Anyone watching the debates?

[Kasz216]

mrstickball said:

Kasz216 said:
I would like to see Herman Cain win, if only because I'm not sure any of the Republican candidates are appealing enough to beat Obama, even as poor a job as everyone thinks he's done.

I'd be REALLY interested to see how the media covers him in a full election, if their would be any racism directed towards him or if there would be any racism directed towards Obama as people push for a "real black president."

And if he did win... it'd be better then the other republican candidates if only because we won't have to listen to 1000 more op eds about how racism was why Obama's numbers have dropped so poorly and that's why he isn't getting a second term... and that it has nothing to do that he was basically Bush part II on everything important and that if anything the opposite is probably true, he'll survive because of black voting that wouldn't be as numerous for a white candidate.

The 9-9-9 plan sounds a bit bothersome, but I don't actually see it passing.

Actually, the more and more I read it, its pretty freakin' amazing. Its not perfect, but its vastly better than what we have now. Flat tax, sales tax, and business flat tax with very, very few deductions. It gets rid of multiple taxes in the process such as capital gains, death tax, FICA, and other payroll taxes.

Why 9-9-9 though?  It doesn't really make any sense other then the fact that it sounds better then another split.

The current Effective US corporate Tax rate is 27.7%

Versus a europeon average of 22.6% and a world wide average of 19.5%

http://www.scribd.com/doc/52966788/Effective-Tax-Rate-Study

Even trying to lure companies to relocate here due to tax rate, something like 16% should be more then satisfactory.   Heck even 20 would well put us on more then even ground with other countries.   9% just seems pointlessly low.

As it is, the current 27.7% brings in about 12% of our revenue, and 9-9-9 is supposed to bring in the same amount of money. 

Meaning the coproate tax would only bring in ~4% under the new plan.

 

Now a 9% Income tax.... that's inline with what the effective tax rate for a person in the lowest quintile was in the 80's and early 90's.  Interesting actually, if you look at the effective tax rates now vs 1992, every group has seen MASSIVE tax cuts EXCEPT the highest quintile, though anyway...

The average effective Income tax in 2006 was 14.4%

http://www.cbo.gov/publications/collections/tax/2009/effective_rates.pdf

Now Income tax makes up about 45% or our revenue.  Meaning it's now 28%.

So when it comes to revenue we're counting on Sales tax to bring in 68% of the federal budget.

Seems like way too much to me and that it would lead the government to focus even harder on stimulating consumption.