President Trump will be in New York at the United Nations this week. Previously he has called the UN incompetent and no friend to US or Israel. He also complained that the US should not have to pay a fourth of the total budget for an organization of 190 countries.
He will be giving a speech and talking to a lot of national leaders but his main goal will be to find out if the UN has reformed. He will likely be disappointed. He can’t even get the Republicans in Congress to reform.
Trump also criticized China and is threatening to cut off trade and financial transactions if they don’t stop supporting North Korea. That has scared a lot of Americans who worry about a lack of Christmas toys and knick-knacks at Walmart. Well, China is smart enough to realize getting billions of dollars from us is more important than donating millions to “Rocket man” to develop nuclear bombs and long-range rockets.
In Washington, the next big debate is on tax reform. Now, to understand reforming of income taxes you have to know who pays the taxes. The top ten percent pay two-thirds of all income taxes. The bottom half pay almost nothing. Republicans want people to spend their own money, or invest it, instead of sending so much to Washington. That would mean more jobs, more productivity for American businesses, and a growing economy. That’s the Republican view. Democrats want the higher income people to pay more taxes so the government can share it with the bottom half. They think these people will spend the extra money and that will increase jobs and production. A good place to start tax reform is to eliminate all deductions, especially mortgages and state taxes. Why should people who rent or have paid off their houses subsidize others who borrow to live in expensive homes? And why should residents of states with low taxes subsidize those who live in high tax states including New York and California?
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“It costs ten times more to govern us than it used to, and we are not governed one?tenth as good.” DT #570, May 24, 1928
“There is a tremendous movement on to get lower taxes on earned incomes. Then will come the real problem, ‘Who among us on salary are earning our income?’” DT #1051, Dec. 8, 1929