Nick Vogel
Kylie Bitzman
PS 101
March 16, 2015
Taxes
Democrats and Republicans in the United States have contrastive stances on the implication and enforcement of taxes. Typically, members of the Democratic Party support a progressive tax, which taxes higher earners at a higher rate. Republicans, however, tend to agree with a flat tax. This policy taxes everyone at the same rate, regardless of income. Although these two ideologies are the most common, there is still a place for a third or fourth opinion from other political parties. The Democratic and Republican views on taxes don’t include every possibility for the United States. Democrats support a progressive tax plan. The basis of a progressive tax is to tax in accordance with
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The Republican Party also supports a flat tax in addition to these tax cuts. Tax policies that divide Americans into separate groups aren’t something that Republicans agree with, such as raising taxes for the upper-class citizens. Republicans believe that the fairest way to tax United States citizens is to make everyone pay a certain percentage, no matter what your income is. In February of 2014 the Republicans released a tax reform plan. This plan included lower tax rates across the board, a new bank tax, and the elimination of state and local income tax deductions. The main goal of the proposal would be to eliminate 4 of the 7 tax brackets in the United States and create a 3-bracket system. This new system would drastically decrease many people’s tax rates. However, people who are at the bottom of the brackets would experience an increase in their tax rates. It is hard to tell why Democrats and Republicans have the views and opinions that they have. Some believe that presidential candidates say what they really feel in their hearts, and others think that candidates simply say what they need to say to win. I believe that both types of people are right in their own way. Politicians typically select their political party based on personal views that they have developed through family, friends, or media. I believe that most of them stay true to their beliefs as well. Democrats stereotypically come from a
This week the reading by Frank in the Inequality Reader caught my attention. It talked about how the current tax system in the US is not conducive to helping society. It also mentions how an increase in taxes for the top earners would help not only the poor but also the rich. He also includes how the wealthy “have been made worse off, on balance, by recent tax cuts” (Frank 732). This reading made me think of the current GOP tax plan being signed and debated in congress.
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
The Democratic Party believes in progressive income, increasing the overall tax income. A progressive tax imposes a higher rate on the wealthy than the poor. Poor families spend a lot bigger share of their income on the cost
Both parties favor tax cuts, but they differ on who they should tax and how much they should be taxed. The republicans believe that there should be tax cuts for everyone, both corporations and people of all income levels. A tax cut basically means there should be less taxes. The reason they believe everyone should have tax cuts is because, budget surpluses have caused Americans to be overtaxed. Overtaxation which is a condition that is not only threatening their financial prosperity of America, but is also hindering growth to the country’s economy.
Taxes are very argumentative when coming to what everyone considers equal. There are many different tax options, in which all people have different opinions on. These taxes include a value-added tax, progressive tax, flat tax, and national sales tax. I believe getting rid of our current tax system, and implementing a flat tax in America would be the best option. Different sides of politics, each have pros/ cons for each of the different tax systems, but with just the right tax system things could improve and more things could be equally agreed on between the politicians.
The current tax code for the United States is almost 74,000 pages long. Or to put that into a different light: About 116 copies of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. It is small wonder that a few of the announced candidates for President of the United States, have again begun to kick the tires on the topic of a Flat Tax. But is a flat tax actually a solution to our country’s growing tax complexity? What are the potential economic effects of a flat tax (both positive and negative)? Finally, is a flat tax even a viable solution? In short, will it work? As a concept, a flat tax is spectacular. Simplicity at its finest. As a fiscal policy, I believe that same simplicity must be examined and inspected closely.
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
(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).
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.
Some of The key differences between democrats and republicans are that the democrat party believes in higher taxes for higher pay. while the republicans believe that taxes shouldn’t be raised for any one no matter what their pay is. Also democrat ideas are based on community and social responsibility while the republican party believes in individual rights and justice.
“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
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.
They believe that surpluses in our budget has caused us Americans to be overtaxed, which can our financial success and hold back, and even reverse, the country’s economic growth. Republicans also want to place reasonable limitations on the marginal(tax) rate. This would be defined as however much of the tax that is paid on every additional dollar of income. They believe that this rate punishes the people who have worked hard for everything they have and invested. As Larry Hogan likes to put it, “Let’s find those areas where modest and reasonable tax cuts will have the biggest positive impact on our economy, and which will improve the lives of those who need it most: working families, retirees, and small business owners.” This is really saying that we should primarily focus on the good things that tax cuts can bring for the status and growth of our economy, instead of just looking at the negative. Tax cuts can actually save us a lot of money in the long run, due to the fact that we won’t be spending all that extra money that just gets stored up for safe-keeping later on. Statistically, the United States is near twenty trillion dollars in debt. This is mainly because we spend more that we take in, which is a horrible way to do things. Steve Chabot once said, “Even with not having a balanced budget at this time, I support tax cuts. That will help limit spending.” If we lower how much we are spending, we won’t have to worry about the aftermath of
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
Though the arguments tend to start with differences between both political parties, the two parties do have some things in common. Both Democrats and Republicans want to win, and win by a landslide. Democrats and Republicans both elect a candidate to represent their party in local and national elections. Along with wanting to please the public, both parties advocate their policies. The donkey and elephant used as