Citizens Prerogative Podcast Closed Caption Transcript
CPP S3 E51 P1 No Taxation Without Representation

08:58:09 In times like these being a citizen is a big job. Thank you for joining us to celebrate the virtues of self-rule and debate the state of our Republic.
08:58:34 Welcome to the citizens prerogative. podcast This is the voice of your nerdy host, Michael Biscatelli, and we are inspired by a co-host whose passion for our republic proceeds him everywhere.
08:58:44 He goes. Raymond Wong, Jr. Thank you, Thank you.
08:58:47 Give me liberty or give me death. We are in episode 51 or this is episode.
08:58:58 51. We're in season. 3 and this is the first plank first part in our 5 part, maybe 6 part miniseries depends on how you count.
08:59:11 This episode title will be no taxation without representation So we're We're gonna do something a little different.
08:59:20 We're gonna merge a couple of things together, and try and cover it in our usual thirty-minute spin.
08:59:24 It was very it's it's difficult to think about or tear these things apart.
08:59:28 We don't want to separate the idea that we are a representative government, and it costs money to operate it. and those 2 things go hand in hand.
08:59:40 Right. Taxation is something as citizens we all have to deal with and face, and it's through our representation in the system that we control those mechanisms and try to avoid getting you know, burdened with crazy amounts of
08:59:57 taxation. Other things right, coming from the Government so these 2 things it they go handed hand.
09:00:04 You can't separate the 2 I want to I want to just put a little bit of framing before we jump right in.
09:00:13 The the founders themselves were really philosophers. They were very innovative.
09:00:18 They actually thought of a government without taxation. If you can imagine that right?
09:00:25 So imagine the original draft calling for taxation. Now, any good understanding of how the economy and the system works in our vehicle works as a system.
09:00:36 It really needs a taxation or some kind of structure. So we are not unrealistic, like the founders, at least at this point.
09:00:45 Yeah, thank you, ray that's a great amount of our great perspective to anchor this on even harkening a little bit back to the car model.
09:00:54 Right. We like to use the metaphors when we can.
09:00:58 If we use the car metaphor. in this scenario would we be in agreement that taxation ends up being the fuel that runs the thing.
09:01:07 You know it's it's interesting I would say that the taxation is the fuel mix.
09:01:11 Not so much the fuel alone, because it's complex but it's, taxation, is kind of like what drives the components of it like what kind of smog are we kicking out the back end Yeah, Oh, that's that's
09:01:24 great the mix, because you need air and fuel, and who knows what else? A little oil to keep the pistons going?
09:01:34 Thank you. So with that being said, one of the reasons why we're kind of harping.
09:01:43 Well, i'm gonna use the word harping on this but really, we're at the end of course, with all these episodes we'll have a call to action or a set of calls to action.
09:01:52 But our goal In raising this up is to just make clear the position that we're taking on this as a, as I said earlier, a plank and a platform, so to speak, we're we're on the five-point
09:02:03 plan mutual aid for mutual need. So with that in mind, one of the things we want to do is make a elections and taxation consistent and fair for everybody.
09:02:13 We those 2 things are certainly not fair and they're certainly not fair for all.
09:02:20 So we need to unjury rig the system and take on some of the following principles in the process of unjury rigging things.
09:02:32 So i'm just gonna throw out some of these bullets here and we can discuss them.
09:02:37 So this is all around equal representation, and I don't think to any of our listeners.
09:02:44 Any of this will be surprising, but if it is let's have it a discussion.
09:02:49 So the first thing that we note here is that we need to have this principle in mind of making competitive districts.
09:02:58 So when I say competitive districts I mean when somebody's running for to be your representative in Congress, or even your State legislature, let's say anybody who's running for office to represent you it should be pretty
09:03:11 competitive race. These should be people with really good ideas that have a chance of being effective.
