In America, we enjoy freedoms that we often take for granted. We have the power to decide things for ourselves, such as our leaders, our rights, and our liberties. We have the ability to debate and evaluate the effectiveness and the relevance of a law or bill, and we must use this power when it comes to the methods of taxation. Currently, the US uses a progressive income tax as its means to raise revenue. Deborah Lee and Richard A. Grant, in “Counterpoint: Expanding Sales Taxes Helps the Rich, Hurts the Poor,” believe that a progressive income tax is the fairest and most constructive ways to fund the government, and that such a tax benefits the poor more than a sales tax.
In today’s society the majority of American taxpayers want to know which party gives them the most “bang for their buck.” The Democrats favor the Keynesian theory, which suggests managing the economy by keeping it on an even keel and avoiding fluctuations in the business cycle. This theory suggests stimulating the economy by putting money in the hands of consumers to trigger demand. This would increase government spending and possibly cut taxes in the process. On the contrary, Republicans tend to favor the Supply Side theory. This theory suggests economic stimulation can be achieved by focusing on increasing supply rather than demand. In other words, if companies make it, consumers buy it.
Three things the Republican Party want to achieve are stopping crony government handouts, reducing the size of inflated bureaucracy, and cutting taxes for hardworking American families.
Views between the two major parties of government in the United States have many differences and few similarities. The Republican side of government tends to be more conservative and more for the people’s freedoms. They also support government intervention only when necessary. The Democratic side of government tends to be more liberal and support heavy government intervention. Views between abortion, gay marriage, and many other controversial topics differ greatly between the Democratic and Republican Party.
“The modern Democratic Party is the descendant of the Democratic-Republican Party, an early-nineteenth-century political organization led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Also known as the Jeffersonian Republican Party, the Democratic-Republican Party began as an antifederalist group, opposed to strong, centralized government. The party was officially established at a national nominating convention in 1832. It dropped the Republican portion of its name in 1840.” As stated in the free dictionary’s definition of the democratic party. The Democrat and Republican parties have differences as well as similarities such as their views on government decisions.
The federal tax code has a level of complexity so great, that reforming it should be the one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on. Instead, proposal after proposal calling for reform die in Congress. And there have been a lot of proposals. Arlen Specter (D-PA) put some form of a flat tax/tax reform proposal into Congress’s hands every year from 1995-2010. This is because, for the most part, the fight for reform always comes down to a two sided debate. One side wants to keep the current complex structure and the other sees no other alternative than blowing this current structure up and moving to a flat rate system. All of this brings me to the arguments for/against the flat rate tax system.
In Summary, Democrats and Republicans are very different in various aspects. Their opinions are black and white, very opposite. There are not many things that Democrats and Republicans agree on politically. Democrats are more different than similar.
(Black, 565-483) This means that every working family still pays taxes, however their taxes would be cut, meaning they would be paying less taxes than before. As for the “ millionaires” and higher class of society they will still pay the same taxes as they did before. This policy is more likely to be considered as equal because it is not rated fair when people from different social classes with a big difference in their incomes pay the same taxes. Especially because the taxes will eventually be lowered for the lower classes because they would be unable to afford paying the regular and high taxes. This will also lead in the cut of taxes for the high social class, which then makes the whole concept unequal. Not just for the people but also for the national economy (Witcover, 791-545).
The tax policy in the United States is very confusing. When the tax policy was originally written in 1913 it was four hundred pages. Now, over the past ninety one years, that tax policy has evolved to over 72,000 pages. Since the tax code has become so lengthy and nearly impossible to understand, the topic of tax reform has been in the minds of many. Although, most barely think about tax reform until tax season. It is a controversial subject due to the impact a change in tax code would have on the American people. The two most popular and widely known stakeholders in this debate are the two major political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans. The two parties share absolutely no common ground on the subject of
Concerning the debate on our economy, republicans generally believe strongly in the power of a free market system, reduced income tax rate, more spending from the people, and less spending from the government. The Republican Party wants the tax rate to not be affected regardless of how much wealth a person has, and wants the tax rate to be reduced in order to
“Neither of the two major parties is made up of people who are all of one mind. Each party is a coalition of many people with diverse interests who come together to get their candidates elected to public office.” (Political Science textbook) If this is the case, it makes the decision of choosing who is better even harder. An
The Republican party feels that taxes are a burden on the people and that the more they can lower taxes the better. Their ideology is that the more they lower taxes the more money people will have and entail their will be more activity the throughout the economy. “It has been longstanding Republican policy to favor laissez-faire economics; this means that government should play an extremely limited role in economic matters and that taxes should be kept to the minimal amount necessary to fund only “necessary” functions”(MLA). The Republicans believe that by taking the minimum amount for taxes and playing only a small role in the economy it will thrive on its own.
There are a few differences and similarities between democrats and republicans. Democrats believe that the economy is too complicated for individuals to navigate alone and believe that business decisions should be guided by government officials and in the best interest of labor unions. Republicans believe free enterprise has brought economic growth and innovations that have made this country great. They also believe Government should help stimulate a business environment where people are free to use their talents. There are also ways they are similar. They both support endless war and ignore basic rights, they both care more about their own power, and they are bought and paid for by big businesses.
While most taxpayers agree that tax reform is necessary for our country the problem they encounter is the difficulty they experience when trying to understand all the political terms used when discussing tax reform. This paper is an attempt to help the taxpayers of our country to better understand the political terminology and gain knowledge about some of the proposals that have been explored.
Policy makers have introduced a solution to the staggering proportion of taxes that Americans spend. The flat tax, based on an idea developed by Professors Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka of Stanford University to create a fair, simple, and pro-growth tax system (Mitchell 1, 11). There are four basic criteria that make up a flat tax. First is a single low rate on taxable income, the baseline for taxable income would be raised to a certain amount dictated by a personal exemption. Second is simplicity, all Americans would fill out the same postcard-sized form to pay their taxes. Third is the reduction or elimination of deductions, credits, and exemptions, depending