Precious few questions were about the US economy or the personal finance challenges Americans face today and are likely to encounter in coming decades. The payroll taxes will be eliminated.
Advertisement
Or, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said: “Wait a second. You don’t have to guess about it, because I already have a record [cutting] $19 billion in taxes”. And we’re talking about fantasy football?
Even when questions on critical topics were raised, the candidates frequently ducked them. However, that was before Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson took the conventional wisdom about the GOP presidential race out behind the woodshed and shot it in the head. “That’s going to be the real growth engine…because it’s tethered down now with so many regulations”.
In fairness, the Republican candidates had spent so much time in fantasyland earlier in the debate that the moderator may have thought this was on point. But the effects happen on the margins, at least in modern industrial democracies where the government has largely refrained from collectivizing the farms or nationalizing the coal mines. I think it’s a wonderful that businesses start a 401(k). “But I don’t think the federal government should be in the business of mandating them”.
HORSLEY: Texas Senator Ted Cruz introduced his own tax plan last night. In that one moment Cruz managed to look like what the Republicans actually need: Someone who can give the Democrats a run for their money on the debate stage.
Cruz wants to cut business taxes while also cutting a slew of federal programs for the poor. “The taxation of investment would significantly decline, which would greatly increase incentives to save and invest”, the Tax Foundation analysis said. AP’s fact-checking revealed, however, that Carson was double-counting, since corporate revenues are part of GDP.
Carson also said he would “get rid of all the deductions and all the loopholes”. It’s highly unlikely Congress and the American public would agree to end write-offs for mortgage interest, charitable deductions and retirement savings, to name three.
Reportedly, the basics are something like this: There will be a ten percent flat tax on all individual income, no matter it is earned through wages or investments. When I was in Washington… we cut taxes and we had a $5 trillion projected surplus when I left. He said “we’re reducing taxes to 15 percent”. He then proposes paying 10% as a flat tax. Bush didn’t fight the estate tax repeal.
CNBC’s John Harwood, who took a lashing last night, asked Jeb Bush a good question. Advocates also argue that the possibility of reaching a higher tax bracket would no longer disincentivize people from earning more and crossing a tax bracket threshold, thus contributing to long-term economic growth.
Cruz’s plan wouldn’t tax the first $36,000 of income for a family of four, but anything made above and beyond that would be taxed at 10 percent. Both candidates were referencing the fact that the number of Americans in poverty grew under Obama – and they’re right, it did.
Advertisement
Then, turning to Bush, Kasich said: “Remember that “thousand points of light” from your dad?”
