Today it's about the math...

One of my co-workers is a locked in Romney supporter and I love listening to him.  It's like I get the whole talking points for the GOP.  And he really believes this stuff.  I mean that.  Really.

Me, I'm a skeptic.  So I try to think things through and here's what I think about Mr. Romeny's tax cut proposal.  20% across the board tax cuts.  That's a great catch phrase but here's some basic math.  

I found the tax rates I'm using for this article from Forbes magazine.  I would have just copied them but you know the whole copyright thing.  If you're curious, please take a look because I'm going to use this chart to make a simple argument for the Affordable Care Act at the end of this.

The top income tax rate is 35%, factoring in the bush tax cuts.  Under Mr. Romney, that rate lowers to 28%.  If you're like me, your income tax rate is someplace between 15-25%.  My rate is 25% because I have to file married filing separately, which by the way, is absolutely the worst tax bracket to file in.  I paid $250 more in taxes than a single person would have for my adjusted gross income.

At 15%, your new rate will be 12%  At 25%, your taxes would be lowered to 20%,  That's how an across the board tax cut would work.  The more you pay, the bigger your tax cut.  The people with all the money, gang get a 7% cut in their rates.  You and I are looking at someplace between 3-5%.  

Now remember, Mr. Romney promises us that this thing is gonna be revenue neutral, so deductions have to go. What those are and how they'll be implemented; well, we're supposed to just trust the two guys running for office and, well, Congress, who right now is enjoying a 13% approval rating, and most of the Congress are the ones we keep sending back to Washington.

And as you consider your vote this election season, here's another thing to think about.  We all agree we need to cut government spending, but what we're going to cut is just as important as how much.  OK, we're gonna cut Amtrak and PBS.  That's low hanging fruit.  When you start talking about cutting stuff, we're gonna either have to pony up more for Medicare and Social Security, or we're gonna have to overhaul 'em.  It's math.  Plain and simple. More goes out than goes in, and that's not sustainable under any circumstances.  We spend a lot on these two things, so if we want 'em as is, then we gotta pay for them.  I'm game for that.  

I'm a realist.  I understand where we're at and how we got here.  A tax cut would hurt right now.  My little finances are piano wire tight, but I know that we're in a mess and it's going to call for shared sacrifice and someone to tell us the truth. To this point, I don't think anyone has.

I'm all about reduce the rate, expand the base.  But how do you expand the base without raising taxes on everyone. Here's another piece of math.  47% of Americans don't pay income taxes.  That's not no taxes, just not income taxes.  You can look at it either of two ways.  Either 47% of people don't pay income taxes, (the simplified fact) or 47% of people don't make enough money to pay income tax.  Are we going to broaden the base by raising their taxes? (By the way, I think every family in America ought to pay at least $1 per person in that family in income taxes; shared sacrifice...) but that's no revenue generator.  That puts about $150 million back into the Treasury.  That wouldn't quite pay for PBS but then everyone has skin in the game.  

A 20% tax reduction across the board, as you can see by some simple math, favors the top more than the bottom, but at some point don't you have to stop and ask who can afford what?  I mean that, honestly.  Our tax code is progressive and we punish people all the time.  Look at the link and look at what single people pay vs. married people.  It's because we assume single people can afford to pay more than a family can.  It's not fair, to be sure.  But what about taxes is?  Taxes are inherently punitive by what they are.

And that brings me to the point I'm going to make about healthcare.  Now we're calling the Affordable Care Act a tax (thank you Supreme Court) by punishing you if you don't buy health insurance.  I can live with that because, well, look at the tax chart I linked to.  We punish people all the time via the tax code.  

I really want you to think about this.  At some point, we all have to stop and ask ourselves what we want from our government.  And as you thin about that, and all that cutting the Federal Government boogey man, think about this.  If you cut programs that return money to the states, then you shift the burden to the people in the state.  In Utah, we spend less per pupil for education than just about anybody already.  If you cut the Education Department, then any money from the Feds we lose and have to make up with higher state taxes.  Higher state taxes hurts us more in Utah than it would in Califorina because of the population and the incomes of that population.  

When you start applying math to talking points, the math starts to tell the story.  And the story isn't very pleasant, no matter what side of the coin you're on.