09:03:19 One of the problems we have today is we don't have competitive districts and and a lot of that comes back to the parties and the party system, and how they garner you know certain control of certain areas, But quite frankly,
09:03:35 let me use San Francisco as an example where it really doesn't matter how blue or red you are, you should still have competing ideas, you should still have representatives fighting to represent you and have distinct approaches to solving problems so in San
09:03:52 Francisco. it's so blue we vote against his shades of blue, and it's a flavor of Progressivism versus Moderate Democrats that we don't see anywhere else in the country because San
09:04:03 Francisco is so blue we're we're so on the side of blue.
09:04:06 We still have to find the dividing line between opposing candidates and so progressivism in San Francisco doesn't exist anywhere else in the country.
09:04:14 It's so progressive right and Then the moderates are much more like a regular Democrat anywhere else in the country, and those tend to be our competing options, so to speak, when people are running for for office, and San Francisco
09:04:31 and of course it's very different on on the republican side of the fence. You know you've got everything from maybe tea party at the extreme all the way again to moderates in the middle.
09:04:46 So all citizens benefit when we have good options. for who to vote for to represent us in Congress. The other thing we need to do is make sure that we have equal access to voting.
09:04:57 So it doesn't really do anybody any good if you have you know good options to vote for.
09:05:02 But you really don't have any way to effectively cast your ballot, especially if you don't have mail-in voting, and you have to physically go to a precinct.
09:05:13 And there's no early voting and and the precincts are getting moving around in all kinds of places, so the parties are having a grand old time with making it very difficult for certain individuals, to vote, and so We have to stay
09:05:29 vigilant on that the it's almost a good thing you you're here at this point.
09:05:35 I want and say that the the fuel right you just said fuel So let's get back to the car.
09:05:39 I'm imagine if they made legislation that said Well, we're just going to make fuels less convenient.
09:05:47 We're just going to make it less convenient okay Now Now it can't be near the freeway. It can't be, you know they can't have bathrooms at the gas.
09:05:55 Stations, No more bathrooms along the highway, no bathrooms along.
09:06:00 I 10 end it too convenient. so it really comes down to think about it.
09:06:06 We just we just tied it to the fuel and this is all on accident, which i'm really excited about.
09:06:11 But now, just imagine if they limited your fuel imagine if you had to travel farther, to get some gas just put in that context.
09:06:20 I'm not gonna use the word the beauty of it but the reality of it is, I think we're gonna get a sense of that sooner than we realized in real life.
09:06:29 Due to rising gas prices right now, which is a really great metaphor.
09:06:35 Thank you, ray sorry i'm still kind of reeling thinking about that.
09:06:41 We would be up in arms pretty quickly. we will be soon we'll see much gas is available.
09:06:52 Another bullet to throw out there, because this is becoming more problematic than ever.
09:06:58 Given the major differences between the parties and the fact that American citizens don't seem to be voting along the lines of their own best interests as well as they may have in the past. So one.
09:07:12 Of the things we need to look into is making the popular vote.
09:07:14 Rain, or the Presidency. so we have this electoral college situation.
09:07:19 It's pretty Kakamami it's really old It was the last thing finished as a part of the committee for unfinished business.
09:07:27 When the constants left the the current or latest foundational version of the Constitution was written, it was rushed and raced in just something to get a proved and get us over the line, and we can see some of the major failings and
09:07:42 fault lines in the the electoral college system so we're gonna provide a call to action at the end.
09:07:48 We don't need to discuss it much here unless ray you have a topic you want to bring up on moving us towards popular vote for presidencies. it's strange to me that I have conversations on the meta-verse most
09:08:01 of them with individuals at our visitor centers, and so and people will say to me, you know Well, no, no, no! we just got to make each stay.
09:08:11 Have one vote or something crazy like that, but what's more American is, or more powerful, more more republic than each one of us having one vote that makes us the most valuable and equal.
09:08:24 And when I have that direct conversation, it makes sense to the individuals I speak to it.
09:08:30 It makes sense to me that state lines were invented by man.
09:08:33 But what we can agree on is that you and I should count as one period, and we don't right now.
