New Tax Code

I really dont want to wade into the debate regarding the trial balloon, yet, but will say:

Close, but no cigar.

At least they didn't try to "please all the people all the time," and had political wisdom to understand that the recommendations wouldn't survive the congressional bile movements.

And I like they are starting down the road towards simplification, but some Tax deductions may be necessary.

That leads me to my only point;

They seem to forget that taxes, and the Relief therefrom, are the way to incentivize the citizenry and business alike.

Subsidies, tax breaks, and even certain "credit" type programs between the government and the citizens they propose to collect and protect (not be too cynical) from, can be made clear to create our future economy and growth from this recessionary hangover.

Ideas?

Lost in the forest of arguments... The REAL big Business Argument for Health Care Reform

Okay lets start with some data:

As per http://bit.ly/MwulQ

HEALTH CARE SPENDING PER PERSON
Rank Countries Amount
# 1 United States: 4,271
# 2 Switzerland: 3,857
# 3 Norway: 3,182
# 4 Denmark: 2,785
# 5 Luxembourg: 2,731
# 6 Iceland: 2,701
# 7 Germany: 2,697
# 8 France: 2,288
# 9 Japan: 2,243
# 10 Netherlands: 2,173
# 11 Sweden: 2,145
# 12 Belgium: 2,137
# 13 Austria: 2,121
# 14 Canada: 1,939
# 15 Australia: 1,714
# 16 Finland: 1,704
# 17 Italy: 1,676
# 18 United Kingdom: 1,675
# 19 Israel: 1,607
# 20 Ireland: 1,569
# 21 United Arab Emirates: 1,428
# 22 New Zealand: 1,163
# 23 Spain: 1,043
# 24 Greece: 965
# 25 Portugal: 859
# 26 Slovenia: 746
# 27 Singapore: 678
# 28 Argentina: 654
# 29 Uruguay: 621
# 30 Bahamas, The: 612
# 31 Barbados: 601
# 32 Korea, South: 470
# 33 Lebanon: 469
# 34 Saint Kitts and Nevis: 408
# 35 Czech Republic: 380
# 36 Bahrain: 358
# 37 Hungary: 318
# 38 Brazil: 308
# 39 Chile: 289
# 40 Slovakia: 285
# 41 Costa Rica: 257
# 42 Poland: 248
# 43 Panama: 246
# 44 Estonia: 243
# 45 Mexico: 236
# 46 South Africa: 230
# 47 Colombia: 227
# 48 Dominica: 208
# 49 Trinidad and Tobago: 204
# 50 Grenada: 193
# 51 Lithuania: 183
# 52 Antigua and Barbuda: 179
# 53 Venezuela: 171
# 54 Latvia: 166
# 55 Jamaica: 157
# 56 Turkey: 153
# 57 Saint Lucia: 151
# 58 Maldives: 150
# 59 El Salvador: 143
# 60 Namibia: 142
# 61 Peru: 141
# 62 Jordan: 139
# 63 Iran: 128
# 64 Botswana: 127
# 65 Gabon: 122
# 66 Mauritius: 120
# 67 Syria: 116
# 68 Thailand: 112
# 69 Tunisia: 108
# 70 Burma: 97
# 71 Dominican Republic: 95
= 72 Fiji: 86
= 72 Paraguay: 86
= 72 Romania: 86
# 75 Belarus: 85
# 76 Belize: 82
# 77 Malaysia: 81
# 78 Guatemala: 78
# 79 Honduras: 74
# 80 Bolivia: 69
= 81 Kazakhstan: 62
= 81 Bulgaria: 62
# 83 Ecuador: 59
# 84 Nicaragua: 54
# 85 Guyana: 51
# 86 Swaziland: 46
= 87 Congo, Democratic Republic of the: 40
= 87 China: 40
= 89 Cape Verde: 37
= 89 Philippines: 37
= 91 Albania: 36
= 91 Zimbabwe: 36
= 91 Bhutan: 36
# 94 Kenya: 31
= 95 Nigeria: 30
= 95 Turkmenistan: 30
# 97 Sri Lanka: 29
= 98 Cote d'Ivoire: 28
= 98 Ukraine: 28
= 100 Uzbekistan: 25
= 100 Papua New Guinea: 25
= 102 Senegal: 23
= 102 Zambia: 23
# 104 Haiti: 21
= 105 Ghana: 19
= 105 Mauritania: 19
= 105 Guinea: 19
= 108 Pakistan: 18
= 108 Uganda: 18
= 110 Vietnam: 17
= 110 Cambodia: 17
# 112 Georgia: 16
= 113 Gambia, The: 13
= 113 Tajikistan: 13
= 115 Benin: 12
= 115 Bangladesh: 12
= 117 Nepal: 11
= 117 Malawi: 11
= 117 Mali: 11
= 117 Kyrgyzstan: 11
# 121 Rwanda: 10
= 122 Burkina Faso: 9
= 122 Central African Republic: 9
= 122 Togo: 9
= 125 Indonesia: 8
= 125 Mozambique: 8
= 125 Sierra Leone: 8
# 128 Chad: 7
# 129 Laos: 6
= 130 Niger: 5
= 130 Madagascar: 5
= 130 Burundi: 5
# 133 Ethiopia: 4


