Wednesday, November 17, 2010

On Bowles-Simpson

The news media (at those outlets I read regularly) missed the lead on the Bowles-Simpson proposal for deficeit reduction. the real shock of the proposal was calling for a target of 21% of GDP for tax reciepts. To get to 21% would mean a sharp increase in taxes, since we are currently at 14.8% (the lowest since 1950). If, however, we let all the Bush tax cuts expire, we would get close to that 21% without having to do anything else.

6 comments:

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pcqpig said...
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anna said...
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Anonymous said...

Do you ever not delete comments on your blog?

Charles Hawkins said...

To Anonymous, when they are not solicitations, spam, or inappropriate, I leave comments on the blog. But, I do delete spam, etc. Normally, I also ignore "Anonymous"--but not always. :-)

Rebecca Mills said...

Being a complete dunce when it comes to anything relating to finance, do you mean that personal income tax would have to rise to 21%? Here in the UK, we pay 20% VAT (similar to Sales Tax) and about 20% deducted from our income (a combination of income tax and National Insurance payments [to pay for our National Health Service]). I remember what it was like living through the last financial flop in this country during the 1980's - before I was paying for my own house - and it was hard enough then. It is even harder now. Not only do we NOT gain any benefit from any savings we may have scrimped to acquire, but the cost is living has risen over the last 12 months to its highest levels since the 80s. Personally I lost almost one third of my income 2 years ago and I am now struggling seriously. It is so unfortunate that this 'global' finance fiasco has hit the lower middle income-ers and below so hard.

What I find astounding is that those people who are the 'long term' unemployed are still buying their cigarettes, high-end white goods and upgrading their cars. How do they manage it?

I'm not moaning at you, just seeking clarification and taking the opportunity to pass on information.

Regards

Rebecca
(www.perkyandupbeatnot.blogspot.com)