Economic Education

Alright - here is that site I mentioned in the previous post ... it is for the Fox News Business Taxpayer Calculator ....

you put in your income .... example $50,000/yr

the calculator breaks it down for you - at least for TARP ...

based on where it falls within the following groupings (since our tax system is grouped):

Income _____ %age paid
Under $13K _____0.2%
13K - 29.9K _____1.8%
30K - 49.9K _-___5.5%
50K - 99.9K _++_18.1%
100K - 199.9K __22.7%
200K - 249.9K__ 5.5%
over 250K _____ 46%

It further goes on to break things down to the actual dollar amount that you will end up paying -- in this cast $478.39 -- for your "share" of TARP or whatever program you are looking at.

Doesn't sound like too much huh? well if that is only 18% of what you are paying ....

There are other programs which get chunked together .... such as

Social Welfare (cost = $647 Billion) = 70 different Programs, here's just a few:

• 276.38 Billion = Medicaid grants to states
• 72. 48 Billion = Food Stamp program & Admin
• 59.93 Billion = SSI (Supplemental Security Income)
• 49.64 Billion = EITC payments (Earned Income Tax Credits)
• 35.78 Billion = Housing Vouchers & Public Housing
• 30.96 Billion = Homeowner Aid in Stimulus/TARP (but separate from TARP itself)
• 23.35 Billion = Child Credit Payments
• 20.47 Billion = "Making Work Pay" credit/Recovery Act
• 17.75 Billion = TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
• 17.30 Billion = Child Nutrition Programs
• 9.10 Billion = S-CHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Fund)
• 7.70 Billion = WIC (Women, Infants, Children)
• 6.31 Billion = Child Care Programs
• 4.99 Billion = LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program)
• 4.71 Billion = Child Support Enforcement & Family Support Programs
• 2.24 Billion = Home Investment Partnerships Program
• 1.87 Billion = Homeless Assistance Grants
• Housing for Elderly & Disabled

etc, etc, etc.

Okay - so just for this chunk of change (Social Welfare programs listed) if you earn:

less than 15,000 = $27/yr

15k - 29.9K = $302.94/yr

30 - 49.9K = $1056.06/yr

50 - 99.9K = 2841.86/yr

100 - 199.9K = 7,997.24/yr

200 - 249.9K = 17,886.12/yr

250K or more = 79,263.94/yr

WOW - what the jump huh? And this is just for ONE aspect of the tax we pay.
middle income earner = $2, 800/yr

So where do you fall?

So someone tell me -- what is the incentive to better your income? And being that the higher income pays for the majority of the programs, wouldn't it behoove the government to keep them in situations where they can actually pay for things?

This is where a flat tax would work best -- everyone just pay 10% of their income .... or pay a national sales tax of 20% on everything BUT food/clothing/school supplies.

BTW, if we went with a sales tax ... therre would be no need for the IRS because there would be no need for tax refunds ... its just a better way.