Some Extreme Liberal Proposals

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by ErikBEggs, Mar 11, 2014.

  1. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    .....not really. I'm not very "extreme" except to the right wing.

    Anyway here goes:

    The Economy / Taxation -
    -Raise the Minimum wage to $10.10 / hour, index it to inflation biannually (automatic adjustment every second year).
    -Expand the earned income tax credit
    -Raise the Capital gains tax rate to 39.6% for all gains over $400,000 (current rates under this remain unchanged)
    -All other tax rates remain the same

    Climate Change -
    -Increase the Federal gas tax by $1.00 / gallon, indexed to inflation biannually. This should clear up the Federal transportation funding problem real quick. Additional income dispersed to the states to fund public transporation, bike lanes, and expand implementation of HOV lanes on all eligible interstate and state highways (6 lanes or more).
    -Follow up with "tax free" holidays - where the Federal gas tax is waived completely (thinking the week of each 4 major holidays).
    -Raise the threshold for "gas guzzler" tax to vehicles not achieving a combined EPA estimated 20 MPG for SUVs, 24 MPG for cars. Pick up trucks will be eligible for exemption, provided they are used in the owner's line of work.
    -All commuting miles made eligible for the IRS $0.565 / mile deduction, up to $1,000 / year cap. (This deduction is outside of the eligible normal business deductions limits). This should offset the *some* of the immediate gas pain.
     
  2. My Fing ID

    My Fing ID Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    K so just going to the $1 gas tax; why should drivers pay for alternate transportation? It would make more sense to raise bus fair and tax bikes and bike products to pay for their infrastructure.
     
  3. SpaceCricket79

    SpaceCricket79 New Member Past Donor

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    So what is the federal govt spending this money on that will "stop climate change"?
     
  4. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    Rail transit pays more of its own costs than driving does, so I don't know where you are going with this?

    Also... tax bikes??? LOL!!!!

    Bikes don't pollute nor do they damage roads. Bikes don't need to be taxed other than the general sale. LOL, that is laughable.

    Bike infrastructure is incredibly cheap. Road striping runs for about $10 per linear foot including the installation and labor. LOL.
     
  5. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    Read between the lines... less pollution, less driving, less dependence on oil, less traffic (traffic is a huge economic liability) on roads.

    Also, as more people bike / walk to work, health care costs will go down overtime.
     
  6. Unifier

    Unifier New Member

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    Why can't you people grasp that this only raises the cost of other things? Your minimum wage workers don't actually end up making more money. Everything just ends up costing more for everyone to compensate for the increase in pay that the employers are now forced to dole out. Which then creates another demand from people like you to once again raise the minimum wage. Which then causes costs to go up again. And on. And on. And on. That money you're paying those workers has to come from somewhere. And every time you bump up the minimum wage, that gets passed onto the consumer.

    This is why liberals suck at economics. They think passing laws magically creates new money. They have a very childlike naivety to the way they look at the world.
     
  7. Sanskrit

    Sanskrit Well-Known Member

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    Enjoy the Depression.
     
  8. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    Ha! Your claims are completely baseless.

    Labor costs are one piece of the more complicated pie. Everyone knows more wages is more consumer spending, which is more profit. Historically, minimum wage increases have had a negligible effect on unemployment and costs.

    I wouldn't expect you to grasp a complex concept like inflation.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Care to elaborate?
     
  9. johnmayo

    johnmayo New Member Past Donor

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    Gas tax is regressive. Taxes should be raised on fuel efficient cars if anything, they use roads too and don't pay their fare share for them. They are expensive and usually subsidized by workers of all stripes.

    Minimum wage would just make it illegal for a lot of people to gain job skills at low cost. No proof at all will be offered by you that it helps. No data whatsoever.

    Capital gains are taxed twice usually and are devalued by inflation. Why do you think you should be taking that much from the economy and spending it on the ruling class? Do they manage money efficiently? Do they grow the economy?
     
  10. logical1

    logical1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Lunitic liberals only think about more taxes. How about cutting spending. You could begin by freezing Fed gov employee hiring except for the military.
     
  11. johnmayo

    johnmayo New Member Past Donor

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    Post data that the minimum wage increases help people. Show me the drop in poverty. Show me the rising incomes or dropping welfare benefits. Lets see. Put up or shut up please.
     
  12. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    This accomplishes absolutely nothing for the economy.

    - - - Updated - - -

    What the hell? So polluters should be rewarded? :roflol:

    How would that make it illegal to gain job skills at low cost? Minimum wage isn't debatable when it is set.

    Capital gains are NOT taxed twice.
     
  13. johnmayo

    johnmayo New Member Past Donor

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    Are gas taxes to punish people or to pay for road construction?

    Most are taxed at the corporate level. Are you going to leave $41 out of every $100 of corporate profit? For who, nancy pelosi to spend? How is that going to grow the economy. Your last tax hike stunted the recovery, cut our growth in half. Why not just stop the QE foolishness?

    How much is a jewelers apprentice worth per your before they know how to cut any stones? $50 a week stipend isn't fair? What about a welders apprentice who can go on afterward to make big money?

    Any data whatsoever that minimum wage reduces poverty. As in, the minimum wage rises and poverty drops? Welfare spending decreases?
     
  14. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    Gas taxes do not discriminate. They are paid on a user-fee basis. You pay for what you pump into your vehicle.

    CAn you form a coherent argument?

    Perhaps you should educate yourself on why minimum wage exists.

    Where in my post did I say I was raising minimum wage to reduce poverty?
     
