Is raising taxes good for the economy, neutral, or bad?

[J-Mann]

Gabu is right: you can't limit a policy like raising taxes to being only good, bad, or neutral at all times.  Sometimes raising taxes is necessary.  It also depends on what kind you're talking about - property taxes, sales tax, income tax, etc.  I have a feeling you're talking about the federal income tax, in this instance.  In that case, it would be "bad" a majority of the time.

I wish they would raise the state income tax in Kansas.  In this state, that would be good for our economy.  Also, I voted for a sales tax increase in November; it was good for our local economy, as well.  It will offset the immense burden caused by high property taxes, which are high because our state income tax has been cut too low.  And you know who got hurt by that?  Poor, rural counties like mine.

[J-Mann]

Was the national poll question phrased exactly the way this one was (with neutral as a specific option)?

I don't know how it was asked, because Rasmussen only referenced it in part of an article.

If Rasmussen actually used this or something similar as a poll question, someone needs to be slapped.  It's a horrible question.

[J-Mann]

Bad. However, a national sales tax and the abolishment of the income tax would be good for the government and the taxpayers.

It would be great for those who earn a large income and spend very little (i.e., the wealthy, while they may spend a lot, it's a lot less as a percentage of their income than the poor).

It would be very bad for those who don't make much money, but spend almost all of what they do make (i.e., the poor and, to a lesser extent, the middle class), usually out of necessity.

So it would encourage people to save all of their money, and spend very little. That's not good for the economy.

I think the national sales tax idea did have some merit when coupled with a poverty rebate.  That was discussed here about a month ago...I'll look for a link.

[J-Mann]

Philip, would you be able to find the thread where we discussed the sales tax?  In it we also discussed the negative income tax, I think.  I've been looking but I'm overlooking it somewhere.

[J-Mann]

I think this is a fairly good idea.  Granted, I'm horrible with numbers and I'm no economist, but I don't understand one thing about it: does everyone get a rebate of $18,588?  I'm guessing they do, but the article isn't really clear, as far as I'm reading it.