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Thursday, November 15, 2012

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larry kurtz

"A marijuana-legalization initiative on the November ballot could raise at least $560 million a year in new taxes — well more than double what the Initiative 502 campaign itself had predicted."

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2017810760_marijuana22m.html

http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/

Donald Pay

The guy who hallucinated that graph? Bush economic advisor. Ahhhh!...Ahhhh!....Haaaaa!.....Ahhhhh!....Haaaaa! Kenny Boy, you're killing me!

Donald Pay

We have a revenue problem and a war problem, not a domestic discretionary spending problem. We also have an economy that's growing, but weak. Too much austerity right now is not the way to go.

Ending the Bush tax cuts for people making over $250,000 would get us about 0.5% GDP, which is a start on closing the 6% GDP deficit. But it is just a start. When the economy improves, moving the top rate to 45% and moving the rates up progressively should be a priority. People need to pay for the government we need, not foist it off as debt for our children to pay. However, part of doing that requires jobs, and the real job creators (the middle class) should receive a tax cut until the economy is on a steady footing.

But I agree more has to be done. Closing loopholes in the tax code would yield another 0.5% GDP. We could tax accumulated wealth above $5.0 million would get us 1% GDP. If we tighten rules on foreign income and other loopholes in the corporate code we could get another 1% GDP. Taxing fossil fuels would get another 1% GDP. Tax financial transactions to get another 1-2% GDP. There's always tax evasion to crack down on, which could garner 0.5-1% GDP. Remove the cap on FICA taxes, too. Obviously all this can't be done all at once, but we need to get serious about balancing spending and revenue.

On the spending side, health care reform should save 1.0% GDP. Ending the wars yields 1% GDP, and reforming military procurement will get us 1.5% GDP in savings.

Bill Fleming

http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/112012-634082-federal-deficit-falling-fastest-since-world-war-ii.htm

Just FYI, KB.

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