Compare (as per http://lauraschneider.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/where-does-america-rank-in-healthcare-quality-and-efficiency/);

Table 1. Overall efficiency in all WHO member states
[Country names shortened by blogger]

1 France 96 Fiji
2 Italy 97 Benin
3 San Marino 98 Nauru
4 Andorra 99 Romania
5 Malta 100 St. Kitts & Nevis
6 Singapore 101 Moldova
7 Spain 102 Bulgaria
8 Oman 103 Iraq
9 Austria 104 Armenia
10 Japan 105 Latvia
11 Norway 106 Yugoslavia
12 Portugal 107 Cook Islands
13 Monaco 108 Syria
14 Greece 109 Azerbaijan
15 Iceland 110 Suriname
16 Luxembourg 111 Ecuador
17 Netherlands 112 India
18 U.K. 113 Cape Verde
19 Ireland 114 Georgia
20 Switzerland 115 El Salvador
21 Belgium 116 Tonga
22 Colombia 117 Uzbekistan
23 Sweden 118 Comoros
24 Cyprus 119 Samoa
25 Germany 120 Yemen
26 Saudi Arabia 121 Niue
27 U.A.E. 122 Pakistan
28 Israel 123 Micronesia
29 Morocco 124 Bhutan
30 Canada 125 Brazil
31 Finland 126 Bolivia
32 Australia 127 Vanuatu
33 Chile 128 Guyana
34 Denmark 129 Peru
35 Dominica 130 Russia
36 Costa Rica 131 Honduras
37 U.S.A. 132 Burkina Faso
38 Slovenia 133 Sao Tome & Principe
39 Cuba 134 Sudan
40 Brunei Darussalam 135 Ghana
41 New Zealand 136 Tuvalu
42 Bahrain 137 Côte d’Ivoire
43 Croatia 138 Haiti
44 Qatar 139 Gabon
45 Kuwait 140 Kenya
46 Barbados 141 Marshall Islands
47 Thailand 142 Kiribati
48 Czech Republic 143 Burundi
49 Malaysia 144 China
50 Poland 145 Mongolia
51 Dominican Republic 146 Gambia
52 Tunisia 147 Maldives
53 Jamaica 148 Papua New Guinea
54 Venezuela 149 Uganda
55 Albania 150 Nepal
56 Seychelles 151 Kyrgyzstan
57 Paraguay 152 Togo
58 South Korea 153 Turkmenistan
59 Senegal 154 Tajikistan
60 Philippines 155 Zimbabwe
61 Mexico 156 Tanzania
62 Slovakia 157 Djibouti
63 Egypt 158 Eritrea
64 Kazakhstan 159 Madagascar
65 Uruguay 160 Viet Nam
66 Hungary 161 Guinea
67 Trinidad & Tobago 162 Mauritania
68 St. Lucia 163 Mali
69 Belize 164 Cameroon
70 Turkey 165 Laos
71 Nicaragua 166 Congo
72 Belarus 167 North Korea
73 Lithuania 168 Namibia
74 St. Vincent & the Grenadines 169 Botswana
75 Argentina 170 Niger
76 Sri Lanka 171 Equatorial Guinea
77 Estonia 172 Rwanda
78 Guatemala 173 Afghanistan
79 Ukraine 174 Cambodia
80 Solomon Islands 175 South Africa
81 Algeria 176 Guinea-Bissau
82 Palau 177 Swaziland
83 Jordan 178 Chad
84 Mauritius 179 Somalia
85 Grenada 180 Ethiopia
86 Antigua & Barbuda 181 Angola
87 Libya 182 Zambia
88 Bangladesh 183 Lesotho
89 Macedonia 184 Mozambique
90 Bosnia & Herzegovina 185 Malawi
91 Lebanon 186 Liberia
92 Indonesia 187 Nigeria
93 Iran 188 Congo
94 Bahamas 189 Central African Republic
95 Panama 190 Myanmar
191 Sierra Leone


