What's your opinion of taxation in general?

[Eeezee]

It's a necessary evil. It pays for things that the free market will not take care of.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: JS80
I am bound by the new testament. Please provide gospel scripture that sanctions taxation for wealth redistribution. Thanks. If you can provide it I promise I will renounce by Christian faith.

Okay. In that case, the NT gives the most sweeping blank check to government authority of any religious text I know of.

Romans 13:1-7

1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.
4 For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.
6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing.
7 Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

This passage sanctions taxation for ANY purpose that governing authority dictates. And as Paul wrote this book to the Romans in c. 59 AD, the ruler he was referring to was Nero, arguably one of the cruelest who ever lived.

So, uh... what religion are going to be converting to? I recommend Islam

 

[ch33kym0use]

Rich are getting too many tax cuts and tax breaks. That is no guarantee that it will trickle down to you.

 

[HendrixFan]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: ironwing
The heavy lifting on containing spending was done by the Democrats before the Reps took over the Congress. After Newt took over, we had stalemate and stupidity. It takes a fool to think Clinton was a socialist.

Totally false.

Clinton had no plans to balance the budget prior to the Republican take over of congress.
Look at his first two budgets. Both contained $200 billion deficits for eternity.

It was not until the Republican take over in 95 that Clinton and congress made the deal that balanced the budget.

When Clinton took office in 93, the previous twelve years of trickle down economics had run large deficits both during economic boom and bust periods. In 93 the annual interest payments on the national debt were the third largest items after defense and social security. Between the large budget deficit and the trade deficit, in order to finance spending and attract that kind of capital without loss in value of the dollar, interest rates had to be high. Those high interest rates worked out to be an indirect tax on people with mortgages, car payments and credit card debt.

His plan was to work the deficit down, which would create new jobs by bringing down interest rates since the government wouldn't be competing with the private sector for borrowing money. The target was to cut the deficit in half in four years. The fear was that the cuts, though good long term, would cause a short term slowdown, so he tied in a small short term targeted spending package along with business tax cuts.

By the time the Republican Congress took over in early 95, Clinton's plan was to balance the budget in ten years. The Republicans proposed to do it in seven years, with large spending cuts in education, health care and environment. Clinton did not want to plan to balance it faster because the contractionary impact, if too large, could risk slowing economic growth. In November the government shut down because both sides, though agreeing on a long term balanced budget outlook, disagreed on where the cuts would come from to pay for that balanced budget. At the time a USA Today/CNN poll suggested Americans by wide margins have soured on the Republican agenda, with 60 percent saying he [Clinton] should veto the budget bill and 33 percent saying he should sign it. Despite the public support the Republicans held strong and kept it a stalemate.

By Clinton's re-election in 96 the budget fight lasted all of 95, caused a shutdown by the end of that year, and for nearly six months dragged on through the first half of 96. It would be misleading to say that the stalemate was responsible for the economy, certainly not for the entire four years he had been in office. During that time, there were 11 million new jobs and the lowest combined unemployment and inflation in 28 years. If you want to say those things happened just because Clinton sat there, go ahead. But it would be impossible to declare that those things happened because of the Republicans. Their first year and a half as the controlling Congress resulted in a stalemate and did not get their economic policies pushed through.

As growth continued to increase, Clinton introduced in 97 a balanced budget within five years. The economic growth took unemployment under 5 percent, boosting payrolls, profits and most importantly, tax revenues. Because the growth was so staggering over the previous four years, the deficit had shrunk from $300 billion plus to a little over $70 billion in five years. Far better than Clinton had planned.

You act as if the significant economic expansion and balanced budgets happened during Republican control of the budget. The majority was already done by the time the Republicans got their first budget passed, and that budget was a compromise since the American people (maybe out of sheer chance) sided with Clinton during the shutdown.

I will give the Republicans alot of credit for the welfare reform passed in 97, it was bipartisan with 70 percent support in both houses. During Clinton's presidency, welfare rolls dropped from 14.1 million to 5.8 million.

I posted this exact message in a response to you months ago, and you disappeared from the thread. I am more than ready to dig out more information if you need.

 

[Dufusyte]

Total government tax should be 10%. This includes all taxes for everything (State, Federal, Sales, Property, Etc). It should all add up to 10% of your production.

This is the tax rate specified by God in the law He gave to Moses. Nowadays many people interpret this 10% as a religious tax (tithing). But the truth is, the 10% was a government tax which funded all government operations: military, civic, religious, etc. The people gave 10% of their produce to Moses, and he ran the nation with it.

There you have it: God says taxes should be 10% in total.