Quote:
Originally Posted by scottw
I'll make it easy for you...as usual, he kicked the crap out of all of your nebulous assertions  |
Ultimately it just comes down to the same thing...original intent vs some room for interpretation. Unfortunately I deleted my real response, but a few comments before I head to the airport...
Sure, people who take risks deserve reward, but we can't ignore that all fortunes are built on the backs of others. Without a system of shared sacrifice and effort there's no platform for wealth to be generated.
My remark about the US Navy patrolling the worlds oceans was in context of securing private economic interests proactively, not more traditional national defense.
I'm not sure the statistics really demonstrate that higher taxes will always inhibit investment. Yes, there are some mega-cycles where this has certainly been the case (i.e. the 1970's) but debating a few points here or there isn't going to make or break the economy. What's more important today is that we have sufficient taxation to reduce debt and a real plan to eliminate deficit spending as we're not likely to see strong enough economic growth this decade to do it on revenues alone. I don't think cutting taxes is going to be a magical fix, it's a hell of a lot more complicated than that. It does make for nice politics though...
In regards to tariffs, the situation is much different today vs then as the majority of commodity items people need to survive are imported. So we enter into trade agreements to artificially keep the prices low on a lot of our imports. You couldn't generate enough revenue to fund even a much smaller Federal Government under such conditions, and the global economy is here to stay.
I'd agree that the Founding Fathers didn't believe in excessive taxation, but remember, an antonym of "excessive" is "fair
-spence