Category Archives: Politics

Economics, Politics

A little tax

I wonder  that would be the effect on quick-time stock sales if there was a transaction tax on each stock sale equal to $1/number of seconds the security has been held. If you hold a stock for 1 second it is a $1 tax. If you hold a stock for 1/100000 of a second it is a $100,000 tax. If you hold a stock for 10 seconds it is a dime tax.

This would be a per stock tax with the proceeds going to the SEC for enforcement.

Economics, General, Politics

ruminating ideas

Some different ideas are kicking around and I need to get them down to develop in more detail.

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Have the individual states issue licenses for firearms. Basically, everyone/anyone can get a license. The states can set some minimal requirements such as training on safe firearm usage from a recognized trainer, such as military, police, scouting, gun club, etc. The licenses can be done in classes, such as shotgun, rifle, handgun, automatic, etc. much as DMV will give motorcycle, standard, chauffeur, and the different weight class truck driving licenses. Licenses may be revoked for felony convictions, judicial orders and similar situations.

In order to buy a firearm, you just have to show a license that supports that class of firearm. The seller can do a quick check to see that the license hasn’t been revoked and away you go.  And you have to show the license to buy the ammunition for that class of firearm.

This all goes back to the well-regulated militia phrase of the Second Amendment. Let the states decree that all firearm license holders are members of the militia and let them regulate as they see fit.

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20% across the board tax on all income directed to the Social Security and Medicare.  If you have a job, the 20% is collected as a payroll tax. If you are collecting non-wage income, like dividends, rents, royalties, etc, the 20% can be deducted by the dispenser. No matter what your income level, you pay the 20%. What you get for that is a retirement plan and healthcare. Social Security and Medicare go off-budget at the Federal level. Congress can maintain oversight of the Trust Funds running these systems, but that is about it.

States, private companies and insurance companies can get out of the basic healthcare business.  Every citizen gets access to basic healthcare. Employers can match the payroll tax.

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After the initial 20% tax on all income, there will be a Personal Income deduction per household equal to the median household, currently ~$50K. I am also tempted to adjust this to the Median Household Income for the Metropolitan Statistical Area you reside in.  Need to look at that in more depth. Single member households may use the 4-member household Poverty Level for their MSA .

The main idea here is to give everyone a large deductible. No itemizing. If you want to give to charities, buy houses, pay mortgages, go to school, go for it. There is no tax advantage or incentive either way.

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As far as our debt and deficit is concerned, Congress shall be mandated to collect revenues to cover their budget. In addition, Congress will include paying back 5% of the deficit each year as part of the budget. We can give Congress some wiggle-room such as the 5% doesn’t need to be included under certain economic conditions, such as the ones we are currently under. Also, in the event of a natural disaster that wasn’t originally budgeted, the 5% deficit payback can be diverted to cover those costs.  If Congress and the President declare a national emergency, then all restrictions are off.

In order for Congress to meet their revenue mandate, they must set a tax rate on all incomes above the deductible that will collect the desired revenue for that year.

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1 Representative per 100,000 citizens.

6 Senators per State. Senatorial elections will continue by the classes as they are now, but the three top vote-getters in each election will each  become a Senator.

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No one elected to Congress may serve consecutive terms in the same office.

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Any compensation paid to individuals in excess of the salary of the President shall be counted as Corporate profit

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Make the corporate tax rate something like 20% which must paid, at a minimum, on the profits reported to shareholders. – No deductions, no incentives, no corporate welfare

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$1 tax on each transaction that hold a share for less than 60 seconds. Taxes raised this way go to an SEC trust fund to prosecute the people gaming the system.

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Bank, or any Corporate, Executives go to jail when their bank, or company, breaks the law or agrees to settlement without admitting guilt.

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Politics

WWRD?

How has Romney run his successful businesses in the past?

First he looks around for a company that isn’t producing as well as it should with the assets it has.

He then acquires the company at a reduced rate, since the company isn’t producing as well as it could. He goes to cronies to borrow the money needed to make the purchase, using the assets of the company being acquired to guarantee the loans. The cronies may slice and dice the secured loans and resell them to other investors.

Then he brings in his crack Management Team to revamp the operations to use those precious assets to the best of their potential. Quite often the company employees are not considered part of the assets and will be made redundant while the work they do is outsourced to low-cost contractors. Said contractors may be off-shore so the jobs are no longer in the US.

Facilities, now empty,  may provide some excellent real estate opportunities. Sub-divisions can be sold off, reducing overhead.  Pension funds are other assets that can be better used elsewhere.  All the while, the Management Team is racking up their consulting fees.

And in the end, Romney may have made the company a leaner producer and can sell it to the public, keeping the original loans on the companies books to be repaid over time. What he gets for selling it is the additional profit, over the management fees, that goes to his pockets. If he can’t sell it because the company is too lean and can’t exist with the remaining assets then he and his team can bail out without a loss (all the loans are on the company’s books) and leave the company to resolve its debts through bankruptcy and leaving the secondary loan investors to collect their loan repayments from the courts, if they can.

Then he turns his attention to the United States.  We certainly have a lot of idle or under-performing assets: National Parks, National Forests, Public Lands, Military Reservations, an Air Force, a Navy, an Army, a Coast Guard, lots of Government Buildings, a large Pension Fund. He has something to work with.

Economics, Politics

A Simple Solution?

How to save Social Security, Medicare, get rid of the deficit, reduce the debt, and save the state’s budgets in one fell swoop.

First extend Medicare to all citizens and incorporate Medicaid into Medicare, taking it off the backs of the states. Basically, go to single payer health care.

Then take Social Security and Medicare off budget. Congress doesn’t even have  a chance at the monies in these trust funds.

Enable a 20% payroll tax that is directed to SS and Medicare. Employer matching as well. For people receiving income without a paycheck, or over and above a paycheck, they would pay a flat 20% tax to the combined trust funds.

The US income is ~$14T. Medical expenses run ~$2T. So that 20% payroll/income tax should cover the all medical expenses and the remainder goes into Social Security.  The citizen is receiving a retirement fund safety net and basic health care for life.

This takes States and Employers off the hook for providing health care services to their citizens and employees, removing a big drag on their budgets.

For the remainder, Congress passes a budget for the year and must pay for that budget with revenue. It must authorize collecting enough revenue to pay for that budget, keeping SS and Medicare off the table.  And unless there is a declared economic emergency, the budget will include paying 5% of the principal of the outstanding national debt.

The base of the taxpayers are already paying 20% of their income to the trust funds, so I suggest that for citizens making more than the median household income or $75K or some amount that won’t crush the lower-income household, that they pay enough income taxes to cover the budget. Congress can determine if it a flat tax or a sliding scale tax. Either way deficit spending ends and the debt starts to come down.

Or we can leave the national debt part out of the previous equation and say that all corporate taxes collected go to pay down the debt, but then it will never go away.

(I just did a quick check and if we pay off the debt at 5% per year, in 60 years it will be @ 5% of the of the current debt. )

Economics, Politics

The Big Truth

What caused the financial crisis? The Big Lie goes viral – The Washington Post.

…they relied on the credit ratings agencies — Moody’s, S&P and Fitch. They had placed an AAA rating on these junk securities, claiming they were as safe as U.S. Treasurys.

After this display of incompetence, why is anyone paying attention to these agencies anymore? Who cares how they rate the US or Europe financially? They don’t know what they are doing.