Overt and Covert taxes.

[Jacobtm]

So Barack Obama has said that he will raise taxes on richer Americans, raise payroll taxes, raise capital gains taxes etc. McCain, as far as I can tell, hasn't suggested any tax hikes at all, promising to cut them where he can.

But there are other costs imposed by government, they may not come out of your paycheck like most taxes do, but they are costs all the same.

Debt is one of these. As we saw under George Bush, cutting taxes means nothing if you actually increase spending and just rack up debt to pay for it. Taxes were lower in the 8 years of his presidency, but that debt is no different than a tax on the future.

Health-care is another such cost. Right now, many companies provide healthcare for their employees. Should government take up the role of providing healthcare for everyone, this would be a big burden off the back of most employers, especially small businesses, which employ the majority of workers in the U.S. Of course it would take increased taxes to pay for such an expensive scheme, but generalizing the costs of health-care would really free up many small companies from worries about losing tons of money if their employees feel ill.

So which is more detrimental, high taxes in the present, or debt and other costs imposed on citizens and businesses that aren't exactly "taxes"?

[bullmoose88]

Debt is one of these. As we saw under George Bush, cutting taxes means nothing if you actually increase spending and just rack up debt to pay for it. Taxes were lower in the 8 years of his presidency, but that debt is no different than a tax on the future.

Bingo.

[All aboard the Carney-val]

Don't forget a softening Greenback, which is another form of "tax" in the form of inflation of imported goods and services.

[bullmoose88]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Dollar's started to rebound somewhat.  Granted its still well down, but rebounding...for now.

[Dan the Roman]

Or the fact that local and state taxes have had to go up because the Federal Government has cut off aid to the states. Local sales and property taxes are much more regressive and economically damaging in the current environment than the federal estate tax.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I think we need to pass a constitutional amendment that demands that the federal government may not mandate programs without paying for them.

There is no reason why county taxpayers should have to foot the bill for No Child Left Behind.

[Jacobtm]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Currency values never just good or bad though. The weakening dollar makes imports cost more, and contributes to inflation, but it also makes our exports more competitive and encourages foreigners to spend money here. I'm pretty sure that last quarter, if it weren't for increased exports, we would've technically been in a recession.

[Dan the Roman]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Currency values never just good or bad though. The weakening dollar makes imports cost more, and contributes to inflation, but it also makes our exports more competitive and encourages foreigners to spend money here. I'm pretty sure that last quarter, if it weren't for increased exports, we would've technically been in a recession.

In theory at least. The problem is that our manufacturing sector has declined to such a point where those helped are a small minority. Furthermore, several areas(the auto industry for instance) are basically only created by tariffs and produce such terrible quality products that no one will buy them anyway.