Posted On: Friday - June 21st 2024 9:29AM MST
In Topics: Trump Economics Liberty/Libertarianism Taxes
... not as gay, no, far from it.. That'd be a nothingburger these days. Donald Trump has come out as a, GASP!, Libertarian! OMG!* He talked about, and talk is likely all it'll be about, the IRS and taxes on tips, the other day. In the big scheme of things, that's small potatoes. (That said, as I noted, it's probably a good election strategy, and more honest, lawful, and less morally hazardous than Bai Dien school loan forgiveness campaign tactic.)
Now, per The Gateway Pundit, Trump Drops Bombshell Proposal: Allegedly Suggests Eliminating Income Tax in Favor of High Import Tariffs During DC Republicans Meeting. It's only "alleged" because this was a closed door meeting, and nobody would be able to, like, record anything, right?
The news outlet cited anonymous sources and reported that President Trump proposed abolishing income taxes and adopting an “all-tariff policy.”Yes, now there's one of those substantive policy statements that we get from Trump. I followed Hail to You blogger and PS commenter E.H. Hail's Steve Sailer comment listing on The Unz Review, coming yesterday upon a point about Trump I've seen before. Mr. Hail, from this comment about a particularly really, really stupid thing Trump just said regarding the immigration invasion**:
Neuropathy is not from Low vitamin B. Meet the Real Enemy of Neuropathy (Stop Doing This) [OK, YOU stop doing this. You know that was an ad, so ... quit. - Ed] In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote, “Great meeting with Republican Representatives. Lots discussed, all positive, great poll numbers!”
The only defense of Blompf here, from principled hardline immigration-moratorium supporters is not a very good-looking one: It’s the ‘defense’ that Trump is a blowhard with demagogic tell-anyone-what-he-wants-to-hear man, so he didn’t really mean this latest outrage. Then there is the old line, often quoted by Steve Sailer, that Trump at any given moment is the average of the last five-to-ten people who have spoken to him. In other words, we are led to regretfully conclude that Trump is, at best, a buffoon.The part that I bolded is the point I've read about. Peter Brimelow of VDare says that it's just the last person that Trump talked to before he makes a decision. The guys Steve Sailer quoted are being a tiny bit more generous to Trump, just a tiny bit. Trump CAN think for himself, but anything with a few details is something he won't spend the mental energy on.
Back to the point of this post, Trump's statement (OK, alleged statement) is music to our ears here. Peak Stupidity has a strong Libertarian bent. Who were the people Trump last listened to on this? Maybe Mr. Brimelow is right, and it's just the last guy he read from. Perhaps Trump is a Peak Stupidity reader who came upon our post of May 28th this year Ron Paul is wrong about something.. I praised Mr. Trump there for his tariff policy on China, and noted: Not only did America do very well on this score for a few centuries, but the Founders of this country were mostly FOR tariffs. Tariffs were, in fact, one of the main sources of income for the US Gov't through its early history. OK, Customs Duties are handled differently, but tomayto, tomahto.
We will not get ourselves too excited based on this latest out of Donald Trump for 2 MAJOR reasons. The first is that this is not 1800's America. Tariffs on all Chinese goods can't replace the income tax, as much as I'd still like to try. Let's keep this really simple, in case Trump really is reading, in which case: Welcome, Mr. Trump! Feel free to write comments, and forget half the stuff I ever wrote about you. You're good people. In case you're reading, you don't even need tables, spreadsheets, graphs, or heaven forbid, THE CALCULUS. You just need a couple of arithmetical operations. I'll start with a number good only to 25% or worse, as it doesn't matter. From this post of ours, I'm pulling out a number from '18 the trade deficit of goods (services being only 10% of the trade then) China - America. It's around $400 Billion. Here are 2 more numbers: 42% of the IRS revenue comes from personal income taxes, from this IRS pie chart post. Then, from the IRS '23 IRS 1040 Instructions .pdf, page 109, where the pie charts came from, we see that that '22 total revenue was $4.90 Trillion. That's, call it, an even $2 Trillion of personal income tax collected (in '22).
If 50% tariffs were laid on all Chinese goods, of course, we wouldn't get 50% of that $400 Billion, as the Chinese would do more business elsewhere to avoid them. I have no problem with that - it's pretty much the REAL point of tariffs, but this post, and Trump's alleged statement, are about the money. Even if you got all of it, that means you've covered 10% ($200 Billion / $2 Trillion) of the personal income tax money. Well, that's a start! Put it on the working class level, and it'd be a great start.
We can see that Trump doesn't bother with the numbers or he wouldn't have (allegedly) spouted that out. As I wrote, it's not 1800s America. The US Government is a Feral BEAST now. Did Trump consider that the CARES ACT that he touted would take about 20 years of 50% tariffs on Chinese goods, even if that held, to cover it? No, he doesn't care - let the accountants work all that out ...
The 2nd big problem is that a President Trump (#47) doesn't have any such power to fight the entrenched income tax "industry". Peak Stupidity has too many posts with our taxes topic key to list here, but the reader may want to see our list of the 5 evils - I'm starting to sound like a Chinese Chairman of some sort - yes, The Five Evils, of the Feral Income tax in our post Peak Constitutional Amendment - XVI, Part 3. Believe it or not, the Evil labeled simply The Money comes in only at #2. Every one of these 5 evils has entrenched "industries", aka, bloodsuckers or parasites, who want the income tax in place for their purposes.
Trump doesn't have a chance in hell on this. Ron Paul as President wouldn't have a chance. It would take a 300 cloned Ron Pauls, not agonna happen.
