Okay, that's it, I'm going political. I didn't want to do it but I just can't take it anymore. While America goes down in flames we have a President that's missing in action, would be successors running business as usual campaigns, and Congressional pundits drafting near trillion dollar boil the ocean solutions to problems that nobody believes they understand.
So let's start there. What, pray tell what, would make any American believe that the government has the capacity to solve anything?
America's Confidence Crisis is well earned so Mr. President and Senators McCain and Obama WAKE UP! You need to demonstrate to the American people that you get it.
Lest I turn into a politician myself, let me suggest a few simple things that likely should have been done before lunch on the day you all decided the economy was important. Will they solve the problem, certainly not, but they may be a good first step in restoring confidence in your desire and ability to do so.
Put a link to the Bailout doc on the us.gov home page
Sorry, I refuse to call it the Rescue Package. Congratulations by the way, we're now worrying about what shade of lipstick to put on the pig. But I digress. I hear a lot about the importance accountability and full disclosure and i couldn't agree more. This gets a little tricky so stay with me here, the operative part of disclosure is, in a word, disclosure. Believe it or not, a great many Americans can read and some even care how you plan to burn, sorry, I meant waste, oops I did it again - of course I meant spend our hard earned tax dollars.
Exempt Unemployment Insurance from Federal Income Tax
Calling this a no-brainer is an understatement and I'd love to hear the rationale for taxing unemployment benefits in the first place. For all the talk about easing the burden on those that can least afford it how can we continue this absurd practice? Ding, ding, ding.... This just in.... Most folks on unemployment ain't doin' so good.
Exempt Severance payments from Federal Income Tax
Simple question, should the Federal Government penalize somebody for losing their job? That's exactly what happens when lump sum severance payments artificially inflate current year earning and, worse yet, push people into higher tax brackets. Ironically, the old income averaging provisions might have balanced things out in the long run but that's one of the few provisions that have been struck from our bloated tax code. Nice going team.
Three ought to do it for now but if you're up to a stretch goal...
US Annual Report
This goes back to the idea of idea of accountability and full disclosure. The US Government requires public corporations to provide, among other things, a detailed annual report to their stock holders and it should do no less for its tax payers. Again, could this be more obvious?
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