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My essay about America's Tax Reform

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Mikey, Jun 9, 2011.

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Mikey Well-Known Member

I just finished writing an essay about tax reform and a means of reducing our country's deficit, tell me what you all think about it.

It is known throughout Washington and Capitol Hill that our nation has a problem with its deficits. Just 15 years ago, during Bill Clinton’s administration, our country actually had a surplus and not a deficit. Since President Bush’s inauguration in 2001, our economy and credit rating has veered far off course. A key solution to fix our economy and improve our country’s credit rating is to implement a tax reform that both political parties can agree on in Congress. The tax reform will include the need to implement taxes on the top 1%-10% of the country, and to implement taxes on corporations and businesses. This will serve as being a two step solution for lowering our country’s deficits and getting us back on the right track in the future.

To make a powerful attempt at reducing the deficits that our country has, a bill needs to be passed in Congress which mandates that large American corporations need to pay taxes. An important thing to consider is that the last successful revamp of tax reform occurred in 1986, which was 25 years ago. The new tax percentage that corporations should pay should be equal or slightly above the state sales tax percentage. For example, if Maryland’s sales tax is 6.0%, then American corporations that reside in the state should pay a sales tax of 6.0% or greater. Proposing this course of action is reasonable and should be passed on a bi-partisan basis in Congress and in the House of Representatives. According to a study conducted by Citizens for Tax Justice, their tax rate for every fiscal year was -1.5% between 2008 and 2010. If the 12 biggest corporations in America were paying a 35% taxation rate between the three year period of January 2008 to December 2010, our country’s national deficit could have been reduced by around $60 billion dollars. Bernard Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, is also in favor of corporate tax reform. He intends to propose legislation which would close the loopholes that make tax avoidance in America legal. The loopholes are referred to as being “corporate entitlements”. Sanders then questions why Republicans are making proposals to propose major cuts to services such as Pell Grants, Social Security, and the EPA, while they ignore the reality that corporations (including oil & gas) are paying nothing in federal income taxes. Sanders concludes by stating that the need to fix the deficit cannot be burdened on the people who are most vulnerable in the country, which include retired workers and young people. The corporations have to step up and pay a certain share of taxes, so the condition of our economy turns into a win-win situation for everyone.

A question that is asked by many, including myself, is why the corporate tax system is currently structured in the way that it is. To gain a clearer understanding of this, we should understand taxes from a historical perspective. The first type of Federal income tax was enacted in 1861, and expired 11 years later due to challenges that were made. A corporate income tax was enacted again in 1894, but the Supreme Court eventually deemed the bill as being unconstitutional. As we fast forward into the 2000s, during President Bush’s first term in office, corporate tax rates plummeted due to the tax breaks that his administration passed in 2002 and 2003. As a result of Bush’s actions, corporate taxes were able to pay for 6% of federal expenses, while American corporations reported higher annual profits and gave financial bonuses to their employees during every fiscal year. In my opinion, this is what causes income inequalities to arise within America, and it contributes to the reason of why our country has to continually raise its “debt ceiling” approximately every 30 days. That is why it is imperative for the Obama administration to implement taxes on corporations and taxes on the wealthy, high income earners in America.

Becker, Bernie. "Redirect Notice." Study Finds Many Corporations Pay Tax Rate of Effectively Zero. TheHill, 1 June 2011. Web. 09 June 2011. <http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/164103-report-corporations-pay-low-effective-tax-rates>.

Sweet, Lynn. "Ten Giant U.S. Companies Avoiding Income Taxes: Sen. Bernie Sanders List - Lynn Sweet." Chicago Sun-Times Blogs. Chicago Sun-Times, 27 Mar. 2011. Web. 09 June 2011. <http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/03/ten_giant_us_companies_avoidin.html>.
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Last edited: Jun 10, 2011

Mikey, Jun 9, 2011

#1
hntr18 Well-Known Member

short essay,lol

hntr18, Jun 9, 2011

#2
Mikey Well-Known Member

The essays have to be double spaced, so it was 2 pages with double spacing. I have to write about 4 more topics related to politics (total of 10 pages), so all of these essays that I write would be around the same length, which is 2 pages for each.

Mikey, Jun 9, 2011

#3
hntr18 Well-Known Member

oh ok

hntr18, Jun 9, 2011

#4
velkrum Restricted

Taxes only fix one tumor in a body full of cancer.

Shut down the federal reserve and all of our debt becomes eliminated and taxes get used the way they were meant to be.

velkrum, Jun 9, 2011

#5
Ymra New Member

Good information but the way its written is very choppy, doesn't seem to flow very well. Good though, I liked it. I'd give you a B+

Ymra, Jun 9, 2011

#6
Mikey Well-Known Member

Thanks. Here are the other 4 topics that I'll eventually be creating threads about.

