Feb 27, 2011

GOP budget cuts threaten entire U.S. economy


Tax increases on the wealthy would ease federal budget deficit woes, but raising taxes is not part of the GOP agenda, even if it means sinking the U.S. economy.

Cutting programs and shrinking the government are the words on Republican lips as America tries to contain the cantankerous U.S. deficit. But there is another way to balance the budget: increase revenue.

According to The Hill, the GOP is worried that some republican lawmakers “might endorse tax reforms that would increase the total amount the federal government collects in taxes.”

Taking in more money would certainly help reduce the gap between income and expenditures.

In 2010, American corporations showed profits of nearly $2 trillion, but their tax rate was only 11%.  An individual who earned $40,000 in the same year had a tax rate of 14.5%, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

In 2009, Exxon Mobil, BP, and Conoco Phillips posted a total of $731 billion in profits. Still, the U.S. government gave the oil industry about $4 billion in tax breaks.  

Government subsidies in the energy industry alone accounted for $697.1 billion in 2009, according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Pulitzer Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz believes that further redistribution of wealth to the rich by slashing programs that help the middle-class and the poor only exacerbates America’s financial problems, and threatens the future of the entire economic system.

The U.S. has a consumer-driven economy that needs spending by the middle-class in order to thrive.







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