Why does everyone keep acting like ending corporate welfare/loopholes is a tax increase?

therightwinger

Because it effectively is. If you have to pay $50 in taxes that you didn’t have to pay before because of “loopholes”, your taxes have increased, even though the rate may still be the same.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21343

After all, they are so flush with cash that they can afford to indulge favorite political candidates with enormous sums of cash besides simply running the union.

Prior to the meeting, Republicans sent seemingly mixed signals about whether they would be open to “revenue increases” — a term all too often used as a euphemism for tax hikes.

Do they really think their voting base is as stupid as your typical leftist? Do they really think their voters are nothing but a bunch of Ernestos?

Cut expenditures. Pay the overdue bills, forget about that nifty new gizmo. Fire a few thousand unnecessary and grossly overpaid Federal employees, starting with the high-profile weasels like Eric “Who, Me?” Holder and moving rapidly to the entire Department of Education.

This ain’t rocket science.

It’s as simple as that.
mr.blacksheep on July 7, 2011 at 3:36 PM

Tax deductions and credits don’t affect the marginal tax rate–they just redistribute wealth.
Also, lowering marginal tax rates only increases revenues under certain conditions, and those conditions can vary over a lot of things. For instance, it is often the case that, not only do you increase tax revenue by increasing the tax revenue on the poor, but you increase their output as well, because they work just hard enough to meet set obligations. Clearly lowering a tax rate from a finite amount to nothing lowers revenue.

So, if we have a revenue problem, not a perceived fairness problem, we should look at actions that will increase government revenue. Increasing the effective tax rate (e.g. by closing “loopholes”) will, at this current time, do no such thing. Get over the idea that it will. It won’t. The only way to increase government revenue is to reduce the cost of doing business in America, which means rolling back government intrusion in the form of regulations and taxes.

It’s as simple as that.

Drilling permits for the Gulf, ANWAR and California would also be helpful. Mining permits too.

rbj on July 7, 2011 at 2:49 PM

And ROYALTY payments for all the extracted mineral wealth on public lands including coal as well as natural gas, oil and hard rock metals. Royalties for timber in wilderness areas too. Not to mention tax revenues for the profits and wages coming from all this activity. Let’s mine private sector free market enterprise! Now that’s the ticket. (No Sarc here, this is what we should have done long ago.)

Two can play the word games. Lowering taxes like income tax and capital gains taxes will spur the economy and result in higher revenues. We should be therefore be selling tax cuts as ‘investments’.

slickwillie2001 on July 7, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Yep! It’s time for the government to invest in our future.

Two can play the word games. Lowering taxes like income tax and capital gains taxes will spur the economy and result in higher revenues. We should be therefore be selling tax cuts as ‘investments’.

slickwillie2001 on July 7, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Ah yes, but in our case it would be the truth, and the Democratic National Socialist Progressives can’t handle the truth!

Because “corporate welfare/loopholes” is mostly a leftist fantasy…

Count to 10 on July 7, 2011 at 2:55 PM

If you really want to see a panic on the left, let’s discuss a tax on Family Trusts, which the ultra-wealthy use to evade taxes. Maybe also a tax on college endowment funds.

Why does everyone keep acting like ending corporate welfare/loopholes is a tax increase?
therightwinger on July 7, 2011 at 2:43 PM

Because “corporate welfare/loopholes” is mostly a leftist fantasy. We shouldn’t even have a corporate profit tax to begin with. Get rid of that tax, and poof, no more “corporate welfare”. The reason that there is a special tax rate for dividends is that they are effectively double taxed. Get rid of the profit tax, and we can make dividends part of regular income.

Count to 10 on July 7, 2011 at 2:55 PM

Not to mention that when you have the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the G20, are one of only a handful of countries to tax overseas profits, you create an environment where you have to give breaks to keep companies here. One of the symptoms of that is lobbying, special breaks for friends, etc.

Just end corporate taxation, prices go down, people can get paid more, and corporations and their lobbies will stop spending billions to cajole lawmakers for special breaks. You get rid of a lot of corruption, increase the money in circulation and revive the economy in one fell swoop.

Will never happen, because our corporate tax structure is designed purely to force corporations to buy favor so the critters can get campaign money and jobs after they are voted out.

Just what will inspire them to work for a living when the gubmint steals 90% of their income to pay for the slackers who infest our society?
fogw on July 7, 2011 at 2:53 PM

Watching other people who refuse to work being carted off to a reeducation camp?

Bishop on July 7, 2011 at 2:57 PM

LOL, in ‘gallows humor’ sort of way. ;)

Why does everyone keep acting like ending corporate welfare/loopholes is a tax increase?

therightwinger on July 7, 2011 at 2:43 PM

Where do you think the money to pay the taxes will come from?

Wade on July 7, 2011 at 2:48 PM

Does everyone understand that the Democrats one and only grand idea is to redistribute (the people’s) wealth?

They have a cottage industry coming up with different ways of expressing it, but it’s just the dumb warmed over idea.

We could start a list:

Ending corporate welfare/loopholes – Tax increases.

Raising Revenues – Tax increases.

Enhancing Revenues – Tax increases.

Spreading the Wealth around – Tax increases.

Make the rich pay their fair share – Tax increases.

Shared Sacrifice (notice the Democrats seem strangely absent from the sacrifice part of the equation) – Tax increases.

Get ready for fancy words for Taxes like “Fees” or “raising Revenues”.

It’s verbal gymnastics time folks.

Read my lips. No New Raising of Revenue”.

portlandon on July 7, 2011 at 2:45 PM

Two can play the word games. Lowering taxes like income tax and capital gains taxes will spur the economy and result in higher revenues. We should be therefore be selling tax cuts as ‘investments’.

Just what will inspire them to work for a living when the gubmint steals 90% of their income to pay for the slackers who infest our society?
fogw on July 7, 2011 at 2:53 PM

Watching other people who refuse to work being carted off to a reeducation camp?