Tax Question

Vol Horn 4 Life

Vol Horn 4 Life

Good Bye To All The Rest!
For all the liberals here, how much of your/our paycheck are you willing to let the government take to pay for all of the programs, entitlements, free healthcare, etc without going into further debt?

40% - 60% - 100%?

Is there a limit to the number of entitlement programs you want to enact? What is your stopping point?
 
I am more concerned about what we are getting for how much we are paying, not how much we are paying. we could double our taxes and our current Congress would still not make any significant improvements in education for instance.
 
PharmD is the only liberal with the guts and intellect to answer - although he dodged the question.

Are you willing to pay 75% if education and healthcare are tops in the world? I am not talking about others, I am talking your pay..
 
I would gladly pay more federal taxes if we got a good deal on what was spent. But, why would I want to pay more when the Feds grossly overpay for everything they buy, give our money to crazy dictators, etc? The state of Texas certainly has some waste but it is vastly different than the federal govt. If Texas or my county wanted more and I felt they would use the money wisely, I would probably pay. I don't live in Austin, but I wouldn't give the city of Austin any extra money because they will spend it on a statue of homeless people or some other nonsense.
 
As of 2007, we were spending about 10,500 per student per year. My goal would be to reduce that number to what other countries are spending which is around 8,000. Countries spending that are most EU countries, Japan, and Australia. Germany, who is always more efficient, is at 7k. I think we could do that just by changing special education laws and removing severe behavior problems that require schools to hire people to deal with them. That would be a 25ish percent reduction to get us on par with other countries. The military spends roughly 700% more than the next closest country. They better be a damn rolls for that money.

The school numbers are a bit misleading because of the variations between states. NY spends about 15k per student and Utah spends about 5,500 per student. Im guessing that their SAT scores aren't that different. I wonder why. They answer is pretty obvious and its not all cost of living related.
 
I don't consider myself liberal in the strict interpretation but based on this board participation I definitely fall left of most contributors here.
I already pay a significant amount of my annual income in taxes since I'm on the edge of that dreaded AMT. Of course, I pay a much higher effective tax rate than most of the people that make more money than I do. There are too many loopholes and tax evasion strategies in our income tax code, IMHO.

The amount of tax revenues isn't as much an issue as how we use that money. How efficient are we in spending that money? How much bureaucracy does it take to manage these programs? How much bureaucracy does it take to squeeze out fraud?

I share Larry's views that we need to somehow become more efficient in how we spend the peoples money. We also need to understand that not everyone will be treated equal.

Take education as an example, we all know that not every child is capable of completing a core curriculum for college preparation. Why "No Chile Left Behind" then? I think the bulk of the international educational systems that track the kids based on grades/test scores from middle school on are infinitely more effective than our education system. Why are we continuing to waste valuable $$$ on low IQ kids in hopes they'll suddenly catch up? Train them with useful skills that the country needs and will likely be their career after school.

While I was looking for the AMT name I came across this nugget:The Link and here is a quote from the article:

In reply to:
Click to expand...
 
Did Congress not pass its usual " patch
on AMT for 2013?

I think many confuse NCLBwith the State testing.There is no national standardized test for NCLB so each state can use their own YET continue to receive the Title 1 money.

In reading the exemptions for NCLB It seems like every contingency is covered and easily exempted.
I don't think anyone is saying things were working perfectly and children learned to read and do math ( the cornerstones of NCLB).

The state tests OTOH are a mess and the reason why states switch their form of tests so frequently

It would be nice of we could trust the local schools to be responsible for their own curriculum.
Robin Hood in Texas takes taxes from the city of Dallas and sends to lower income schools. because the DISD schools are doing so well.


In a nutshell I think lack of being able to enforce discipline is a huge factor
Not the money we spend




rolleyes.gif
 
Horn6721-The problem with NCLB is the assumption that you could set a national bar for all schools to hit for standardized test scores, regardless of their socioeconomic status. If those schools miss it for X (3 or 5) number of years then they get shut down. Again, the assumption there is that administrators aren't already working hard to pull those students up but rather that they need the threat of "school closure" to improve the scores.

Ultimately, what resulted was schools teaching the test. It was so predictable. Kids aren't actually learning more but rather have learned to take a specific test better. As the husband of a teacher who worked at a Title 1 school for the past 5 years, I have nothing positive to say about NCLB.
 
A lot of it depends on where you live/teach. I teach at a poor school that is basically a test prep academy for the upper grades. Thats why I teach pre-k. Students get their first district issued multiple-choice, paper and pencil test during the first few weeks of kindergarten. Some of the kids dont even know how to hold a pencil at that point. My mom taught forever in a well off area and state testing never changed how they did anything. Their kids were going to pass the test so they were able to teach enriching activities that actually meant something.
 
Man this train detailed quickly into the gulch! While education is important and some spending comments are valid, none of them answered my question.

We ALL know our federal government is wasteful and we ALL know that will never change. Given that reality, how much are you willing to give the government out of your/our paychecks to pay for more and more programs without going into further debt?
 
Did people ay attention to the schools
and media outcry over the Texas lege cutting " 4 BILLIOn" from the state education budget and how sire that was going to be
Even in Sunday's dallas paper the 'cut in the education budget was causing some schools to go without needed items.
NO it was NOT a cut in the Texas education budget it was a cut in the amount of increase sought.

The 2013-14 budget was still millions more than the 2011-12 budget.
there is a site you can go to to find out how each district spends it's money. The last time I went there I was shocked at how much many of the poorer districts spent on administrative costs versus classroom costs.

Districts now act much like many families act. They think they can get more money no matter how they spend what they have.
come to think of it governments act that way also.
 
I translate you (the libs) not discussing an agreeable tax level that you don't want to pay for the things you want.

Can you agree that approach can't possibly succeed? Do you just want the money fairy to pay for everything?

You have to pay for what you want so you have to decide how much you are willing to let the government take to pay for it. It's that simple.
 
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