This is so dumbed down it's ridiculous. Where do you suppose we start? Cut spending? Great! Which programs shall we cut spending on? Good luck getting people to agree on the programs. Ok, so let's increase the income! That means higher taxes. Fine, I guess. Who're we going to tax more? Rich people? Not with the current Congress. Poor people? Yeah, bad idea. No one says we should increase our national debt. The problem is that no one can agree how.
The last few times there was a big tax cut, the tax revenues actually went up. One reason was increased economic activity...that is, there was more money made by people and corporations, so the lower tax *rate* actually brought in more money.
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When you raise the tax rates attempting to soak "the rich," people change their activities to try to avoid taxes in proportion to the cost/benefit of the changes. So, right now the US as a country beleives it is worthwhile to give a tax deduction or credit for things like charitable contributions, home mortgage interest, business expenses, investing in certain kinds of things (municipal bonds, so a city or hospital can issue a bond that costs them lower interest payments to the bond holders), an equity loss that can be deducted from equity gains to encourage investment in businesses, investing in an IRA or 401k, depreciating capital expenses in a company's equipment or factory or tools...remove those, and you'll have less of that activity.
Check this out!
http://www.usdebtclock.org
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When you raise the tax rates attempting to soak "the rich," people change their activities to try to avoid taxes in proportion to the cost/benefit of the changes. So, right now the US as a country beleives it is worthwhile to give a tax deduction or credit for things like charitable contributions, home mortgage interest, business expenses, investing in certain kinds of things (municipal bonds, so a city or hospital can issue a bond that costs them lower interest payments to the bond holders), an equity loss that can be deducted from equity gains to encourage investment in businesses, investing in an IRA or 401k, depreciating capital expenses in a company's equipment or factory or tools...remove those, and you'll have less of that activity.