And finally this from the OECD:

Country Life expectancy Infant mortality rate % of health costs paid by government
Australia 81.4 4.2 67.7
Canada 80.7 5.0 69.8
France 81.0 4.0 79.0
Germany 79.8 3.8 76.9
Japan 82.6 2.6 81.3
Norway 80.0 3.0 83.6
Sweden 81.0 2.5 81.7
UK 79.1 4.8 81.7
USA 78.1 6.7 45.4

*-*

So, really the argument comes in this last part.

Lets take the #1, France, and see that they have a competitive advantage of about 33% on base costs 54 cents on the dollar-- in other words my American Company has to pay about 15 extra cents for every dollar a French company pay in Health Care costs for care that ranks 36 places worse!

Lets take the silver medalists, Italy: In 2005, Italy spent 8.9% of GDP on health care, or US$2,714 per capita. Of that, approximately 76% was government expenditure. My American Company has to pay a premium of (~44% @ 64 cents per) ~ 28 cents extra for every dollar my Italian competitors pay for health care that ranks 35 places better.

Finally, the bronze, Singapore (I couldn't find adequate stats for the other four ahead of this one). Overall spending on health care amounts to only 3% of annual GDP. Of that, 66% comes from private sources, according to the WHO. So my American company will be paying an adjustment of 101% against their costs, but their cost are about $678 per person! pretty much straight forward math then ($4271-678)*.99= $3557 per person more for health care that is about 30 places less efficient!

---

Do you get the picture?!

We subsidize corn, oil, and all sorts of other industries, yet somehow we let our workers and the companies who want to care about them compete against other countries who have government advantages!

This is equivalent to allowing every country to dump subsidized products from every sector onto our market!

Think about it....

What is a True, Simple, and Fair TAX?

Strictly speaking we believe that Milton Friedman's critique of Keynes is the best available science to date-- although he is still technically a Keynesian. Our Party is eager to find the next discovery in Economics, as with all the sciences and arts.


The maths which if you are really curious you can look up in a variety of publications, such as;


Taxing Sales Under the FairTax:
What Rate Works?
By Paul Bachman, Jonathan Haughton,
Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Alfonso Sanchez-Penalver, and David G. Tuerck


Other equations may apply, but at the end of the day 11% tax on all income (personal, business, etc.) only once (no sales, estate, savings, or other "double taxation") would basically allow the US Government to have about as much revenue as it currently collects.


The primary distinction is that the tax forms (and there are tentatively only two, one for business and one for personal) are potentially postcard size.


Current Republican "Fair Tax," is a virtual VAT, or National Sales Tax. Although this would be a simplification, the enforcement mechanism would be burdensome to the states (relying upon their existing enforcement of retailers and wholesalers), and we believe this system is open to fraud.


Dick Armey's Fair Tax, (although eventually was combined with the VAT to essentially kill the deal, as Democrats feel this unfairly squeezes the middle class consumers) was close to the Miltonian tax with the rate set at 17% and an exemption for first moneys earned (to exempt lower income earners from tax all together... which led to Republicans hybridizing this reasonable proposal with the National Sales tax).


So we believe, although its not perfect, a straight tax of 10% (1% less than what the government currently anticipates to collect in revenues) would save enough money on a macro level to justify the required budget constraint (with say a reintroduction of congress and the executive to pay-go and balanced budget commitments), and possibly make up for the 1% shortfall.


As for the poor, and low income earners, The State needs to have a social apparatus for any number of reasons (for instance taking care of Veterans who defended our country and come home with mental or physical disability), and as such can issue vouchers as part of that apparatus which (like food stamps) can be used to allow the government to pay itself "agency to agency," so to speak-- transferring treasure from one department back to the general funds.


One final note, as an extension of this Miltonian Postcard, we believe every citizen (even those paying with vouchers) should have a vote on the back of the form to fund any one or more major committee(s). 33% of taxes paid come with Taxpayer discretionary allocation, whereby the Taxpayer can select one or more of the several dozen major committees held by both houses of congress which they would like to see their moneys forward to directly-- without commingling into the general fund.


I wonder what our Education Budget would look like, then, eh moms?


This would further restrict our leaders from improbable spending habits which conflate deficit spending and create rediculous loopholes.