It's the big picture that matters.

Post #346,488 by Another Scott 8/20/11 11:21:04 AM Reply	It's the big picture that matters. 1) If you believe there is no such thing as a free lunch. 2) If you believe that we need government. 3) If you believe that "to spend is to tax". 4) If you believe that it's more efficient in times of GDP expansion to be close to a balanced budget since interest costs are less. Then a certain amount of money needs to be collected in taxes. If some types of income are not taxed (or are taxed at lower rates), or if some categories of income are excluded or have preferential treatment, then the rest of the tax base must make up the difference. If Congress does not use the same types of procedures to evaluate tax deductions as tax increases, then tax deductions get preferential treatment. All of this, taken together, means that yes Virginia there is "spending in the tax code". Your personal feelings about it don't stand up to scrutiny. You might want to review the "Why I hate your freedom" FAQ mentioned yesterday for more reasons why. Cheers, Scott.
Post #346,498 by beepster 8/20/11 3:56:06 PM Reply	They absolutely stand up to scrutiny If you don't like how income is categorized, then modify the tax code. They are not expenditures or "spending" because the money is never collected. Period. Changes in categorization of income that inreases net tax burdens are tax increases..not reductions in spending. Period. All of the rest of your "points" are irrelevant. Government is necessary. How we fund it is up to us. Number 3 is bs. To Spend is not to tax. Look it up in websters. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #346,523 by Another Scott 8/20/11 9:15:27 PM Reply	I guess you're not a fan of Uncle Milty then? The other one. http://www.salon.com...7/milton_friedman [...] And he did fear the government. He was a conservative of the old, libertarian school, from the days before the scolds had captured the levers of power in the conservative movement. He hated any government intrusion into people's private business. And he interpreted "people's private business" extremely widely. He detested the war on drugs, which he saw as a cruel and destructive breeder of crime and violence. He scorned government licensing of professionals -- especially doctors, who heard over and over again about how their incomes were boosted by restrictions on the number of doctors that made Americans sicker. He abhorred deficit spending -- again, he was a conservative from another era. He feared that cynical politicians could pretend that the costs of government were less than they were by pushing the raising of taxes to pay for spending off into the future. He sought to inoculate citizens against such political games of three-card monte. "Remember," he would say, "to spend is to tax." This did not mean that government had no role to play. He endorsed the enforcement of property rights, adjudication of contract disputes -- the standard and powerful rule-of-law underpinnings of the market -- plus a host of other government interventions when empirical circumstances made them appropriate. Sometime empirical circumstances could win Friedman some unexpected allies. Left-wing Mayor Ken Livingstone's congestion tax on cars in central London is an idea straight out of Milton Friedman. Friedman's negative income tax is one of the parents of what is now America's largest anti-poverty program: the earned-income tax credit, which was greatly expanded by Bill Clinton. And, most important, government had a very powerful and necessary role to play in keeping the monetary system working smoothly through proper control of the money stock. If there was always sufficient liquidity in the economy -- enough but not too much -- then you could trust the market system to do its job. If not, you got the Great Depression, or hyperinflation. [...] Cheers, Scott.
Post #346,529 by beepster 8/21/11 12:15:29 AM Reply	Context. Doesn't change a thing. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #346,530 by Another Scott 8/21/11 12:21:20 AM Reply	Heh.

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