jobs or benefits to people! Companies and corporations are founded to make money for the foun...

I have written some about this in previous posts, but I think it deserves additional attention. It is amazing how true the axiom of (paraphrased) "repeat a lie often enough and it becomes an accepted fact". Said with a different slant it applies to names, titles, and labels. For example, it is in my lifetime that swamps disappeared. WHAT? - you might exclaim. I know swamps. There are swamps near me. Au contraire mon frere. A swamp is now a WETLAND. We did not learn about wetlands when I was in school. Preserving the wetlands was not a requirement or even a wish. It was all about draining a swamp. Swamps and wetlands are homes to mosquitoes and other nasty insects. However, no one will donate money to save a swamp. Legislation to save the swamp is not a headline grabber. Therefore they became a wetland. Now we save them. (I understand that there are ecological and biological benefits from "swamps". I also understand that if I have an acre of my property that is alm...

I am very, very dismayed at the current state of affairs in Washington, especially concerning the budget. I have posted on various other times about our need for term limits (the House of Representatives was set up with two year terms for a reason - rollover), responsible elected "leaders" that will make tough decisions, and responsibility from the elected and the electorate. If you have an interest in my thoughts on these matters, dig around the archives here. You might find a surprise or two anyway, this blog is VERY eclectic. The current issue of the budget and the idiotically named "fiscal cliff" arguments are extraordinarily annoying. First, the much touted 'fiscal cliff" was created by the politicians that are whining about it now. The great gnashing of teeth that is taking place amongst the members of congress and the news media is ridiculous. The "cliff" was created by the inability of the elected to do anything about the actual budget p...

I know it has been a while. As I have said before, the lack of posts here is not because I have nothing to write; but because I have too much. Life has been busy, so taking the time to clear a thought and post it is sometimes hard. Just a quick (I think, we will see after I finish writing this if "quick" really applied) thought or two on our country and the financial mess we find ourselves in. Now, if you do not think the country is in a financial mess, or the only problem is we don't tax those evil rich people enough - you might want to just move on to a blog about puppies or apple fritters. Otherwise, let's go! The United States (as most countries on earth) is what I consider to be bankrupt. We as a nation are continually paying out and promising to pay out much more than we are taking in. Now, legally the U.S. is not bankrupt because no debt has been defaulted on and the U.S. still has a credit rating that allows it to borrow money to cover these pay outs. Howe...

This is one that has been brewing in me for a while. You can hardly hear a discussion or debate about taxes nowadays without hearing someone talking about taxing the rich. Our problems would be over if we could just get those rich people to pay their taxes - right? I have done some research on who does and does not pay taxes in the U.S. Here are the results: I just saw this headline relating to 2007: Top 1% of income earners pay 40.4% of taxes. You got that? For the tax year of 2007 - the top 1% of taxpayers paid over 40% of the total income taxes. FYI - that is more than the lower 95% paid! 1% of the population paid more than 95% of the population. (the other roughly 20% of taxes were paid by the 4% from 95% - 99%. Now, these folks did earn over 22% of the income. (they are the highest 1% after all) But, even making 22.8% of the income, you wouldn't think would require them to pay over 40% of the taxes, would you? (another tidbit - to reach this top 1% leve...

To get even more on this, as well as some background - see earlier posts like "Back in the USSA " and others. I am getting worried about the economy. Not for the same reasons as a lot of people, but worried none the less. As stated above, previously I let you know how I feel about these government "bailouts" that keep being thrown around like chicken feed. This is getting ridiculous! We (and yes it is WE!) are giving money to every industry and company that is having trouble. This cannot stand. There are constitutional reasons that should prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of contitutionalist politicos or even voters around to recognize it or care about it. We won't go there (one of my first posts over a year ago addressed this). I will just keep this to the economic side of the argument. The first rule to remember is - THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT MONEY!! All together now - THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT MONEY. When you hear about a "sti...

OK, this requires a bit of study on your part. Read the numbers below and then re-read them. Percentiles Ranked by AGI Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid Percentile % of taxes paid Top 1% 39.38% Top 5% 59.67% Top 10% 70.30% Top 25% 85.99% Top 50% 96.93% Bottom 50% 3.07 Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross IncomeSource: Internal Revenue Service For Tax Year 2004 (the most current year with statistics published) Got it? What did you read? One of the most popular mantras of the left is "tax the rich". Since almost no one thinks of themselves as rich, this statement is rarely found offensive or challenged. When talking about an income tax, it is only natural that those with income pay the tax. But in the U.S. (as in most of the developed world) the "rich" pay a very large percentage of the total taxes. If you paid attention to the above you will see how big this disparity is. The top 1% pays just shy of 40% of ALL INCOME TAXES COLLECTED! The top 10% pay over...