Appropriate political campaign financing
Letting the youth participate in Politics
Government regulation of the Internet
California’s release of prison inmates

Mikey, Jun 9, 2011

#7
GQ Brotha New Member

hntr18 said: ↑

short essay,lol
Click to expand...

LOL, I was thinking that too.

Brings back nightmares of having to right a 60 page thesis on Portuguese colonization of Brazil.

While I love history, writing for that long can become tedious. Not to mention you have to cite every source. Hours in the school library.

Mikey you should get more indepth as to why the current corporate tax system is structured as it is and what the positives and negatives are to keeping it vs revamping it.

What are the risk/rewards such as more companies moving overseas to places where they would pay less taxes and how that can be addressed in any reform.

Not to mention the lobbying influence they have in Washington that protects their interests.

GQ Brotha, Jun 9, 2011

#8
Mikey Well-Known Member

GQ Brotha said: ↑

LOL, I was thinking that too.

Brings back nightmares of having to right a 60 page thesis on Portuguese colonization of Brazil.

While I love history, writing for that long can become tedious. Not to mention you have to cite every source. Hours in the school library.

Mikey you should get more indepth as to why the current corporate tax system is structured as it is and what the positives and negatives are to keeping it vs revamping it.

What are the risk/rewards such as more companies moving overseas to places where they would pay less taxes and how that can be addressed in any reform.

Not to mention the lobbying influence they have in Washington that protects their interests.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll add that into another paragraph in the essay.

All 5 of the essays (the professor, Dr. Mike Heffren refers to it as a portfolio) are due on June 23rd.

Mikey, Jun 9, 2011

#9
Ymra New Member

GQ Brotha said: ↑

LOL, I was thinking that too.

Brings back nightmares of having to right a 60 page thesis on Portuguese colonization of Brazil.

While I love history, writing for that long can become tedious. Not to mention you have to cite every source. Hours in the school library.

Mikey you should get more indepth as to why the current corporate tax system is structured as it is and what the positives and negatives are to keeping it vs revamping it.

What are the risk/rewards such as more companies moving overseas to places where they would pay less taxes and how that can be addressed in any reform.

Not to mention the lobbying influence they have in Washington that protects their interests.
Click to expand...

THIS!

Ymra, Jun 9, 2011

#10
Mikey Well-Known Member

I've got the preliminary edit up. The essay is a bit longer now, three paragraphs. I'll try to weave and address a few more of your points in my essay to increase its strength.

Mikey, Jun 10, 2011

#11
Tony Soprano Moderator

Mikey said: ↑

I just finished writing an essay about tax reform and a means of reducing our country's deficit, tell me what you all think about it.

It is known throughout Washington and Capitol Hill that our nation has a problem with it’s deficits. Just 15 years ago, during Bill Clinton’s administration, our country actually had a surplus and not a deficit. Since President Bush’s inauguration in 2001, our economy and credit rating has veered far off course. A key solution to fix our economy and improve our country’s credit rating is to implement a tax reform that both political parties can agree on in Congress. The tax reform will include the need to implement taxes on the top 1%-10% of the country, and to implement taxes on corporations and businesses. This will serve as being a one-two punch for lowering our country’s deficits and getting us back on the right track in the future.

To make a powerful attempt at reducing the deficits that our country has, a bill needs to be passed in Congress which mandates that large American corporations need to pay taxes. An important thing to consider is that the last successful revamp of tax reform occurred in 1986, which was 25 years ago. The new tax percentage that corporations should pay should be equal or slightly above the state sales tax percentage. For example, if Maryland’s sales tax is 6.0%, then American corporations that reside in the state should pay a sales tax of 6.0% or greater. Proposing this course of action is reasonable and should be passed on a bi-partisan basis in Congress and in the House of Representatives. According to a study conducted by Citizens for Tax Justice, their tax rate for every fiscal year was -1.5% between 2008 and 2010. If the 12 biggest corporations in America were paying a 35% taxation rate between the three year period of January 2008 to December 2010, our country’s national deficit could have been reduced by around $60 billion dollars. Bernard Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, is also in favor of corporate tax reform. He intends to propose legislation which would close the loopholes that make tax avoidance in America legal. The loopholes are referred to as being “corporate entitlements”. Sanders then questions why Republicans are making proposals to propose major cuts to services such as Pell Grants, Social Security, and the EPA, while they ignore the reality that corporations (including oil & gas) are paying nothing in federal income taxes. Sanders concludes by stating that the need to fix the deficit cannot be burdened on the people who are most vulnerable in the country, which include retired workers and young people. The corporations have to step up and pay a certain share of taxes, so the condition of our economy turns into a win-win situation for everyone.