09:08:42 We Don't that's right there's a lot of compartmentalizing, designed into the system.
09:08:50 I'll put it nicely anyway, you know and just remember a lot of the old structures we have in place was a methodology for the illnesses to retain control over the system because we really didn't have it have an
09:09:07 educated population more or less by design. more by design in some places than others.
09:09:15 We're not there anymore. So we need to look at this one person one vote, I think, makes sense. it's simple.
09:09:23 It's approachable it's doable the other bullet. we have up around. representation is around having affair effective low-cost campaign finance system.
09:09:44 We waste so much money on running elections and i'm not talking about printing ballots or buying voting machines.
09:09:57 It's everything that happens. the months and years before an election ever happens.
09:10:05 All the money for all the advertising going on the airwaves, which is quite a boon doggle quite a boon doggle for media companies, private media companies, and Facebook apparently, and anybody else who's selling
09:10:19 advertising at market price. So the whole election system is like in this whole shadow economy.
09:10:26 This whole economy driven just by elections which is insane I can't think of a better way to put it.
09:10:34 It's just absolutely crazy, and it works really really well, for people who have nothing but money really bad ideas, and nothing but money, and built by people with all the people with nothing but money, because remember, the founders were the landowners the people that could
09:10:54 vote originally were the landowning men. Okay, So it was just the people with money and the people.
09:11:00 The power. So we're still in this era where they're still trickling down those rights, and providing, and to again frame up some of these next points.
09:11:13 The founders did not want campaigning they didn't even want a presidency.
09:11:18 We keep reminding that. but campaigning is something that came out of the ugly party system fights.
09:11:24 So it was plot it was. It was a gift.
09:11:27 The American people from the partisan system we have today.
09:11:31 So really It's important to note that there shouldn't have been campaigning, and if the President, the President, the people that were running for President, the Vice President would have been the second runner up.
09:11:44 So it was a much different system. It shouldn't been about campaigning.
09:11:48 It should have been about how we were gonna move the country together.
09:11:51 The President was supposed to be a unifier, and right now I think frankly, the Presidency has the most guilt for driving.
09:11:58 How bad the campaign finance system is because it's the only thing that's, you know, truly a national push.
09:12:08 Yeah, thank you ray for that context it's always important to remember how far we've come and in our opinion in the right direction, although we've veered in several places, which is why we're still talking about them so just a few
09:12:25 more bullets in the area of campaign finance as far as proposals go. The planks in this platform would suggest that we need to have set amounts for public funding of campaigns.
09:12:40 Whether it's set by region because some places you know it's more expensive than others.
09:12:45 Honestly, I would like to see a fixed cost on the front end, and then we fix supply in the law meaning if you if you're gonna you know, advertise for campaigning for these types of things, you shouldn't have to pay
09:12:59 the market rate for advertising right. This is not a product for sale.
09:13:05 You are not a private business, generating revenue from the Ad.
09:13:09 Sales. We are trying to execute an exercise democracy So there's nothing that we can't do from a law perspective that says all media companies are required to reserve x amount of time. for ads debates, It etc.
09:13:29 So one easy way to start. take reducing the cost of campaign finances requiring donated media outlets.
09:13:38 Time, you know, requiring other, you know, companies or facilities, to help offer reduced costs for printing materials like there's so many ways to adjust the the cost side, and then, you know, we should then be able to reduce
09:13:55 the demand on the donation side or the funding side. right?
09:14:00 If you can reduce the cost, you reduce the amount of funds are required, because the whole point is just to execute an election.
09:14:07 Let's remember it's not about creating an uplifting demigogs or heroes, or these are just.
09:14:14 We're just supposed to be electing representatives for our bureaucratic processes, you know, to help us out because we have lives to live, and we don't want to be reading all the details of every bill that gets put
09:14:28 up for election. Unfortunately, we have a huge leak with I don't even talk about.
09:14:33 We don't even talk about it here the ballot propositions, because ballot propositions are outside of the standard.
