Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
Yes, but you have it backwards in my opinion - Sidd and I have had this debate multiple times. I don't look at spending and then figure out how much we need to tax. I look at the "appropriate" level of tax and figure out how much we have to spend.
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As a broad conceptual statement this doesn't make much sense to me. You set the tax rate at x based on some intrinsic appropriateness, and then fit spending under the functional income limits that that tax rate creates? What if the tax is too small to pay for the programs you want (and despite the dirty liberal word "programs" I do mean the stuff
you want, like the Iraq project, and not the stuff Dems like me want, like free massages for welfare moms)? Are we stuck with deficits until the spending needs decrease on their own?
You seem to stand the notion of taxation on its head. We don't spend because we have to tax; we tax because we have to spend. Aside from that, in the absence of spending data how can you ever justify a tax that is not zer.....oh wait....I think I get you now...
