Time to cut entitlement spending

So it’s too hard to cut spending so let’s raise taxes?

 

I was referring to Federal taxes....but this.....

Under American tax law, churches are exempt from having to pay federal, state, and local taxes. ... For purposes of U.S. tax law, churches are considered to be public charities, also known as Section 501(c)(3) organizations. As such, they are generally exempt from federal, state, and local income and property taxes.

But have faith (pun intended), once the Dems gain power over all three branches they will likely do their best to change this....depending on who they can remove from and add to the SCOTUS.

Once they have this power, they will be free to use the entire force of the US Government to go after churches from sea to shining sea.

 

never let a good crisis go to waste.

regardless of what you think, it makes NO DIFFERENCE WHO had been in the White House.
The same money would have been spent.
You still think it's a Democrat vs Republican thing but in reality.....

It's a them (elites and 1%) vs everyone else (including you)

 

Yes, according to the congress and tRUMP WH it's too hard to cut spending.

What do you want to cut.
Retirees SS? Retirees Healtcare?
Disabled benefits?
Veterans benefits?

You want to take from the elderly and poor to pay for the R's uncontrolled spending?

 

We need to do both.

Increase taxes on items that contribute to our medical costs (alcohol, salt, sugar, tobacco, marijuana etc), tax all income as direct income (do away with capital gains), eliminate most deductions, increase the size of the IRS to find fraud, remove the cap on social security taxes, put a speculative tax on gambling (including the stock market)...

Cut spending by preforming audits of every federal program, any program that cannot account for spending gets a cut of equal proportion, target fraud and waste, consolidate duplicative programs, eliminate foreign military aid...

Once the above is done we start cutting non-discretionary programs by a specific percentage and discretionary programs even more and increase personal tax rates as needed.

 

If it's matched dollar for dollar with tax increases on corporations and those whose income - earned or unearned - is above 250K, or cuts in military spending.

 

Cut Federal Employees pay. Especially Congress and all the perks they've given themselves over the years.
An entity that can freely TAKE money from whoever it pleases should not have to power to then pay it's agents better than the going free market rate.

 

A church should be able to deduct their charitable works, they should not be able to deduct this:


Currently a church has zero requirements to prove any charitable works

 

You lost most Americans on.... "Increase the size of the IRS"

Basically you are saying......"Make citizens subjects"

 

A drop in the bucket compared to entitlements.

 

Depends on your stance on religion I suppose.

I would rather let churches keep ALL their perks, and greatly reduce the perks for Congress.

Churches don't legislate.

 

Tax law can be changed. Churches have no constitutional guarantee of tax exemption.

 

We cannot pay down the debt when the mega rich are evading taxes.
The IRS has already acknowledged they do not go after very complicated returns because it takes teams of agents.

Paying down the debt is possible but not popular.
Everyone says they want to do it but very few people actually do.

 

Taxing churches would severely damage the separation between church and state.
It's there....but you have to really understand the intrusive nature of government to understand it.

If churches could be taxed, then they could be "used" for erroneous purposes by runaway government entities.
And or controlled, denied access etc.

 

I support people being able to have whatever beliefs they want — and them be treated like every other organization in the US. They are not special.

 

To be truthful, if we taxed every 1% er at 100%, we still wouldn't make a scratch in the national debt.
But we sure would piss off those who know how to create wealth.

 

TBH, the US Constitution SAYS they are special

I don't think we should go messing around too much with the Constitution on religion.

The world is a different place than it was hundreds of years ago.

 

Does government currently “use” private businesses?
How?

 

Where has that been recommended?
Virtually no one is recommended this.

So why being it up?

 

Yes.
But business also uses the government, unfortunately.
I think allowing corporations to make unlimited contributions to political parties was a big mistake.

 

Well,
many people think the rich could solve all our economic problems if we just taxed them enough.
But there's not enough wealth there.

The REAL drain is entitlements as someone else mentioned earlier.

 

The establishment clause is no more special than the press having the right to exist unabridged. It doesn’t say they cannot be taxed.

 

I'm not sure. Has the Supreme Court ever weighed in on that particular?

Then again, the SCOTUS could rule either way depending on who's on the bench at the time.

The SCOTUS ruled that the ACA was legal by bending and or breaking every rule in the book to get it done. The Constitution never provided for the government to levy forced participation in health care or any other activity. In fact, taxation by the Federal Government is not Constitutional.....but here we are.

 

How does the government “use” private businesses?

I agree we should eliminate lobbying as a major interest as well.

 

The largest expenditure we have is the military when you add in all associated costs (pensions, healthcare, housing, education, grants). Followed by social security & unemployment which are paid insurances (meaning if we cut payouts we must cut deductions), followed by healthcare which is why I said taxes should target areas that cause this number to be inflated.