  15. johnmayo

    johnmayo New Member Past Donor

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    Are they for road construction? Are fuel efficient newer cars more expensive then older cars that tend to consume more gas? To a poor person? Isn't that regressive then? If everyone had electric cars how would you pay for roads? Do electric cards not use the roads? Why should their user fee be less?

    How much per hour is a jewelers apprentice worth when they need training from an experienced hand and can't produce anything if value yet?

    To keep low skilled people out of jobs? That is the original reason. Why don't you have any data, why do you dodge? Don't you understand that is intellectual dishonesty Lefter style?


    Why would you do it then? Just to boss people around?
     
  16. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    They are just as "regressive" as any sales tax. They are mostly paid on a user-funded basis. However, gas tax revenue has been so poor that the roads are subsidized by general funds.

    Registration, inspection, and vehicle fees also contribute to road maintenance.

    Electric cars are not polluters. Passenger cars in general do not cause noticeable damage to roadways at all. The damage is almost exclusively caused by trucks and high-load vehicles such as buses.

    Irrelevant to why minimum wage exists.

    No. Minimum wage is to protect the common man from employers. In a full employment scenario, there will always be approximately 4% of people looking for work. NOT EVERYONE will be employed, which gives unrestricted bargaining power to employers. Minimum wage also insures a basic standard for the population, which is why it is almost unanimous among developed world countries. Minimum wage also gives someone a chance at escaping poverty. With no minimum wage, a working man could work full-time and be in poverty, which defeats the purpose of working to begin with.

    Raising the minimum wage raises the standard in this country, and allows people at (and just above) minimum wage additional purchasing power in a lackluster economy.
     
  17. johnmayo

    johnmayo New Member Past Donor

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    Since you dodge all questions and still have no minimum wage data I will have to do a few questions at a time so you can't wriggle like a pathological lefty.

    When they create roads do passenger cars go on them? When ice cracks them do only trucks need those potholes fixed? Has fuel efficiency increased over the years you have had a road construction funding gap? At least you admit this is a regressive tax. Especially when you count all the rising prices because of rising transportation costs.
     
  18. My Fing ID

    My Fing ID Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If rail infrastructure is so cheap then the ticket prices won't go up much. If Bike infrastructure is cheap then bicyclists won't have a problem paying for it. Why should drivers bear the burden of paying for others?
     
  19. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    Taxcutter says:
    Yup. They're extreme all right. Extremely bad for taxpayers and consumers. No sacrifice at all by Big Government.

    You certainly have it in for US taxpayers and consumers. Why is that?
     
  20. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    I already told you my reasoning for raising minimum wage had nothing to do with poverty (although the CBO's latest report did say it would lift 500,000 people out of poverty).

    Of course.

    Nope.

    The funding gap is two-sided; fuel economy has increased (despite conservative objections to Obama's activism in this subject), and the gas tax hasn't been raised in 20 years for some stupid reason.

    Of course. It is a "fair" regressive tax. Not everyone drives, or does everyone have to drive. Therefore, the people who drive should pay for it. It is currently subsidized by people who don't drive via personal income tax (although admittedly people who take public transportation are disproportionately lower income).

    Exactly - inflation, higher traffic loads, more severe weather, higher wages, etc.
     
  21. ErikBEggs

    ErikBEggs New Member

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    Others are subsidizing driving the most. Drivers only cover about 50% of their own costs per the national average.

    Bike infrastructure is shared with road infrastructure; it merely requires a re-stripe. Once again, bikers don't harm the roads or the environment so their contribution is unnecessary (they don't damage anything). If anything, bikers just lower health insurance costs for the country.

    - - - Updated - - -

    The only harm any of these proposals do for the taxpayer is the gas tax increase. Even then, consumers are not FORCED to drive to work for long distances... it is simply a choice. There are plenty of alternatives.

    I only proposed a tax hike on the capital gains tax for the top 1%. This will have no effect on consumers.
     
  22. johnmayo

    johnmayo New Member Past Donor

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    Does a hybrid car need roads less then a 90s ford minivan?

    Fuel taxes are plenty high now. Why not raise them at the local level for areas wasting their infrastructure money so we don't have to subsidize crony union operations?

    No the rising costs that will raise prices of things like food and the cost of living in general.

    Name a time the CBO was correct. Still no historical data. Why would you want to raise the minimum wage again? I see you dodged the apprentice's dilemma.
     
  23. My Fing ID

    My Fing ID Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's great, they can pay for that stripe. Why should drivers pay for bikes? I'm not seeing any justification, I'm just seeing someone who wants to make all transportation more expensive to pay for alternate transportation, which will increase the price of everything that moves on the road.
     
  24. johnmayo

    johnmayo New Member Past Donor

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    Why shouldn't cyclists pay for bike lanes? They slow down traffic and cause thousand of accidents and the extra lane costs good money. Is is because they might dress up in spandex that you think they are liberals? They own cars too you know.
     
  25. Pred

    Pred Well-Known Member

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    Find me a public transportation system that can navigate the massive neighborhoods and grid that is south FL and I'll give you a cookie. Should we all ride our families to the front gates, park all our bikes, then take a bus in 95 degree heat. How do we move the groceries with that plan? You couldn't charge enough to bring in the extreme number of buses it would take to actually move everyone around. There is nothing that can separate us from our cars, besides poverty=) NOTHING. Hey, we got the Tri-rail to go north and south, but nothing to go east and west. Even if you toss 1000 buses zipping around, it won't work. You have to get to the bus and how long are we expected to walk? A Mile? Go try that in a suit during the summer. You'll have to take a shower when you get to work, hehe.
     

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