9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

[World Traveler]

From Market Watch, by Paul B. Farrell

An excellent article. Now that the s**t has hit the fan, more articles in mainstream publications are becoming refreshingly frank, honest, and a little angry.

Read the article for the details (link below). A few details:

Reason 1 is the Iraq War, which Bush Administration has financed by borrowing from increasingly restive overseas creditors and whose reals costs have been hidden by Enron-style accounting tricks - allocate war costs across multiple agencies outside the Pentagon, so true costs are had to figure out and add up. "The real cost ... it's already $3 trillion..."

"Washington's hiding all that from us. We were sold a war-on-the-cheap, to cost a mere $50 billion to $60 billion, to be self-financed out of oil revenues. Today we're spending $50 billion every month! This war is already an economic disaster for America and the bill's still coming due."

Reasons 2. and 3. are America's New Wall Street Welfare Program and The Fed's Nationalizing America's Financial Industry. Most of you are already familiar with these details, but what he says is still worth a read. He summarizes, "The Fed's dealing with America like a third-world banana republic, effectively nationalizing our financial industry!"

Reason number 6. is White House's Free Market Nonaction Policies. Another great quote:
" "We're on top of it," said the President in his St. Patrick's Day speech at the New York Economics Club, as if the credit meltdown had little effect on the economy. The Treasury secretary even got a Katrina-style "great job, Hank" for working one whole weekend to magically fix the crisis."

Farrell also advises us to read an article in Newsweek:
"Read "Mismanagement 101," Dan Gross's Newsweek column: "As oil hovered near $100 a barrel, President Bush complained to OPEC about high oil prices. OPEC president Chakib Khelil responded acidly that crude's remarkable run had nothing to do with the reluctance of Persian Gulf nations to pump oil, and everything to do with the 'mismanagement of the U.S. economy.'" And our heavy reliance on borrowing keeps making it even more difficult for the next president."

http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/artic...s-Are-Going-Up

[jdv]

Re: 9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

In 2004, there were 131 million tax returns filed
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/542.html

3 trillion in war cost divided across 131 million taxpayers = $22,900 per family.

How many hawks do you think that are really willing to write that personal check rather than charge it to my grandkids?

[metalman]

Re: 9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

In 2004, there were 131 million tax returns filed
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/542.html

3 trillion in war cost divided across 131 million taxpayers = $22,900 per family.

How many hawks do you think that are really willing to write that personal check rather than charge it to my grandkids?

grandkids... i don't think we're going to get to put it off on them. look for higher taxes and interest rates next year.

[Finster]

Re: 9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

grandkids... i don't think we're going to get to put it off on them. look for higher taxes and interest rates next year.

Great point, Metal. It's a common misconception that deficits simply borrow from future generations. They do threaten their well-being, all right, but a lot of the cost is borne in the here and now. Whatever the government spends is always paid in taxes, if you include the inflation tax. That is, you may not cut a check directly to the IRS, but pay for the government's programs every time you pull up to the gas pump, check out at the grocery store, or pay your utility bill.

[FRED]

Re: 9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

Great point, Metal. It's a common misconception that deficits simply borrow from future generations. They do threaten their well-being, all right, but a lot of the cost is borne in the here and now. Whatever the government spends is always paid in taxes, if you include the inflation tax. That is, you may not cut a check directly to the IRS, but pay for the government's programs every time you pull up to the gas pump, check out at the grocery store, or pay your utility bill.

Since raising taxes is politically difficult, we might want to think about all the other ways besides the inflation tax that revenues will be raised in the future. The iTulip official position is that we are going to see fees added and raised on everything. If a road is privatized and a fee charged for its use, is that not an added tax?

Where else are we likely to see increased taxes disguised as fees in the future?

[pescamaaan]

Re: 9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

does anyone have any sense as to how much of the war costs are recycled back into the US economy?

first, my position - i don't think we should be there.

BUT, of the half trillion that has been speculated to have been spent on the war, how much a)goes to troop pay b)goes to US defense contractors that build the planes, ships, humvees, uniforms, boots etc c)other govt contracts that provide services like dining halls etc...


vs

how much has been spent that went directly into rebuilding Iraq (but again, if Bechtel Parsons was contracted to build roads and schools in iraq, some of that must surely come back to the US.)

i guess what i am saying is that although the bush administration has squandered hundreds of billions in iraq, we can't blindly say that all that $$ vanished into a black hole. Much of it surely subsidized a lot of american companies.

that said, i'm sure the accounting of where all this money went is poor to non-existent so we may never know the answer.


Getting back to the original topic, yes, taxes will need to be increased to pay off this debt since essentially what happened here is that a huge transfer has taken place from the taxpayers to any and all businesses associated with the war effort.

don't underestimate the industrial-military complex. conflict is profitable.

[hoodoo]

Re: 9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

By direct appeal.

The California school system is going to take a whopping punch in the chops which will see my boys elementary class size potentially rise from 20 to over 40. Mind you - this is for a school district in Orange County where all the rich folk live...

Anyway, we've been approached in the first round of a fund raising campaign that is trying to raise $7M between now and June to prevent class size explosion if the Gov can't be convinced to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Yeah, I know that it's not manditory to make a donation (pay this tax), but it's also pretty hard to say no when you know how bad things might be.

Hoo

[Chris]

Re: 9 Reasons Your Taxes Are Going Up

Since raising taxes is politically difficult, we might want to think about all the other ways besides the inflation tax that revenues will be raised in the future. The iTulip official position is that we are going to see fees added and raised on everything. If a road is privatized and a fee charged for its use, is that not an added tax?

Where else are we likely to see increased taxes disguised as fees in the future?

Customs. I received a package from the US today. The customs charges were almost as much as the items themselves. I'm sure it will be the same (or similar) on your side of the pond.