Guest Post by Martin Armstrong
Illinois House had voted 72-45 to pass a 32% income tax hike as government refuses to address the real issue of a never-ending need for more and more tax revenue to keep state employees rolling in their pensions. The governor vetoed the tax increase and he was overriden.
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There is absolutely no hope for Illinois. Just sell its debt for there is no long-term fix for this state of any state for that matter. We are facing a major Sovereign Debt Crisis at the state and municipal level that will eventually bring down governments on a wholesale basis.
The policies of just tax’em til they die and they tax their heirs is coming to an end. Governments will collapse and the only solution is to limit government by a new constitution that it may not consume greater than 15% of GDP on a federal, state, and local level combined. Employment should primarily be outsourced and private entities should bid to run various departments. That will eliminate government pensions, which is the monumental source of the real crisis.
We can do this, but we have to crash and burn first. Government will NEVER simply surrender power without a fight.
I can’t even imagine the shit storm that is on the horizon……………..
I know whats brewing is not funny, butt, this made me laugh out loud.
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“That will eliminate government pensions, which is the monumental source of the real crisis.” Not quite accurate, Martin. Nothing wrong with government pensions. Theft, which is what they have become is the problem
In some hypothetical world of brilliant, wise and scrupulously honest people, pensions might be a tolerable, though problematic, part of compensation.
In the real world where NO ONE knows future inflation rates, investment returns, demands on tax revenue or growth of both population and prosperity at a local level, pensions will ALWAYS become unfair to the people charged with paying them. Accepting a pension obligation as the payer is a fool’s game.
I’ve got an idea: Can they sell off some of the niggers?
Update 07/06/17 3:30 CDT – Illinois state capitol on lock down!
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/illinois-house-reconvenes-to-override-rauner-budget-vetoes/
Can’t pay anybody to take them and they are flooding Europe and Florida like starving rats.
“Governments will collapse and the only solution is to limit government by a new constitution that it may not consume greater than 15% of GDP on a federal, state, and local level combined. ”
While a noteworthy suggestion I see two problems that will keep it from working.
1 The government will be the one defining GDP and can manipulate the figures to make the GDP look much larger than it actually is to get more tax money.
2 High GDP’s in good times, times of expansion, will lead to the government spending more than the adjusted tax revenues during bad times can support leading to the same inability to cover the bills.
Government always finds a way to make things work in its favor, almost never in the favor of the people it governs.
You can’t go against gravity forever.
Dutchman,
I cannot help but agree:
“When farming dominated the economy, most men worked as long as their health held out. As they aged, though, they often cut their hours and turned the most physically demanding chores over to sons or hired hands. In 1880, when half of Americans worked on a farm, 78 percent of American men worked past age 65.”
Not the best source The Seattle Times, but most men worked until they could not, unless they had the means which often meant raising several children. Now many do not even work much before the age of 22 or 23 have 1 or 2 kids not nearly the amount of sacrifice of their parents or grandparents raising kids. Suddenly they expect to retire at 50, and wonder why the damn government, ie the taxpayers cannot/will not pay for it any longer. I understand quite well that today is much different,but I only could afford 2 children and if taxes did not take out so much of our income I would have loved to have more, if not for them for me.
Bob
Civilians get paid to solve problems, government employees get paid to create problems. The taxes they abuse us with is horrible enough, but pale in comparison to the finances, assets, resources, kinetic energy, and creative ability we squander attempting to satisfy their ever changing, never ending regulations. Just as someone commented, if we put them on 15% of GDP then they will adjust GDP, if we put them on minimum wage then they will adjust the minimum to $100.00 and hour. So here is my suggestion, put them on rations appropriated by the taxpayers. Make them eat ever bite before they get more. We do their shopping for them at Good Will, or maybe dumpster diving. Then we go back and grandfather in a clause forcing them to forfeit all assets, including cash and retirement funds, they illegally, unethically garnered by raiding our bank accounts and assets. They cannot own a home, we will provide a small apartment. They must ride bicycles, be denied the use of firearms, health insurance, running water, and indoor plumbing. Furthermore, they will receive a red star tattooed on their foreheads for instant identification during the annual purge which will allow any civilian to kill any government employee on sight without fear of punishment. Anyone that does not agree with me also gets a red star. Thanks
That is a wild revenge day dream.
The real revenge will probably involve ambushes with automatic weapons from citizens no longer willing to wait for redress. It won’t be a day dream, or any fun for anyone involved. Last time something similar happened, half the country was ruined and hundreds of thousands died. This one probably won’t be any better.
Hondo,
Apparently you have not read the Federalist Papers. “We are the Government and we are here to help you.”
Bob
The terrifying thing is the Governor could not get 1/3 of the legislators of either House to stand with him and cut some spending. Even his own party, that is supposed to be for fiscal discipline, wilted as public employees and their private sector stooges whined.
If you can’t even rein in current spending just how in the hell do you plan on getting a constitutional amendment restricting government spending to no more than 15% of GDP?