09:14:51 This structure. So in any case, you know if if if we're governing, well, we don't need as many ballot propositions. right?
09:14:58 So that's we'll leave that aside for now right now it's about election electing electioneering and electing representatives.
09:15:06 So let's fix the amounts needed. for campaign finance we should restrict donations to campaigns to only citizens and make sure it's only in limited amounts.
09:15:17 Why are companies? I know why I think you know why companies, but from a lot logical perspective, companies are not citizens.
09:15:27 The people who work for the companies and own the companies and operate.
09:15:29 The companies are citizens, they get a vote in the system.
09:15:33 Companies should have no vote in the system. How I want We want to be conscious here because we do recognize court decisions, etc., whatever.
09:15:44 So I mean a corporation is a person Okay, they are an entity that that's a that's codified in our law.
09:15:50 Currently so, being respectful of the people, not citizens, but the entity that is a corporation.
09:15:55 If they want to continue to participate? then? Why don't they match?
09:16:01 Why don't they do matching funds for citizens right So we say, instead of us doing our correct own initiative, we say, Hey, we'll match you you know you're giving a $100 we'll match your $100 because you're a
09:16:12 citizen, and we value you so they can still participate corporations.
09:16:17 People. Okay, yeah, we can set the rules i'm not opposed to that.
09:16:23 As long as there's a limits and again it's not a additional opinion being added into the fray right companies taking out their own ads for their own reasons, because they don't like a proposed tax because they're unwilling to
09:16:40 change their business operations to not pollute I mean i'm just using that as one example.
09:16:47 Right. And then all these entities, these non- companies that get stood up just to funnel information or funnel dollars.
09:16:55 Excuse me and and put out information and i'm using information with air quotes. I mean a lot of it's just propaganda. so you can go create an Llc.
09:17:05 A private entity. collect a bunch of campaign, essentially campaign dollars, and pump out all of your campaign, advertising all you want for the candidate of your choice.
09:17:13 You You're not allowed to talk to that candidate but why does that matter?
09:17:17 They'll see your ads so that stuff needs to go away.
09:17:21 It's it's just abuse and they're allowed to lie in the current law allows campaigns to lie, and that seems completely not aligned with our current system.
09:17:39 And that that's why i'm concerned about this the way that everything's structured right now is that you you have this enablement to just throw out lies and then it's your choice.
09:17:51 If you need, if you want to retract it or not, like Oops.
09:17:53 That was that's ostats campaign totally it's it's horrible, and it's all a waste like Here's one of the areas where we spend so much but the quality of the product is so little
09:18:09 It's not like have you spent a lot of money on a car.
09:18:11 You would expect it to have more features this bending doesn't go anywhere but into big media's back pocket With that we're out of bullets for this one and I think it's time for a break time for a message
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09:19:51 We originally spoke about the marathon to where we're now on we're starting down that path.
09:20:00 I thought you know Wow! it's going to be it's going to be interesting to go 5 episodes, and then you made a joke about 6, and I think I think we might actually go 6, because it seems like it's
09:20:08 there's there's a lot more relevance Then I originally thought it surface, and that always happens so, thank you.
09:20:15 But the I think the the car metaphor is also continuing to come home for me, because we we think about this vehicle, this democracy, this system we have this republic.
09:20:29 Excuse me if you can keep it. We have this republic and this vehicle.
09:20:37 If I purchased a vehicle, and the the dealer, straight out lied to me straight out, violated the contract.
09:20:43 We made. There are laws, there are protections there's something called lemon laws.
09:20:50 Everybody understands that sense of security when they purchase a vehicle.
09:20:52 But why does our? What is our Republic Vehicle not have the same security?
09:20:56 So I want to kick the tires. I want to be able to like, you know.
09:20:59 Sit in the seats and like, rub my rub, my my my center around a bit before I purchase it.
09:21:13 And not only that you want the opportunity. you want the opportunity to have that car repaired or replaced.
09:21:21 If it's malfunctioning right off the lot, and our system has the promise to be able to do that built into it.