A question that is asked by many, including myself, is why the corporate tax system is currently structured in the way that it is. To gain a clearer understanding of this, we should understand taxes from a historical perspective. The first type of Federal income tax was enacted in 1861, and expired 11 years later due to challenges that were made. A corporate income tax was enacted again in 1894, but the Supreme Court eventually deemed the bill as being unconstitutional. As we fast forward into the 2000s, during President Bush’s first term in office, corporate tax rates plummeted due to the tax breaks that his administration passed in 2002 and 2003. As a result of Bush’s actions, corporate taxes were able to pay for 6% of federal expenses, while American corporations reported higher annual profits and gave financial bonuses to their employees during every fiscal year. In my opinion, this is what causes income inequalities to arise within America, and it contributes to the reason of why our country has to continually raise its “debt ceiling” approximately every 30 days. That is why it is imperative for the Obama administration to implement taxes on corporations and taxes on the wealthy, high income earners in America.

Becker, Bernie. "Redirect Notice." Study Finds Many Corporations Pay Tax Rate of Effectively Zero. TheHill, 1 June 2011. Web. 09 June 2011. <http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/164103-report-corporations-pay-low-effective-tax-rates>.

Sweet, Lynn. "Ten Giant U.S. Companies Avoiding Income Taxes: Sen. Bernie Sanders List - Lynn Sweet." Chicago Sun-Times Blogs. Chicago Sun-Times, 27 Mar. 2011. Web. 09 June 2011. <http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/03/ten_giant_us_companies_avoidin.html>.

Click to expand...

Tony Soprano, Jun 10, 2011

#12
TERRASTAR18 Well-Known Member

Tony Soprano said: ↑

Click to expand...

ha hah.....he's gonna have to fit it on a postage stamp next time...

TERRASTAR18, Jun 10, 2011

#13
TheHuntress Well-Known Member

Ymra said: ↑

Good information but the way its written is very choppy, doesn't seem to flow very well. Good though, I liked it. I'd give you a B+
Click to expand...

It is choppy. Agreed. The flow is lacking.

GQ Brotha said: ↑

LOL, I was thinking that too.

Brings back nightmares of having to right a 60 page thesis on Portuguese colonization of Brazil.

While I love history, writing for that long can become tedious. Not to mention you have to cite every source. Hours in the school library.

Mikey you should get more indepth as to why the current corporate tax system is structured as it is and what the positives and negatives are to keeping it vs revamping it.

What are the risk/rewards such as more companies moving overseas to places where they would pay less taxes and how that can be addressed in any reform.

Not to mention the lobbying influence they have in Washington that protects their interests.
Click to expand...

GREAT POINTS!

Also, Mikey... why aren't your sources cited within the body of the essay? That's both APA and MLA standard, so you should have it there.

In addition, you shouldn't be using vernacular (one-two punch!) in a college essay, no contractions (and it's "its deficits" in the first paragraph, btw), and absolutely NO first-person anything! 'my', 'ours', 'I'...those sorts of things.

TheHuntress, Jun 10, 2011

#14
Morning Star Well-Known Member

I'll be sure to consult you for when I post an article or write an essay next time.

Dreaming_Blue said: ↑

It is choppy. Agreed. The flow is lacking.

GREAT POINTS!

Also, Mikey... why aren't your sources cited within the body of the essay? That's both APA and MLA standard, so you should have it there.

In addition, you shouldn't be using vernacular (one-two punch!) in a college essay, no contractions (and it's "its deficits" in the first paragraph, btw), and absolutely NO first-person anything! 'my', 'ours', 'I'...those sorts of things.
Click to expand...

Morning Star, Jun 10, 2011

#15
Brittney Well-Known Member

I'm sooo glad I'm not in school any more.

Brittney, Jun 10, 2011

#16
Mikey Well-Known Member

I fixed some of the errors. I'll get back to fixing the other minor imperfections tomorrow.

Mikey, Jun 10, 2011

#17
TheHuntress Well-Known Member

BigBrotherWise said: ↑

I'll be sure to consult you for when I post an article or write an essay next time.
Click to expand...

I'm happy to look stuff over. I did teach English for a few years, and now I'm a professional writer, so I know a few things.

TheHuntress, Jun 10, 2011

#18
Morning Star Well-Known Member

Few is an understatement!

Dreaming_Blue said: ↑

I'm happy to look stuff over. I did teach English for a few years, and now I'm a professional writer, so I know a few things.
Click to expand...

Morning Star, Jun 10, 2011

#19
GQ Brotha New Member

Dreaming_Blue said: ↑

GREAT POINTS!

Also, Mikey... why aren't your sources cited within the body of the essay? That's both APA and MLA standard, so you should have it there.

In addition, you shouldn't be using vernacular (one-two punch!) in a college essay, no contractions (and it's "its deficits" in the first paragraph, btw), and absolutely NO first-person anything! 'my', 'ours', 'I'...those sorts of things.
Click to expand...

LOL, DB you little poindexter you.

What's up babe, haven't spoken to you in a minute. :smt008

GQ Brotha, Jun 10, 2011

#20

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