The problem is the legislature knows they cant cut spending. There is nowhere left to cut. The basic infrastructure care and maintenance is all that is left thats for the benefit of taxpayers. The rest of the money goes to pensions and welfare handouts. The legislature wont cut any of these…first, this is how they get the vote and second, they dont understand the math behind spending. Chicago will burn itself to the ground, they are just trying to prolong it. The handouts will eventually be cut off when the stores accepting the gov checks via state programs for products (which coincidentally have made up a huge portion of products the last decade) are no longer cashable. An emergency will have to be declared and the Fed will have to conduct a “bailout”, much like Puerto Rico is seeking. This will domino of course because suppliers of product wont supply for free. Everything comes down to whether a payment system works or not.
I’d rather have lower taxes and lower spending, but this article is more hyperventilating about little. Illinois just raised its income tax rate to 4.95%. The author prefers to call that a “32% increase” (true enough) rather than saying that Illinois raised its tax rate to 38% of California’s income tax rate (as high as 13% including some municipalities’ income tax). Government spends too much, but Illinois is far from the worst offender.
Uska Waran
Your logic: Going from dumb to dumber isn’t so bad because it’s better than Insane.
Iska: You have a great future…with the government!
Iska. – I luvs ya, but that is some dumbass shit right there.
Illinois has the second highest property tax rate. That way more than offsets the difference in Cal income taxes.
Illinois is going to see a fleeing of white, prosperous folks akin to what happened in Detroit. Fuck those cocksuckers.
To the Citizens of Illinois (America):
You have given your vote to the politicians who have promised to loot your neighbor for your benefit. They did steal for you but like true thieves they enriched themselves in the process. You have mostly gotten mostly promises while the politicians have skimmed the cream off the top.
Your neighbor has been ruined now and the promises are coming due. You are running out of other peoples money. When you contracted the politicians to be your thieves, they stole from you.
You deserve what you are going to get.
Simple solution to this – National sales tax, and get rid of all of the “payroll taxes”, and property taxes. This gives a vote to the the working man. If you don’t like what the government in your area is doing, then don’t buy in that jurisdiction. The government idiots in Philly have found this out with their soda tax. All of the business simply moved. This on a larger scale would force governments to actually do what the citizens want instead of their donors / themselves. No one would have any right to your earned capital, until YOU decide to exercise your “vote” by purchasing something. Savings would again be a virtue as a well.
Right now the system of taxation is simply armed robbery, and forces people to give up their lifestyle or even move to escape the stupidity.
That’s stupid. This is a state issue. How does national anything work into the discussion? Martin says Illinois refuses to address the problem. Wrong. They just did. The solution the elected representatives of the people of the state decided on was to tax people more. I don’t like it, but I don’t live there, so don’t really care. Fine with me. But that’s not the same as refusing to address the problem. It’s just not an outcome Martin prefers. Fake news. Iska has the only rational post on this thread.
Starseducer: You and Iska move to the head of the class and get your free red star. thanks
Hondo. My state, ZERO income tax. That’s why I live here. I’m hoping Trump cuts my federal taxes in a big way, as he is proposing. Illinois can do whatever they want and have to do. If they need to raise their taxes to run their state the way they want, it doesn’t affect me. That’s the beauty of a federal republic. Fifty different systems, find the one that works for you. Of course I think Illinois should have cut spending. But the majority of the residents of Illinois, through their elected representatives, disagree. And it’s their state, and their money. They would rather pay more taxes. What’s wrong with that?
A “national sales tax’ will end up as a value added tax.
Taxes added at each level of production through distribution (which makes it have added value to each previous stage) and becoming a part of the taxed value at each new stage of taxation.
Something that has not worked out well in Europe so far, they’re in as bad or worse shape than we are for the most part.
And to make further problems: To graduate from a public high school in Chicago, students will soon have to meet a new and unusual requirement: They must show that they’ve secured a job or received a letter of acceptance to college, a trade apprenticeship, a gap year program or the military.
The original Constitution was written as a business compact, and corporation money has poured into the pockets of politicians ever since, to expand government control over the economy and maintain the supremacy of corporations ever since. A new Constitution won’t change that aim.
Dec 1962–John F Kennedy at the Economic Club of New York:
“There are a number of ways by which the Federal Government can meet its responsibilities to aid economic growth. . . . . But the most direct and significant kind of Federal action aiding economic growth is to make possible an increase in private consumption and investment demand—to cut the fetters which hold back private spending. . . . If Government is to retain the confidence of the people, it must not spend more than can be justified on grounds of national need or spent with maximum efficiency.
The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrents to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system; and this administration pledged itself last summer to an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes to be enacted and become effective in 1963.”
. . . .
Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large Federal deficits on the other. . . . . In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now. . . . . And the reason is that only full employment can balance the budget, and tax reduction can pave the way to that employment. . . . .”
Much too bad he didn’t live to see the outcome of his tax cuts, because the economy did grow when government interference was reduced, the country did blossom…only to be negated by LBJ and the Vietnam War.
What’s hilarious is leftists love JFK.
What he’s saying sounds like Trump.
But leftists think Trump = Hitler.
So, Leftists = morons.
Ya’ll need to cut the Welfare and spend it on essentials. PS: Illinois reminds me of Reconstruction; ya’ll crammed piss-poor Yankee government down our throats so now ya’ll enjoy your own leftist creation.