I'm afraid that consumption taxes are not an idea whose time has come. The main problem being that people with more money don't necessarily spend more money. As you say, it's voluntary. My guess is that rich people will go shopping in Mexico and avoid the tax. I certainly would. So while there are brilliant tax solutions out there (search for Speckle-Tax) we're probably stuck with the current tax system which is not a beautiful or gracious one.
government likes the progressive tax on income, becuase its gives them control over the people..."the power to tax is the power to destroy"
a consumption after abolishing income tax.
consumption taxes, are not meant to be high like income, consumption is also the best form of tax...why, because when government raises the tax, the population feels its impact immediately, therefore governments have to be careful in raising the tax, and not raising it to high to fast.
the current system is not working with about 50%of the people paying no federal income tax, and some of those people receiving money from government,
Didn't we recently cut federal spending by virtue of the sequester? And honestly, what's so awful about Federal spending. At least they employ Americans unless they're already outsourcing our bureaucracy to India. They just need to spend more intelligently.
the government is in debt 17 trillion dollars.thats the national debt.
the government is spending about 3.5 trillion a year, while it was spending 1.5 trillion in 1995
but government only brings in about 2.3 trillion in revenue, leaving a short fall of over a trillion dollars every year ,adding to the national debt.
when you over spending by more than a trillion dollars, cutting spending a faction, does not do any good.
can anyone explain how cutting about 100 billion a year, does any good, since we are still over spending and adding to the debt, it expect that by the time obama leaves office the debt, will be over 20 trillion dollars.
this is a simple breakdown of what government is doing in smaller numbers, and represented by a family household........the family brings in a total of 23,000 a year in income ....but spends 35,000 a year.... while cutting that spending by about 4% a year...big deal.....no real progress on out of control spending.
In United States federal legislation, the term budget sequestration (or sequester) refers to automatic spending cuts in particular categories of federal outlays.[note 1] In 2013 specifically, sequestration refers to a section of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) that was initially set to begin on January 1, 2013, as an austerity fiscal policy. These cuts were postponed by two months by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 until March 1 when this law went into effect.[1]
The reductions in spending authority are approximately
$85.4 billion (versus $42 billion in actual cash outlays[note 2]) during fiscal year 2013,[2](p14) with similar cuts for years 2014 through 2021. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total federal outlays will continue to increase even with the sequester by an average of $238.6 billion per year[2](p3) during the next decade, although at a somewhat lesser rate.
The cuts are split evenly (by dollar amounts, not by percentages) between the defense and non-defense categories.[note 3] Some major programs like Social Security, Medicaid, federal pensions and veteran's benefits are exempt. By a special provision in the BCA, Medicare spending will be reduced by a fixed 2% per year versus the other, domestic percents planned for the sequester.[1] Federal pay rates (including military) are unaffected but the sequestration may result in involuntary unpaid time off, also known as furloughs.[4]
The sequester lowers spending by a total of approximately $1.1 trillion versus pre-sequester levels over the approximately 8 year period from 2013 to 2021. It lowers non-defense discretionary spending (i.e., certain domestic programs) by a range of 7.8% (in 2013) to 5.5% (in 2021) versus pre-sequester amounts, a total of $294 billion. Defense spending would likewise be lowered by 10% (in 2013) to 8.5% (in 2021), a total of $454 billion. Savings in non-defense mandatory spending would total $170 billion, while interest would be lowered by $169 billion.[1] The CBO estimated that sequestration would reduce 2013 economic growth by about 0.6 percentage points (from 2.0% to 1.4% or about $90B) and affect the creation or retention of about 750,000 jobs by year-end.[5]
The blunt nature[note 4] of the cuts has been criticized, with some favoring more tailored cuts and others arguing for postponement while the economy improves.[7]
You're never going to get a perfect government until an AI takes over (and they will - just a matter of time) and gives us a sort of Benevolent Dictator/Meritocracy administrated world leadership.,
We elected these jokers. Just saying.
governments are not perfect, they never are, even Madison stated that, however if the government stays within its constitutional boundaries, and controls its spending, government can be run with fewer problems, less money.
