Going Out to Eat

It’s nice the President thinks the Federal Budget is like going out to eat. Unfortunately his analogy isn’t quite right. The correct analogy is that you go out to dinner with all of your friends and some acquaintances. Everyone orders what they want. When it comes time to pay the bill, everyone throws into the center what they think they owe.

You have the people who knowingly throw in more then covers what they order. Other people throw in far less then what they owe, and others get it just right. When all of the money is collected in the center it becomes apparent there isn’t enough money to pay the bill. Some of the under payers usually make a quick exit, not wanting to pay their fair share. Others stick around and try to sort it all out to cover enough money for the establishment. If you go out with your friends enough times at some point it’s time to make all of the friends and acquaintances to pay their fair share. The Federal Budget is crafted in much the same way. Wants are put above means.

Why isn’t it the same with the Federal Budget? Isn’t it time to tax everyone with a Federal Income Tax? Shouldn’t we stop giving a free pass to people instead of running massive deficits? So lets raise taxes across the board sufficiently to cover our Country’s obligations. This would make budgets real for the 47% of people who don’t pay income taxes. It’s easy to say you want $4,000 per capita of Federal Services when you don’t pay a dime to provide those services one indicates is necessary to operate the Federal Government. It’s much more effective to tax 100% of the population then it is 10%.

Maybe you don’t think it’s fair that all people don’t pay their fair share. Maybe then we could institute a check box on the tax forms indicating how many people you are willing to cover and then charging you for the taxes. A fair solution to problem, where those who think not everyone should pay are given an opportunity to pay more. It would be interesting to see how much Warren Buffet would put down. After all he is always complaining his tax rate is less then his secretary's. This would be a put or shut up tax. It would give Warren Buffet the choice to pay the same tax rate as his secretary and in the process cover the less wealthy then himself. We do live in a democracy so lets have people vote with their dollars on how much the poor should get discounted rather then force the payment by gun point.