The numbers came from a document called "Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures."
What is a "tax expenditure?" The paper includes a long and complicated explanation. But the basics are this: To the government, money not taken in taxes is equivalent to money they have spent, a concept that is perverse enough to make one physically ill. It is based on the premise that all wealth belongs by nature to the State, and that money kept in the private sector is money "lost" to the State.
This is why my hackles go up every time I hear that a tax cut will "cost" us something.
Regardless of the numbers, the conclusions depend on your philosophy. The Left has a powerful faith that money in the hands of the State is better for a society than that same money in the hands of free individuals. I, and many others, believe exactly the opposite, and the evidence of the past century across the globe tends to bear my point of view out.
In other words, I see retaining $272 billion in the productive private economy in 2004 as a good thing, not a crime against society.
Current Events » in reply to Good idea.
The results, and some comments
The whole thread (35 posts)
- here's your tax cut/loan
- you should ask Maxspeak about some more things (n/t)
- re: you should ask Maxspeak about some more things
- you don't understand the terminology
- P.S. For a good time, look up Greenspan's background. (n/t)
- By the way...
- Tell ya what. Why don't you explain it to me?
- you don't understand the terminology
- re: you should ask Maxspeak about some more things
- And that money was buried in the backyard in coffee cans?
- Interesting number. Where did he get it? Or, if you prefer, what are his "references?" (n/t)
- you should ask Maxspeak about some more things (n/t)