09:21:33 The political will, in order to get it repaired, is a whole nother story.
09:21:37 Otherwise we wouldn't even have a podcast all right coming off the heels of that break.
09:21:46 We're going to move on to the next topic this episode might run a little bit longer than 30 min, but for good reason.
09:21:54 Oh, taxation and I'm so sorry ray we're not gonna cover this in the way that you want I've been promising Ray and Irs episode for years, apparently.
09:22:04 Now and we still haven't gotten to it this won't be it.
09:22:07 But we are going to talk about taxation we're going to get close.
09:22:11 So let's all agree to agree what we all know about one another.
09:22:15 None of us wants to pay taxes. I never want to pay taxes even before I pay taxes.
09:22:19 I grew up as a kid, not wanting to pay taxes not looking forward to making money, because that means I had to pay taxes to.
09:22:25 I didn't get to keep all my money that didn't feel fair.
09:22:32 And then I grew up quite frankly that's all it takes to realize that there's a cost to life.
09:22:40 What I also realize is it doesn't need to be as high as it is, it's really important that we pay our fair share, paying our fair share supports the common good. and it's the right thing to do all all those things described
09:22:55 in the Constitution. They cost money, and we all can benefit from the right and investments.
09:23:02 So, not collecting taxes and not providing benefits is not an option.
09:23:12 Maybe it was in the 1,007 hundreds but it certainly is not an option today, and we've demonstrated it over the decades.
09:23:22 In this country people don't realize medicare medicaid so social security.
09:23:31 Our government programs just as examples, of course, there's much more especially at the State level, depending on what state you live in.
09:23:35 There's even you know more or less options for you But let's dive into some of our recommendations around how to make taxation more fair.
09:23:49 First, we're going to start with the things that We would propose keeping. We would propose keeping the progressive brained design that we have now for tax rates according to income buckets.
09:24:03 So each bucket of income gets taxed differently, based on the dollar amount you received, not the source, so like the first $30,000 has tax.
09:24:16 The next 20,000 up to 50. right? So from 30 to 50 is a $20,000 block of cash that $20,000 gets taxed a little bit higher rate than then.
09:24:27 So forth, and so on. We have to figure out what the blocks are.
09:24:30 You could go to the back of your tax tables and the 1040 instructions today, and you can see with the existing brackets are for each range of income, and so we can structure it so that people who don't make a
09:24:43 certain amount have to pay less in tax, because that money it has to stretch a lot further, right.
09:24:50 The more money you have essentially, the more rich you feel the more rich you experience, the more tax you can actually afford.
09:24:59 And there's an argument to be made that If you are if you are more rich in this system than others.
09:25:09 Then perhaps you've derived more benefit from the system than others not only have you derived more benefit, but you're gonna feel the burden of taxation less because you're still gonna be able to eat you're still gonna buy gas you're
09:25:24 still gonna get your second, third, fourth, fifth, how, or investment property, so you can afford to pay a little bit more.
09:25:31 This is on the income side now, even talking about businesses.
09:25:34 This is your neighbor. This is the human with 2 eyes if they're lucky right that's walking down the street.
09:25:42 So let's keep it progressive i'm not talking about politics. I'm just talking about the brackets we should keep tax deferred accounts like ira's 400 oneks even the Hsa which a health care savings account
09:25:59 which is really just a ridiculous, Another financial vehicle for the wealthy to avoid paying taxes for retirement.
09:26:05 But if it's available to everyone then we should keep it although we should just provide health care. So people don't have to save, and we'll keep all of the maximums you know every year you're only allowed to
09:26:19 put so much in nira 401 k to Hsa, and then you're you have to hold it until you retire, and then you can withdraw it, and I when we talk about retirees.
09:26:30 We'll be talking about changes to how we handle taxes so We're done with the 2 things we're gonna keep.
09:26:37 We're gonna keep progressive tax brackets and we're going to keep tax deferred counts ray any objections with the keepers?
