What Every American Needs to Know - US moves quietly toward a flat tax

By David R. Francis Columnist

Without much public debate or even awareness, the United States is heading toward a flat tax.
That means the middle class will pour nearly as large a share of its income into tax coffers as millionaires and billionaires do. Throw in another tax cut along the lines of the two successfully supported by President Bush, and the middle class could actually pay a little more.

In summary, the plan proposed will take affect in 2010. Following are the anticipated tax savings by income range.

Top 1% Earners $1,028,000+ in annual earnings = -8.4% Tax Reduction
Next 4% Earners $ 204,000 in annual earnings = -5.4% Tax Reduction
Next 15% Earners $ 96,200 in annual earnings = -2.1% Tax Reduction
Second Quintile $ 56,100 in annual earnings = -.9% Tax Reduction
Third Quintile $ 34,200 in annual earnings = -.6% Tax Reduction
Fourth Quintile $ 20,700 in annual earnings = -.7% Tax Reduction
Lowest Quintile $ 9,400 in annual earnings = -.3% Tax Reduction

Why are they being so quiet about it? Because they don’t want the public to get up-in-arms about it until it is too late to stop it.

Help us stop this bad idea today – Become a United Citizen of America by donating here. It is time to join forces as Citizens.

"Where the people fear the government you have tyranny; where the government fears the people you have liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

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Social Security Mess

What people need to understand is how we got ourselves into the SS mess. We all know why it started (the big depression). But, why is it failing today? Let me tell you;

You see, when they take that SS deduction out of your paycheck, it is not set aside for retired people. Our politicians consider it "general funds” and they place a tag next to it that indicates they will have to pay it some time in the future, but today they can spend-spend and spend some more.

This worked for quite some time because the boomers out numbered the WW2 generation by a big margin and were making plenty of money to support the retired generation. So government used their SS funds to take care of the retirees, and spent what was left over. And they spent and spent and spent (instead of saving some for the next generations).

Now, the boomers will be looking for their cash, and it ain't there, and the following generations are not contributing enough to support the boomers - and well, guess what? Now we have a SS mess. Not because there wasn't enough cash (there was more than enough), but because greedy politicians spent it all, and now they’re trying to fix it and looking all around dumfounded as to what happened.

I say – Eliminate 50% of our nations Congressman and 50% of the Senators (they’re not doing shit anyway), take their salaries and place it into a protected SS fund along with current SS contributions, invest it into conservative mutual funds, and the problem will be solved in just a few years. After all, politicians created this mess, make them sacrifice their jobs in order to fix it.

District 158 Referendum Tax Mistake

The president of the Huntley District 158 school board acknowledged Thursday members lacked "critical" information when they asked voters for a 55-cent tax-rate increase. (And if you believe this, I have some land I would like to sell you.)

At issue is the claim made by two District 158 residents - and later substantiated by outside experts - that a 55-cent tax-rate hike would cost taxpayers more than board members said it would. "This is a very critical bit of information," Skala said. "I am frustrated that something has come to light that I feel we, as a board of education, should have known." (What he is really saying is; damn, we got caught.)

The explanation is complex: The district's levy, the amount it collects from taxpayers, can only increase from one year to the next by the rate of inflation. That means that without a tax increase, the district could only raise last year's levy by this year's cap of 1.9 percent. The district's current total tax rate is $4.30 per $100 of equalized assessed value. The extra 55 cents represents a 13 percent increase.

Board members now must decide whether to tax the owner of a $200,000 home the extra $360 they said they would during the campaign - or to take full advantage of the tax hike, which would cost the same taxpayer much more. Exactly how much more will depend on a number of factors, such as the increase in property values, but it could be as much as twice that amount ($720 annually).

District officials and board members have not disclosed why the information wasn't provided during board meetings and a series of public forums leading up to the March and November votes. Nor has anyone been publicly blamed for withholding, mishandling or not fully explaining the potential effect of the tax hike.

The question is; If they made such a monumental mistake as this, how can they be trusted to spend the millions in tax dollars they already are receiving without making more mistakes?

Public floggings are in order for not only the school board, but for the school administrators and for the B.E.S.T. committee for misleading the public. This is an embarrassment!