It's interesting that Trump came out
As with the removal of income tax on tips, this is no new, brilliant idea. It was the system of income for ~ the 1st half of the history of the US. Still, it's better to hear this than some statement on an idiotic, ruinous plan on immigration. Bloviate away, dude, but just CLOSE THE BORDER, START MASSIVE DEPORTATIONS, and RELEASE THE J6 POLITICAL PRISONERS!
* Not that OMG. I don't mean the O'Keefe Media Group, though a nice undercover interview could be set up on Tinder were Trump actually gay. We might learn something... probably not... BTW, I guess people don't even use the phrase "coming out" anymore.
** I'm so disgusted with Trump on this that I don't know if I'll even feel like writing about it... I may change my mind.
Comments:
Moderator
Saturday - June 22nd 2024 5:32AM MST
PS: "Maga-church" was intentional, Tarheel, but I can't take credit for making it up. I read that elsewhere some time ago. Good morning.
70sTarheel
Saturday - June 22nd 2024 4:34AM MST
PS
Was "maga church" intentional? if so, that's pretty high level stuff.
Was "maga church" intentional? if so, that's pretty high level stuff.
Moderator
Friday - June 21st 2024 11:40AM MST
PS: The $PLC is having some money management problems and union/management "issues" to put it politely. Steve Sailer used to like that Morris Dees - I think he liked his personality even though Dees was a grifter screwing over society for his benefit using big Jewish donor funds.
Well, the management got turned over to Dieversity, and even a foundation built on grift must have some White men to run it, or it goes to corruption hell. There's a Chinese lady, one Miss or Mrs. Huang running it now. Secondly, because the left is pro-Hamas now, those donors are not happy to send in big checks anymore.
It couldn't happen to a better "Non"-profit, Government supported* NGO, IMO.
* If nothing else, with government's use of $PLC "hate data" for legitimacy of the organization.
Well, the management got turned over to Dieversity, and even a foundation built on grift must have some White men to run it, or it goes to corruption hell. There's a Chinese lady, one Miss or Mrs. Huang running it now. Secondly, because the left is pro-Hamas now, those donors are not happy to send in big checks anymore.
It couldn't happen to a better "Non"-profit, Government supported* NGO, IMO.
* If nothing else, with government's use of $PLC "hate data" for legitimacy of the organization.
Moderator
Friday - June 21st 2024 11:36AM MST
PS: Whatever way it goes down, Americans are going to feel some big financial pain. Can we do without all the Cheap Chinamade crap, is the burning question (burning, because made out of flammable material - cause, bribed to overlook it). Yeah, I know, some of it is industrial equipment that can't be made for that cost or even at all anymore. I'd say roll with it.
As for your paragraph 2, Alarmist, I'd like to see some of that, not in a Totalitarian fashion, but perhaps through the tax code. First of all "non-profit" means jack squat, so it's time to let them file taxes. If they really didn't make any money or want to do creative accounting like lots of business already does, let 'em do it that way, the, errrr, honest way.
I think the elimination of the tax exemption 501 (c) (3) for churches might be a good idea. I mean, one's donations/tithing are still exempt if one itemizes, but I think the churches are more beholden to the Feds, going a little too far with Romans 13:6. The Black! churches have ignored that political neutrality bit (is it somewhere IN the tax code anyway?) for a long time. I've seen preachers of big White maga-churches get political too.
They should have known that Romans 13:6 should not apply during that Kung Flu time, when they were all told they had to close up. I saw a video on a few big churches (one in Los Angeles and one in Canada) that didn't close, were persecuted, and have been suing now.
As for your paragraph 2, Alarmist, I'd like to see some of that, not in a Totalitarian fashion, but perhaps through the tax code. First of all "non-profit" means jack squat, so it's time to let them file taxes. If they really didn't make any money or want to do creative accounting like lots of business already does, let 'em do it that way, the, errrr, honest way.
I think the elimination of the tax exemption 501 (c) (3) for churches might be a good idea. I mean, one's donations/tithing are still exempt if one itemizes, but I think the churches are more beholden to the Feds, going a little too far with Romans 13:6. The Black! churches have ignored that political neutrality bit (is it somewhere IN the tax code anyway?) for a long time. I've seen preachers of big White maga-churches get political too.
They should have known that Romans 13:6 should not apply during that Kung Flu time, when they were all told they had to close up. I saw a video on a few big churches (one in Los Angeles and one in Canada) that didn't close, were persecuted, and have been suing now.
The Alarmist
Friday - June 21st 2024 10:39AM MST
PS
I’m all for tariffs; the US needs to rebuild its industrial capacity. The problem, though, isn’t that you’d starve the Govt of revenues, rather that you would impoverish most Americans in the process.
As for that Govt revenue issue, I guess they could start seizing University endowments and other “charitable” trusts, foundations, think-tanks, and NGOs. $PLC would keep .gov going for a few blessed hours, niet war?
I’m all for tariffs; the US needs to rebuild its industrial capacity. The problem, though, isn’t that you’d starve the Govt of revenues, rather that you would impoverish most Americans in the process.
As for that Govt revenue issue, I guess they could start seizing University endowments and other “charitable” trusts, foundations, think-tanks, and NGOs. $PLC would keep .gov going for a few blessed hours, niet war?
SafeNow says:
June 22, 2024 at 9:24 am GMT • 1.7 hours ago • 100 Words ↑
Why Don’t Turkish Germans Root for the German Soccer Team?
As Achmed would say if he were still here: “You can check-out, but you can never leave.”