Ending the IRS - where's the money?

[seapilot]

The other answer is, obviously that entitlements will go broke, which again, fine by me ... but not your mother and grandmother, probably.

With 4 months extra income from elimnation of the federal income tax people could use that money to support thier families without having to go through a middle man being paid to redistribute wealth in a big buearcratic government.

 

[peacemonger]

A more accurate way to look at this budget is from the spending side.

If we went back to constitutional spending, we could cut back to about 150-200 bn for defense and maybe another 100 bn for everything else combined.

We could increase some of our excises, tariffs, and user fees. We could probably also tax certain items like gas to pay for highways. In the past the feds have taxed all kinds of stuff marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes, luxury items (like yachts, diamonds, and other stuff). We could make some kind of loser pay plan so that the courts pay for themselves. There are all kinds of innovative ways to get people to fund the government and with the budget reduced by 90% nobody would really mind paying.

It would take a few decades to whittle the budget down to this level, but as soon as people start getting to keep more of their money they will develop a real appetite for less government.

 

[deshman]

ok, let's take a look at this image and discuss. This is only the income tax of 2004. Agreed that Military gets WAY too much, but what about the other things on the right?

http://deshman.com/images/Taxes.jpg

 

[TwiLeXia]

Heh, I asked this question a while ago. Here's a list someone on the board gave me:

The government gets about 40% of its money, or 800$ billion each year, from the income tax. Ron Paul proposes eliminating all 700 foreign military bases, which costs 1,000 billion each year. Even if we cut the income tax right now, we will still earn about the same amount of money as we did in year 2000, because the main reason the government has expanded so much over the past few years is because of George Bush’s ineffective programs and policies (Department of Homeland Security, No Child Left Behind, Patriot Act, Department of Education, Department of Commerce)

Here is where the other 60% of the government money comes from:
1. Sales tax
2. DMV fees
3. Tobacco Tax
4. Corporation Tax
5. Liquor Tax
6. Insurance Tax
7. Highway Users Tax
8. Custom Duties
9. Gas Tax
10. Death tax
11. Fringe Benefits Tax
12. Petroleum Resource Rent Tax
13. PRINTING MONEY!!! (Inflation tax)
14. Lottery tickets
15. Debt Consolidation Loans (The government taxes the poor too...)
16. Hundreds of "pollution" dis-incentives
17. Capital Gains Tax
18. Foreign Loans (I think it's something like 1/10000 of what's loaned to us by Foreigners)
19. Interest on Fed Funds
20. Selling/renting/selling-construction-rights of Government owned land.

 

[azminuteman]

Ok, I got in to a debate at work about abolishing the income tax and was asked where we would get the money needed to run the country. The question is:

What other means of income does the Fed Gov. have besides the income tax? What would happen to the billions for roads and schools? I know that Dr. Paul would end the "Departments" of the Fed Gov which would save billions (trillions), but how do we still generate money for other needs?

Would this be left up to the States to tax and take care of their own?

Ask them why doesn't the government take the road taxes they're supposed to out of the gas tax and fix broken bridges then?

You've got to get them to realize that government spending is outta control and money allocated isn't going where it is supposed to.

 

[scooter]

ok, let's take a look at this image and discuss. This is only the income tax of 2004. Agreed that Military gets WAY too much, but what about the other things on the right?

http://deshman.com/images/Taxes.jpg

Nearly all of the stuff on the right side can be eliminated.

I think it is important to realize that if the federal government is stripped down like Paul wants, that doesn't mean these services go away. It just means they will be handled by the states rather than the federal government. For example, the states already take care of their own roads. Why do they need government money when they should be a better judge of how much money they'll need for their own state projects.

Sure, state taxes and maybe property taxes will have to increase to offset some of the money that gets filtered down from the government, but the idea is that local spending is more in the control of the people and is a lot better managed with less beaurocracy. The government wastes a lot of money that your county or even state would not, thus helping to improve budgets and ultimately save you money.