Taxes and our Federal Tax Code

Former President Donald Trump (R) paid breathtakingly little Federal taxes compared to his wealth over the six years covered by his tax records, which the Progressive-Democrats so dishonestly, if strictly legally, released. And yet, despite those same Progressive-Democrats’ desperation to expose illegalities in his low tax payments, those same records prove he did nothing illegal; he simply took advantage of what our tax code—as enacted over the years by both parties as they held sway—plainly, and by design, allows.

Think that’s unfair compared to you and me? Think it’s not right that rich folks should have access to…loopholes…that us average Americans can’t reach?

Nah. For all the imbalance, there’s nothing unfair about it. The opportunities are right there in plain sight in our byzantine body of tax law. And they become increasingly accessible to us as we rise up our nation’s economic ladder.

Still the imbalance should be corrected, and that’s easy to do. Nor does it involve increasing taxes on the rich, although it does involve closing those…loopholes.

All it takes is two things.

First, we get rid of our existing income tax code, every jot and tittle of it.

Then we replace it with a new income tax code. That new code would eliminate entirely business income taxes—not merely zero out the maximum rate, eliminate that tax altogether. If it’s still on the books, it’s too easy to raise the rate later, even from zero.

Businesses don’t pay a significant portion of that tax, anyway; their customers do in the form of higher prices, and the rest of us do in the form of reduced rates of business growth, hiring, and wage increases—with the resulting reduced productivity—and in reduced rate of innovation.

With the elimination of the business income tax, businesses would be able to raise capital, grow, innovate, produce—make business decisions—based solely on the economic wisdom of the decisions. Having to dance around the tax code, having decisions influenced by tax advantage or disadvantage would be a thing of the past.

The new income tax code would include a low (10% perhaps) flat tax on all personal income regardless of source, and the code would have no subsidies, deductions, credits, what-have-you. No loopholes. Just: enumerate your income, remit 10% of that.

Now us Americans would be able to keep more of our money, make freer decisions concerning our needs and wants, have more to save for emergencies, future expenses, retirement. All based on our own view of our present and future economic situation, instead of having to do our own dance around the tax code.

Too, with everyone paying at least a little, the Federal government would see a net increase in tax revenue, and that increase would be even larger from the increased overall economic activity in a free market economy in which the private players, us Americans and our businesses, are more active.

Easy peasy. All it takes is political courage. And for us American voters to inject that courage by repeatedly firing those politicians who lack it and repeatedly hiring those who have it. After all, that’s what elections are for—they really do have consequences.

Think about Leaving

Portland business owners are more than fed up with the level of crime destroying their businesses. Their idea of who has the solution is misguided, though.

Frustrated business owners are calling on city and county leaders to do more to combat rising property crime in Portland….

This situation is not solely on the heads of Portland’s city councilmen or the county commissioners. The business’ fellow residents of Portland keep electing those councilmen and commissioners, politicians who’ve demonstrated their lack of commitment to order and rule of law.

Why would any business owner want as his customers folks who so consciously approve of and vote for such politicians? Those are the voters, after all, who then vandalize, rob, and otherwise trash their businesses. There are plenty of jurisdictions that do regard rule of law to be a Good Thing, and those jurisdictions have sound economies with plenty of room for businesses currently domiciled in lawless Portland.

Overreach

The New York banking regulator, the New York State Department of Financial Services, has announced “rules” that would require banks of all sizes to consider climate change in their risk assessment considerations. NYSDF’s rules are made the worse because it has outsized influence due to the plethora of Wall Street institutions in the State.

Banks would be called upon to look at climate-related risks when bringing on new clients and when extending credit.

This is naked government overreach, even at the State level, and it’s one more reason financial institutions should leave New York. I can suggest Miami, Austin, Dallas, Sioux Falls, and Fargo as alternative locations.

It’s more than that, though. It’s an…inaccurate…goal. The only climate-related risk any American business, banking or other, faces is Government behavior vis-à-vis government bureaucrat-perceived climate situations.

Punishing the Successful

There are changes to Americans’ 401(k) plans that are included in the Omnibus Spendathon bill currently in front of Congress, and they are IMNSHO highly favorable. (Aside: I hope the Omnibus Spendathon gets killed in favor of a short-term bill—or no bill at all; we won’t miss the Federal government for a few days—that will let the incoming Republican-majority House have its input into the year’s spending. These 401(k) provisions could be brought up and enacted then.)

Among those changes are a raise in the age at which account holders must begin taking their Required Minimum Withdrawals from the current 72 years old to 75 years old.

Cue the outrage from the Progressive-Democratic Party politicians and their Leftist supporters, all of whom hate the success of others.

Some lawmakers, academics and policy analysts have criticized some of the provisions, including the move to raise the age of required retirement account distributions to 75. They argue much of the legislation benefits the wealthy and the financial-services industry.
“It will primarily subsidize the wealthy and worsen the racial wealth gap,” said a statement from Americans for Tax Fairness.

Leave aside the racist slur from ATF regarding its manufactured race beef. Never mind that the proposed legislation doesn’t harm anyone, or that it gives a path to greater prosperity to those willing to scrimp more now in favor of greater payoffs tomorrow. Those Progressive-Democrats and their Leftist supporters are desperate to hold back some because others can’t keep up. They can’t conceive of—or refuse to consider—ways to help those others do better.

Progressive-Democrats and their Leftist supporters, at bottom, have nothing but contempt for the capabilities of those of us on the middle and lower economic rungs. We average Americans are simply too grindingly stupid to be able to act on our own; we must be “taken care of” by our Betters on the Left.

Priorities

Another fail by the Progressive-Democrat Mayor of New York City Eric Adams.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said with the expiration of Title 42, the Big Apple may be forced to cut public services to prioritize an expected influx of an additional 1,000 migrants arriving every week.

He said it explicitly:

Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on, and the pathway to house thousands more is uncertain[.]

There’s this bit of context, too:

In the past several months, New York City has already received more than 31,000 asylum seekers….

That in a city with a population of 8.8 million residents, of whom, more than 350 thousand already receive public assistance. And Adams seriously thinks the 31 thousand are a serious drain on so large a city with a welfare system so broad.

Adams seriously thinks American citizens should take a back seat to a small collection of illegal aliens.

Why is this mayor prioritizing illegal aliens over his city’s American residents in meting out his city’s finite support resources? Well, he is a Progressive-Democratic Party politician….