Neighborhood Ministries

While Democrats continue to claim the rich have to pay a bigger share, they ignore the basic problem. The problem is their inability to get along with what they have. While federal law requires a balanced budget, they add additional spending after approving the budget so it doesn’t show up in the budget. They spend freely running up the national debt and then raise the debt limit to accommodate it. They claim they will not raise taxes but quietly add new taxes or tax increases into other bills. The increased taxes are mostly directed at businesses, so they will be invisible to the average taxpayer. They feel that since those taxpayers are voters, they need to be kept in the dark. They say the businesses are getting rich and can afford it but those taxes are then passed on to the consumer. In addition, increased taxes decreases profit and discourage expansion and results in businesses cutting back on their labor force and on production of less profitable goods, resulting in the taxes bringing in less than expected. They also need to cut taxes. History has shown that cutting taxes encourages business expansion and usually more than makes up for the tax rate cuts in added sales and additional employees hired.

While some say that is not fair because the rich pay more, they are better able to afford it. There are certain drawbacks to the graduated tax. It does create an incentive to reduce taxable income to stay in a lower tax bracket. If someone earns too much, it will put him in a higher tax bracket at a higher tax rate. How much of that is done is hard to estimate. The problem comes with the deductions. There is no problem with the standard deduction because poor people can’t afford taxes  on what little they get though setting the amount of deduction is tricky. Too much and a lot of people can get out of paying taxes, too little and it makes it hard on the working poor who don’t make enough to live on. The real problem comes with deductions. Our system has become so complex many people need professional tax preparers to fill them out and that is costly. While there is no problem with deductions for necessary expenses, it can be abused by throwing  in all kinds of non-related expenses. Having a party with friends would not qualify if it is not related to the business. There are also incentives to encourage things like charitable giving. Incentives encourage people to put money in certain purchases or activities. A certain amount of giving is assumed though that may not actually take place. Certain types of income are also exempt from taxes. The rich have money to do so while the poor do not. Smart people with money can put money in tax shelters and may pay less than lower income people who can’t afford shelters. Exemptions and deductions seek to balance the tax burden but may make it worse if not properly set up.              While some call for a straight tax, I don’t think they would get much support. .

Democrats say they support a progressive tax which is good. We already have a progressive tax at the federal level, however, many State and city taxes are straight taxes. A straight tax is where everyone is taxed equally. For instance everyone is taxed at 10 %. That seems fair but it puts a heavier burden on the poor. A millionaire can afford ten percent but someone earning just enough to live on can’t afford ten percent, so we have a progressive tax where the higher your income, the higher percentage of tax you pay.  That way the rich carry a heavier part of the burden. That may seem unfair but it puts the burden on those who can best afford it. However, the problems are in the details. Those earning less than needed for a basic living still suffer. As a result, we have a standard deduction for the taxpayer and any dependents to allow a minimum basic income before the taxes begin to exempt those earning below a living wage. That helps them to put all their income into surviving. We have a system where the tax is taken out as it is earned. That is good because there is no allocated tax burden waiting for you at the end of the year, if you lose your job. There are also deductions for work-related expenses for those who are self-employed. An employee gets paid for his work and gets to use all that for what he needs to live on, however someone who is self-employed does not get to keep all he earns. If he buys books for $5.00 each and sells them for $10.00, he can’t keep all that. He must use $5.00 from each book to buy more books to sell. As a result, our tax system allows him to exempt the cost of the books he purchases and other expenses like rent, utilities, and other expenses that are needed to sell the books. That is far since he is only taxed on what he gets to keep.

Democrats say Republicans want to increase the burden on families. Wild Democrat spending is creating runaway inflation, and increased taxes and interest rates are putting a further burden on families and depressing the economy, while the budget cuts and tax cuts instituted by President Trump, curbed rising inflation, eased the burden on families, and stimulated the economy creating jobs, which meant more people working and fewer on government assistance. Many Seniors took advantage of the available jobs under President Trump to take part-time jobs to supplement their Social Security and pad their retirement savings. While Democrats say Republican proposals will weaken the economy, President Trump showed that they will stimulate the economy and expanded it while President Biden has shown how Democrat policies have weakened the economy and shrunk it as more people have gone on government assistance. Social Security and wages from jobs have not kept pace with inflation and many workers  and Senior Citizens are struggling to make ends meet. When it comes to favors for special interest groups, the facts are even more telling. President Obama handed out billions of dollars to special interest groups in order to buy votes. The President is not granted the power to authorize spending outside the budget, allocating funds is the job of Congress. President Trump canceled those spending orders to help balance the budget, but President Biden reinstated them as soon as he took office. If voters are going to vote based on the state of the economy, they need to know the facts. Our media no longer reports the news objectively but has become a propaganda arm of the Democratic party.

Americans say their number one concern going into the election is the state of the economy. Democrats are using the economy to push for votes in the upcoming election but true to form, they are showing little respect for the truth. Brendon Boyle, leading Democrat on the Budget Committee made the following statement to illustrate their goals. He stated that they were going to make Americans aware of the fact that Republicans want to force Americans to work longer for less, raise family costs, weaken our nation, and shrink our economy, all while wasting billions of dollars on more favors to on more favors to special interests and handouts to the ultra-wealthy. That sounds bad but is totally misleading. Yes, Republicans want  people to work longer. Formerly, people worked as long as able and  died shortly after retirement. There were a lot of workers paying into Social Security and few people drawing out of it. It built up a huge surplus which Democrats raided to fund their social programs so the fund now has to depend on income from workers currently working.  Many people now retire at 65 or even at 62 while they are still healthy so they can enjoy their retirement, so Senior Citizens now make up a large and growing part  of our population, but there are fewer and fewer people working, because of the declining birth rate due to abortion and families having fewer children, because an increasing number are on welfare where they can make more than working minimum wage jobs, and because they retire early. As a result, a few people are supporting a growing majority of the population. That is unsustainable. Raising the retirement Many people are healthy and able to work 30 years or more after retiring.  Raising the retirement age a year or two will not be a big burden and will mean thousands of people who will be paying in instead of drawing out. It only makes sense to raise the retirement age if it means those who can no longer work are able to continue getting benefits. Without it, Social Security will run out and nobody will get it. The Democrats say they can do it without raising the retirement age but it is all illusion. They want to raise Social Security taxes further straining family budgets and increase taxes to the rich which will not even cover the added benefits they promise to low income Seniors, let alone extend the duration of Social Security. With Republican changes, seniors won’t face the cuts in benefits threatened if the funds run low, but the Democrat solution will force more cuts sooner, so it is the Democrats that want Seniors to live on less.