09:26:49 I cannot say that i'm upset with the keepers you know when it comes to attack policy.
09:26:54 There's there's other things that we can also look at like consumption tax, and such to to right-size things.
09:27:01 But there's some other policies I see that you're that you progressive policies.
09:27:04 You have on here that really kind of push it in the right direction. Right?
09:27:07 Thank you. we'll see if others agree all right so the next bullets are some of the things that would be different Under this platform we would be looking at taxing all income and unrealized gains every year.
09:27:28 And this is this unrealized gains taxation is something that's kind of It's not new in theory.
09:27:34 It's just new to our discussions and it's something that's been kicked around in Congress.
09:27:40 I believe, lately, but we haven't seen any bills related to this.
09:27:44 So basically, oh, in addition to unrealized gains, we would include deferred compensation packages.
09:27:52 So today people who make absurd amounts of money get to tell that company they work for, hey?
09:27:57 Don't pay me all of my salary this year hold it for me.
09:28:02 Put it in a tax deferred account always draw it later, when maybe I've had not such a good year, and or I've had some major losses where I can draw down that income right, and I offset it so you get with
09:28:16 Let's just take a step back for a second because with these deferred compensation packages.
09:28:20 Keep in mind. it's just giving the rich and option, for when to pay taxes controlling how much they pay, they can wait until lower tax brackets get passed for a particular year, and then take all of that income in that really cheap tax
09:28:36 year, or they can break it up so that it doesn't put them into a certain tax bracket any given year.
09:28:41 So they get this way of even controlling their taxation by controlling the drip of their income.
09:28:49 That 4 people don't have the rest of us don't have anyway.
09:28:55 Enough about the first compensation i'm sure there's all kinds of funny scheme things out there as well for people who have more than enough to pay their fair share to manipulate their income so that they don't
09:29:09 pay anything. so, for we're going to open it up to all income unrealized gains and deferred compensation.
09:29:20 Likewise we'll keep it open on the flip side of that for unrealized losses or dideductions in kind.
09:29:26 So if we're going to tax you because of gains you had in the stock market, even though you didn't sell your stock, then we should allow you to deduct the losses in the bad years, as well, and when we talk about
09:29:38 unrealized gains for those who are not invested what we're talking about is the fact that today you only pay tax when you sell stock you own.
09:29:49 If you never sell the stock, you never pay the tax. So, for instance, Jeff Bezos has billions of dollars, but it's all in Amazon stock.
09:29:58 He never has to cash out that stock. He never has to pay taxes on that stock, because he never has to cash it out.
09:30:03 Instead. Plenty of banks will give him loans until he dies, and all those loans are secured by the stock he owns.
09:30:12 The and I won't even talk about what happens to his kids when he dies, because all that stock goes to them and they pay no tax when that stock goes to them right maybe i'll take a minute on that since we know we're running
09:30:25 over on this episode There's this concept called Mark to market People may or may not have heard of this, but let me just throw out the scenario.
09:30:36 Jeff Bezos has accumulated billions of dollars in stock.
09:30:40 It's worth billions of dollars because he was buying it, or getting it distributed to him by the company cheaper for free.
09:30:47 Let's say, the first stock he bought was cents or dollars, and now we's worth hundreds or thousands, and he dies.
09:30:56 He never sells that stock, while he's alive he dies and in his documents, when he dies all of that stock gets transferred to his children, or whoever whoever he wants it to go to doesn't matter he gets to
09:31:10 say, who receives his billions of dollars worth of stock here's the trickery that stock has grown right he may have owed.
09:31:25 He may have had gains of billions of dollars on that stock when it transfers to these other people.
09:31:31 Upon his death. The cost basis the dollar amount that's considered against for the gains is reset.
09:31:42 It's marked the market meaning if amazon stocks worth $100 today.
09:31:50 Then it's treated as if the inheritors the children, and whoever he gives it to upon his death is buying it at $100.
09:31:58 They're buying it at the price of the day Jeff Bezos dies, or the day it's transferred.
