POLITICAL: Address “taxes” as the first priority

Friday, November 15, 2024

https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2024/11/14/trumps-chance-to-change-taxation-n2647729

Trump’s Chance to Change Taxation
Cal Thomas | Nov 14, 2024

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If any constitutional amendment can be hated, it would be the 16th Amendment.

Passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified by the states in 1913, it allowed Congress to “levy income taxes without apportioning them among the states based on population.” At first the collection of revenue came from the very wealthy and in a small percentage, but World Wars I and II put the country in debt and Congress, using the power given to it by the 16th Amendment, began spreading the burden around until we arrived at our present moment when half the country and corporations are paying taxes (when state, local and other taxes are included, that amounts to more than half their income in states like California and New York). Half the people pay little or no federal income tax at all.

*** and ***

Younger workers would have freedom of choice (a phrase Democrats like when it comes to abortion, but oppose if it involves schools and the stock market). Workers could choose a new retirement system Forbes called Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs).

Under his calculation, in 1999, younger workers could deposit 4 percentage points of their Social Security taxes into their own PRAs and increased their contributions as follows:

  • In 2003 – 5 percentage points.
  • In 2004 – 6 percentage points.
  • In 2005 – 7 percentage points.
  • In 2006 – 8 percentage points.

Forbes wrote that if his idea had been adopted, a single working mother who was 25 in 2000 and retires in 2040 could have earned a nest egg of $1.2 million in her PRA. She could then purchase an annuity that pays her$100,000 annually, nearly twice as much as she would receive under Social Security. A high school graduate who was 18 in 2000, Forbes wrote, and retires in 2040, would have a nest egg of $2 million.

Among the reasons Democrats have refused to reform Social Security and Medicare, both of which are projected to become insolvent in the 2030s without reforms, is politics. If they solve the problem, they lose the issue.

*** end quote ***

Let’s do both:

(1) Repeal the 16th Amendment and substitute tariffs.  (The Taxpayer pays for either.  But it changes the incentives.)

(2) Let “We, The Sheeple” put a small portion of their Social Security taxes  into the proposed Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) and allow a tax free rollover to an annuity at any future date,

This way we’ll get the best of both suggestions.

And, let’s enact the Flat Tax while we are repealing the 16th.

Then, we can repeal the 17th too.

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INSPIRATIONAL: You can feel the emotions in this writing

Friday, November 15, 2024

https://daringfireball.net/2024/11/how_it_went

How It Went
By John Gruber
Friday, 8 November 2024

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My mom died at the end of June this year.

I know, and I’m sorry — that’s a hell of a way to open a piece ostensibly about a depressing, worrisome, frightening election result. But here’s the thing I want to emphasize right up front: my mom’s death was OK. It really was. She was 78, which isn’t that old, but her health had not been great. She was hospitalized for several days in May, just a month prior, after she had collapsed at home, too weak to stand, and for days it wasn’t clear what was wrong. Then some more test results came back and we had the answer. She had ovarian cancer, bad. It had already metastasized. The prognosis was grim: months to live, at best. And those months, toward the end, would inexorably grow ever more painful and profoundly sad.

*** and ***

So, when my dad called me Tuesday morning, I thought it would be the election on his mind. It was all that was on my mind, that’s for sure. He had, in fact, just come back from voting, but it was something else. His voice was chipper, upbeat, but I could tell it wasn’t a good story. I know him too well.

Turns out, he had gone out to eat, by himself, Monday evening. In fact, at the very same restaurant where he and my mom ate their last meal together. He ate, drove home, and once home went to wash his hands before going to bed. That’s when he noticed his wedding band was missing from his finger.

It was lost.

He looked around to no avail, and went to bed without it. In the morning light, he retraced his steps. He felt certain he had it on while at the restaurant — not because he took any note of it while dining, but because he knows he’d have noticed its absence. If you wear a ring every day on the same finger, you know how true that is. He almost never took that ring off.

At some point when I was a little kid, my dad told me he had never once removed his ring since my mom put it on his finger at their wedding, the year before I was born. 

*** and ***

I told my wife about my dad’s ring and she almost burst into tears. She loves him so much. “He just lost your mom”, she said.

*** end quote ***

Maybe I’ve just had too much emotion this week.  A lot of deaths since last Thanksgiving, a lot of deaths of people near me, a lot of deaths of celebrities I “knew” as a child, and even deaths of fellow alumni I never knew.  Sigh!

In recounting the death of the author’s Mom, I could feel again the pain that it brings. Sadness can be overwhelming.

Not sure what lesson to take away from this.  

But one can NOT wallow in self-pity.  It happens to everyone everywhere in every age.

“My love, were it in my power, I would sadly grant thee this boon. But, we have to continue to follow His Plan for us. Let’s go forth and speak no more of this. Who ever is last will be last. It will be His choice; not ours. We’re but humble custodians of His temple on earth. It’s not our place to trump His plan. Whatever that plan be, know that I will be with you to my last breath.” — character “John” in CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 2 Page 399

That’s all I can say now. “Who ever is last will be last.”

—30—

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