It sounds like a line from the latest Mike Myers movie. It is what the new age arch criminal wants in ransom. ‘One trillion dollars’ to not blow up the world.
Hey, maybe it is a new Toyota. Its fast and sporty, big enough for four. Also economical (a must these days). It is the Toyota Trillion. Has an alliterative ring to it.
Unfortunately, it is neither. It is how much the new stimulus bill needs for funding. I know Barack was for change, but that is a huge pile of change right there. Its your change and my change.
Looks like the boogeyman of the mid-east terrorist has been replaced with the axe-murderer of the economy. That is the biggest change that I see. There is the early Rorschach test of Bush v Obama.
It even answers the rhetorical ‘what are you afraid of’ question.
What I think is a fair and equitable plan that is also patriotic is, don’t charge income tax for 1 trillion $ worth of time. Specifically, from what I can understand, that is about 14% of the year or roughly 1.5 months.
The IRS collects about $7.5 trillion in revenue from personal income taxes a year. So 1 trillion dollars would cover a good six weeks. This type of break from taxes would have a huge impact on the economy. In effect, most folks would have a 15% to 36% instant raise. Lets review the high points.
1.This plan would not increase the size of government.
2.No long term costs, like leases, equipment, pensions for the government employees that we did not hire.
3.Instant results, the money would be in the hands of the public as soon as the plan is instituted.
4.No difficult rules to figure out who gets the funding, if you get a paycheck you are included.
5.Perfect alignment of per capita distribution, the benefits follow the taxpayers. Person for person, county by county, state by state. Eliminates unequal distribution of competing plans.
There are some simple rules to follow.
Anti-dumping provision. You can not allocate more than 14% of ones income to the tax free period.
A separate box on the 2009 W-2 for wages during this period.
A separate line on the 1040 forms for this income. It would be treated as a deduction from income, not subject to any phase out provisions. We can deal with any AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) issues in further study.
This plan does not effect any state taxing authorities.
So basically that is it. Government creates $1 trillion and uses it. Taxpayers do not pay income tax for 6 weeks. Simple, straight forward stimulus. That is real change.