09:32:05 So all that realized value, all of the billions and dollars and gains that never went taxed or were never taxed, gets baked into the price transferred to the heirs.
09:32:19 The air is cost. basis is inclusive of all the gains.
09:32:25 At this point they owe no tax They own no tax on the gains that happened during bezos's life.
09:32:32 That means those tax dollars are never realized essentially means that the rich have a better security on the posterity than most of us when it comes to the Constitution.
09:32:46 So they're they are very good securing their constitutional rights or they believe they're so constitutions alive.
09:32:58 And Well, if you're wealthy and and that's that's the problem.
09:33:05 No. when I learned the details of mark to market it, really it still makes the hair stand on the back of my neck, because it is just.
09:33:13 It makes my stomach turn it. is so unfair it is so. it is so unfair, and I mean I guess, on the since you're there on the flip side folks, if they mark to market and that company in turn fails like
09:33:28 some companies might they're they're going to receive the obviously the Irs benefit right of a loss.
09:33:35 So if they're it's very high and then the the company passes right, and then a news comes out that the person's past, etc.
09:33:44 Etc. Well, the market may tumble, but they so they're gonna get an irs credit, and I saw Irs credit for a couple years because the company failed, which a lot of companies probably do fail once founders run no I
09:33:58 think I really am gonna vomit ray I hadn't considered Hadn't considered the lost side.
09:34:10 Okay, let me take a deep breath. So so this is why taxing unrealized gains and losses every year is this is a good solution to this problem, because it means every year it went up, somebody paid a little every year.
09:34:24 It went down. They got to, you know, deduct a little, but we're not going lifetimes and lifetimes without ever collecting a modicum of tax, and then adding insult to injury, not only not collecting
09:34:35 tax, but giving them the opportunity to defer even more attacks not to be paid.
09:34:41 There's a decrease in the value of that that stock that's been marked to the market at the time of death.
09:34:53 Okay, i'm still gathering myself. here. Okay, so we're gonna tax all income as far as retirees go.
09:35:02 We are so unfair to them as well, we should really carve out.
09:35:08 And maybe, you know, if you guys can keep me honest I haven't retired yet.
09:35:10 But we should be carving out a huge niche on the low end of the brackets, so that retirees pay no income tax on something like the first 5 or low 6 figures of income every year for couples right if you're if you're
09:35:25 single. Your first 5 figures of income coming out of her retirement account should be tax free.
09:35:33 I mean we should allow people over retired to go off and live their best lives, and hopefully, maybe take care of children who knows what kind of institutions we can establish.
09:35:45 You know, when we get retirees involved in society again.
09:35:48 But we can use the bracketed system to control how much they pay.
09:35:54 Now, if you're one of these absurdly wealthy people, you're retiring
09:36:00 You can afford to pay some taxes so anything you choose to take over a certain bracket you're going to pay.
09:36:08 You're going to pay taxes on we're not obviously we're not getting into the weeds about what these brackets are where they are.
09:36:14 How much the tax is that's. that's for later we're talking about the structure here, So let's come back to everyone paying their fair share for a minute.
09:36:23 So we mentioned, we're going to be taxing all income everyone's going to pay their fair share, and this includes currently on taxed entities, like sports teams, nonprofits and religions.
09:36:44 Maybe some controversy, but quite frankly it's very logical.
09:36:47 It makes a lot of sense here. Us out first of all I think we'll get the least amount of pushback on sports teams because they can afford it.
09:36:56 The most out of the groups I don't know religion we can debate.
09:36:59 But sports teams for sure are billions multibillion dollar industries, their investment vehicles for the wealthy.
09:37:07 And right now they're attacks free haven and there's all kinds of other issues, with professional sports and not just professional sports.
09:37:16 But college level sports. The court is starting to look into compensation for college level athletes which makes absolutely perfect sense.
09:37:22 We should eliminate slavery in all the places it still exists in the United States.
09:37:29 So sports teams they can afford it, and they have a duty to give back to the communities from which they profit.
