Showing posts with label payroll tax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label payroll tax. Show all posts

Saturday, December 01, 2012

OUR DEBT IS NOT 16 TRILLION

Chris Cox and Bill archer pointed out in a Wall Street Journal article on
November 27th that our government has not been including Social
Security and Medicare liabilities when computing our national debt.
“The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.”

“Why haven't Americans heard about the titanic $86.8 trillion liability from these programs? One reason: The actual figures do not appear in black and white on any balance sheet. But it is possible to discover them. Included in the annual Medicare Trustees' report are separate actuarial estimates of the unfunded liability for Medicare Part A (the hospital portion), Part B (medical insurance) and Part D (prescription drug coverage).

“As of the most recent Trustees' report in April, the net present value of the unfunded liability of Medicare was $42.8 trillion. The comparable balance sheet liability for Social Security is $20.5 trillion. The realworld impact will be felt when currently unfunded liabilities need to be paid. In theory, the Medicare and Social Security trust funds have at least some money to pay a portion of the bills that are coming due. In actuality, the cupboard is bare: 100% of the payroll taxes for these programs was spent in the same year they were collected.

“In exchange for the payroll taxes that aren't paid out in benefits to current retirees in any given year, the trust funds got nonmarketable Treasury debt. Now, as the baby boomers' promised benefits swamp the payroll-tax collections from today's workers, the government has to swap the trust funds' nonmarketable securities for marketable Treasury debt. The Treasury will then have to sell not only this debt, but far more, in order to pay the benefits as they come due. “
Mr. Cox, a former chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee
and the Securities and Exchange Commission, is president of Bingham
Consulting LLC. Mr. Archer, a former chairman of the House Ways &
Means Committee, is a senior policy adviser at
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.


Saturday, October 06, 2012

Introducing THE USA PLAN

The USA Plan is bold and truly revolutionary. It should satisfy both capitalists and collectivists, Republicans and Democrats, Libertarians and Anarchists and everyone in between because it makes the poor, the middle-class and the rich wealthier – in fact it delivers the American Dream to just about everyone.
The USA Plan is designed to increase the wealth of all citizens not just the few. It is triggered by the reduction of taxes imposed on them by government. The Plan is based on the Rise Up Theory of Economics which elevates the financial rights of the individual over those of the state.


The Rise Up Theory does for the poor and middle class what the "Trickle Down" Theory did for the rich - it makes them wealthy. It closes the gap between the rich and the poor and eliminates the cry for social justice. It reduces the income disparity which has become a major political issue for which no party has been proposing a workable solution. The USA Plan is that solution.


It is a simple concept, it redirects the 15.3% presently paid by individuals (and in the case of employees, their employers too) in the form of payroll taxes into a personally-owned investment account ( a “USA” – a Universal Savings Account)) that will grow into millions over the citizen's working life. The funds are invested in safe indexed stock funds that have historically been growing at over a 10% rate for the last 25 years.


At that rate of return a taxpayer or household making an average $50,000 per year would invest 15% per year or $7,500 and generate over a 40-year working life a $4 million nest egg. Go to the website www.theusaplan.com to review the year by year analysis of how the $300,000 ($7,500 x 40 years) accumulates, grows and compounds into a $4 million-dollar nest egg which will throw off a $33,000 a month retirement check.


As it will not require a taxpayer to invest his after-tax dollars into IRA or similar retirement plans it will cost no more than what is presently being taken by government. Americans can then use their after-tax cash to support their chosen lifestyles. The USA Plan will insure them of an affluent retirement and enough monthly income to buy the best medical care on the planet. The Plan eliminates the need to save for retirement.


As we know all private and public pension funds are all heavily invested in the stock market. By creating a vehicle to fund the growth of the private sector the investment of “USA” funds will immediately create millions of new jobs while at the same time guaranteeing the taxpayer a million-dollar nest egg at retirement. It will explode the overall wealth of the nation. The USA Plan is a short- term solution as well as a long-term solution we all are looking for.


Man has been saddled with poverty since the beginning of time. The few who were fortunate enough to be born into wealth or smart enough to accumulate it throughout history have always been a very small number of people. American independence changed all that to enable more 0f the population to become wealthy.


Unfortunately one-hundred years ago that independence permitted the people to give the right to tax incomes to the state which has been perverted into a mechanism to funnel wealth to the very few who know how to legally avoid taxation - Guys like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates whose fortunes have never been taxed because we don’t tax the appreciation in value until the stock is sold.


America has never attempted to solve the riddle of poverty but has left that up to the individual. He or she either sinks or swims AFTER TAXES. And there is the problem. By punitive taxation and suffocating regulation that raise all costs of living most Americans can’t save or work their way out of poverty. The talk of the American Dream of financial independence is just that – talk.


The Rise Up Theory of Economics as incorporated in the USA Plan will solve the riddle of poverty and generate all kinds of peripheral benefits not the least of which will be the elimination of war as soon as the Plan is adopted throughout the world.


War is not waged by people who want to protect their property.


Of course “peace on earth” depends on America leading the way and exercising leadership and resolve not to change or weaken the


USA Plan.