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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   30112 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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Sounds like we should repeal the Bush tax cuts. Their permanent extension was expected to cost 16T over a decade. That, amortized, would have covered the federal deficit in its entirety every year since it was made permanent (in 2016), with the exception of 2020 and 2021.

See this comment.

I’m not against tax increases, but AFAICT developed countries do not generally fund the government with taxes on high earners- including those which are very willing to tax high earners.

Instead, middle class taxation, debt, and natural resource wealth are the three options for funding a big government. The US doesn’t have enough oil for the petrostate option, so the options are middle class taxation a la the nordics or debt, or massive cuts.

I can oppose personally paying Norway level taxes, even while supporting tax increases at the high end to go with spending cuts.

You're right, I misread my source which includes all revenue drops post the making permanent of the Bush tax cuts (in 2012). So that number is also inclusive of Trump's tax cuts and some similar measures.

I'm not against tax increases, if they go with an automatic death penalty for the entire congress, senate, the president, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (just for good measure) for spending the money on anything other than paying back the public debt.

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