I'd also like to add that why is the funding for the Space Station being cut.

We've spent 100 billion so far on it (which is nothing compared to all other spending) And now they are talking about crashing it into the Ocean in a few years because of lack of money.

But I guess it's ok to give GM billions of our tax money.

Maybe it's because a space station is pretty much useless while cars are the backbone of the US economy.

I swear; they just need to do a complete Reboot of the government.

Kind of like how they rebooted Batman, James Bond, and Star Trek. We should start over and have a new 1st predisent. We can have some retcons, like the constitution and perhaps the amendments; but put ALL the seats up for grabs and put ALL the taxes, programs and budgets up in the air to be re-done competely.

Yeah.  It's why I always say... every 100 years or so the people need to elect some super stringent crazy liberals.

They'd tear everything down in a good two terms, then leave it up to the people and other polticians to build it back up.

You could move to Russia - they have a flat tax rate so far as I know...

^ This is correct, generally speaking many former communist countries do have a flat tax system

On a side note, for those who want a "progressive" tax system I can demonstrate how a flat tax is a "progressive" tax ...

Now, supposing that the average household income level is $100,000 and the average services provided by the government cost and are worth 20,000 per household (for easy calculation) and every household uses an equal portion of government services. With a flat tax system an household making $1,000,000 would end up paing $200,000 (or ten times the cost of services they received) while a household earning $40,000 would only pay $8,000 (or 40% the cost of the services they received).

In most countries it is even more "progressive" being that the lower the income a person earns the greater the value of the services they receive from the government. Suppose that the average household income and average value of the service remains the same as above, but the household making $1,000,000 only receives $10,000 in government services while the household earning $40,000 receives $24,000 in government services. What this means is that the "Rich" household ends up paying 20 times the value in services they receive while the "Poor" household pays 33% the value of services.

To convert this into another context ...

Two old friends go out to eat a mean and the wealthy friend (who is whatching their weight) orders a light salad and takes it easy on the drinks while the poorer friend eats a more expensive meal. The total bill comes to $100 with the poor person's portion having cost $60 with the rich person's portion costing $40. Since the rich person earns 9 times as much as the poor person a flat tax system would suggest that the rich person should pay $90 while the poor person would pay $10. In a classical "progressive" tax system the rich person would pay $120 while the poor person would pocket $20.

I don't feel like getting dragged into this debate at the moment (though I reserve the right to succumb to the urge), but there is one point I want to make:

Flat tax vs. progressive tax is a completely different subject from no loopholes vs. shitloads of loopholes. Saying we ought to junk progressive taxation in favor of flat taxation because of loopholes is just a bad argument.

I agree. Flat tax, no loopholes is what I think we should have.

And for all those who are worried about people not being able to eat with a flat tax system.. if everyone paid taxes, it would do two things...

One is it would mean every bill that needs to be paid for, is paid for by everyone. This means a lot less bills will be passed. Right now, 40% of the US doesn't pay taxes, so what do they care what something costs.

This would reduce the cost of government, thus reducing everyones taxes.

Also, if everyone paid taxes and took home 20% less, then what it cost for the poor to have the same standard of living they have today, would be 20% less. The market adjusts to such things.

Lol