Tuesday, July 14, 2009
In the red
Bizzyblog (via Instapundit) summarizes the second quarter tax receipts, following today's Treasury report for the month of June:
I think this is what is referred to in business as "falling off a cliff," when cash receipts diminish greatly and rapidly.
Gulp.
The problem with having an MBA is that your mind is trained to reduce expenditures and cash disbursements in such a situation, when clearly, the correct solution (we know this from the people who have Masters in Governmental Affairs, or some such equivalent degree, who are currently in charge) is to massively increase spending. A 31% drop in 2Q receipts 2009 vs. 2008, and we are going pedal to the metal in spending -- not just a tweak of federal spending, but testing the outer limits of our debt capacity by any absolute or relative measure. What happened to the self-description of Democrats being the "reality-based" party?
CWCID: Bizzyblog (via Instapundit)
14 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Jul 14, 05:08:00 PM:
"What happened to the self-description of Democrats being the "reality-based" party?
Just another lie.
By , at
Tue Jul 14, 05:54:00 PM:
The Treasury report shows outlays as running $455 billion ahead of last year, fiscal year to date, and of course as we all know, those outlays don't include the "stimulus" bill outlays, most of which will come next year. In other words, our public spending ($2.67 trillion dollars so far this fiscal year) was up 21% before the cost of the stimulus. The crash is going to be frigging huge.
By , at
Tue Jul 14, 07:03:00 PM:
That ought to play merry hell with the deficit. One wonders what this is doing to interest rates on Gov't debt? Bet rates aren't headed down. I believe the revenue drop mirrors the drop that California has experienced. One wonders how much the economy is really contracting and if the Gov't is not cooking the books on GDP and unemployment to make things look better than they are?
By 
JPMcT, at
Tue Jul 14, 07:54:00 PM:
Even a drunken sailor on payday would have more sense than the current President and Democrat Congress.
I can only conclude that it is their INTENTION to run the economy into the ground as a means to eliminate private wealth, homogenize the middle class, foster government dependency and increase the power of the ruling class (Orwell's "inner party")
Sound paranoid...well...LOOK AROUND!
How can they get away with this?
Simple...a critical mass of the American populoation has, with the active assistance of their government, made the transition from God-fearing fiercely independent patriots to obese, ignorant, self-serving poltroons.
The rest of us can scream all we want...we haven't got the votes.
By Elijah, at
Tue Jul 14, 08:32:00 PM:
"I can only conclude that it is their INTENTION to run the economy into the ground as a means to eliminate private wealth, homogenize the middle class, foster government dependency and increase the power of the ruling class (Orwell's "inner party")"
- almost like a disavowal of the pursuit of middleclassness
By , at
Tue Jul 14, 08:36:00 PM:
And now Obie wants to spend another twelve billion bucks.
By , at
Tue Jul 14, 09:16:00 PM:
mind-boggling
there must be some sort of explanation.
the individual receipts are off too much (vis-a-vis income earned by individuals). corporate profits are off 25%, so it's not as surprising.
By , at
Tue Jul 14, 10:52:00 PM:
billy bob, the individual receipts figure isn't "off too much" when you consider the folks and their respective positions that aren't paying in, its I-Bankers and corporate lawyers that have lost their jobs over the past year, five people that each made $200,000 last year paid a lot more taxes than 50 people that each made $20,000.
And its the former that have lost their jobs in this recession/depression.
By , at
Wed Jul 15, 11:03:00 AM:
Here's another chart that will amaze. It's a charting of state by state effective tax rates, via Greg Mankiw, should the current Democrat tax proposals become law. I live in New Jersey and own businesses in two other states (one entirely and others as a partner). The monies those companies make annually are taxed at my individual rate, but in almost all cases the after tax amounts are retained by the businesses as money to fund growth. I don't take the money out and consume it as income, though it is taxed as if I did.
Every single dollar the government takes reduces our ability to invest in the businesses-- every damn dollar.
Americans of every income level ought to be outraged. These tax proposals will cost jobs and economic growth, not just at my businesses but at every step along the local economic path where the normal multiplier would have an impact. I would imagine that the worst impact of these proposals, on a macro level, will be felt most acutely at the lowest income levels.
The Democrats are job killers. They are terrible for poor people especially. These proposals are evil, plain and simple.
By , at
Wed Jul 15, 11:27:00 AM:
One thing further about the Tax Foundation chart, and that is it doesn't include real estate and sales taxes. In New Jersey especially, those taxes are heavily utilized by government to fund operations. My real estate taxes are $35,000 per year (quarter acre lot, four bedroon house) and sales tax is 7%. The effective tax rate we actually will pay on all income is obviously much higher, even after taking into account the deduction for real estate taxes.
By , at
Wed Jul 15, 06:39:00 PM:
The state-by-state effective tax rates in the chart significantly understate the tax burden of self-employed business owners because it omits social security tax.
Based on my 2008 income, my top marginal tax rate under Obamanomics will be 65-70%. Bottom line: there's simply no reason to make more than about $200k anymore. Needless to say, I'm no longer working as hard as I otherwise would.
By SR, at
Wed Jul 15, 10:07:00 PM:
Even the lowest state is barely budging 50% Ranking them in order
isn't really as revealing as one would think. The surtaxes reduce the disadvantage California and New York have relative to the rest of the states. More skullduggery by the Obamaniacs.
By , at
Wed Jul 15, 10:33:00 PM:
The Democrats are job killers. They are terrible for poor people especially.
For the poor who seek to work themselves out of poverty, yes. But for those who only care that the next government check comes on time, the Democrats are just the ticket.
By , at
Thu Jul 16, 09:36:00 AM:
You make a very good point.
I was just assuming everyone would want to imprive their lot, and get out of dependancy mode. The administration and their handmaidens in Congress assume just the opposite-- they think there are lots of people who can't wait to quit working and enter dependancy.