09:37:36 Nonprofits are probably the, you know, the hardest one on this list to keep there, but they can handle a little tax, too.
09:37:44 We can give them their own brackets like retirees, and figure out the best way to avoid impacting them.
09:37:49 But to be quite honest, there are plenty of nonprofits out there that are for-profit vehicles, or our political operations, or our shelters for rich people to put their money and avoid taxation in another
09:38:04 way. not all nonprofits good things, and we can use the tax system to discourage these from becoming havens for bad things.
09:38:18 The idea that the Nfl. is a nonprofit right which you would think the I always thought they were a for-profit company.
09:38:25 They sure do run a lot of money through. And just think about the stadiums right.
09:38:29 Think about that, Lar. How much infrastructure in our cities is circled around.
09:38:34 Not just the Stadiums, but the arenas the ballpark whatever.
09:38:39 There's so much investment civic investment our dollars our taxation dollars are tied into getting people to those buildings.
09:38:47 Right. So these nonprofit havens can just, you know, suck more of that.
09:38:54 That fuel out of us. More of that energy more of our more of our income out of us, and say thank you, I won't pay any taxes for this.
09:39:04 By the way, appreciate the roads, appreciate the infrastructure, insult to injury, salt and wounds all the metaphors.
09:39:17 Okay, we saved the best for last and i'm not talking about our listeners, although you are the government shouldn't be in the business of ordaining groups of people as religious as religions, and they certainly should not be bestowing upon
09:39:33 them the divine benefits of paying no taxes Okay, let me say that again, the government should not be in the business of picking a official religions. and that's what we have today.
09:39:48 Right, because you have some groups of people that get together and call themselves a religion, but they don't get no taxes because the Irs doesn't recognize them.
09:39:59 They're just a coal there's just a plain cult they're not. They're not to the level of a religious goal or a religion unbelievable it's just absolutely insane when you read the
09:40:09 constitution. we're not supposed to establish ordain or anything related to religion, as far as the State is concerned, and here we are.
09:40:17 Donling out the tax benefits to groups of people who choose to form official what's considered official religions?
09:40:30 What do you think about that ray it's it's historical right?
09:40:34 So I mean I think we've even spoken about it in the past.
09:40:37 But in prior episodes. But it is it is that those individuals that were the Conservatives racist, the those those people in that wing of politics really focus their energy on that right?
09:40:55 They've always just been about subverted subverting or doing something very, very evil, and they focused the policy. They were in the positions to turn those policies positively towards morality.
09:41:10 Right. So all of that energy, especially when they talk about interracial marriage, etc.
09:41:15 All of those wings eventually just use whatever power, and pushed it into some sort of other way.
09:41:21 So they just armed themselves, and I believe, if I remember correctly, the movement was that they had to counteract right.
09:41:27 There was such a swell of progressive and and sexual deviance right that they can to arm the the the churches, etc.
09:41:39 And give them more money. Fight the battle of the Crusade.
09:41:42 If you will, that's a good point if I if we go back and do the research, it's probably all around to like.
09:41:51 When you think about the rise of communism and the fear of atheists as atheism associated with communism right?
09:41:57 And that's when we moved much closer to religions in Christianity in particular.
09:42:01 That's when in God, we trust showed up started showing up in our money, right? That's what I think.
09:42:06 Yeah. So it was like this huge political move, and people were well primed in position to take advantage of it.
09:42:15 And look at Now look at these religions. I I see them is the same as the sports teams.
09:42:21 I see them exactly the same. The amount of money they pull in the amount of money.
09:42:28 These humans, These individuals, these citizens collect from one another and pay out absolutely no taxes, for is mind boggling.
09:42:36 They've got arenas 2 now they've got arenas now they have arenas now, so and don't worry.
09:42:45 I mean we wouldn't the point is that it's an equal burden.
09:42:52 It's a fair share. Everyone needs to pay for the infrastructure.
09:43:00 These organizations have equal access to our legal system. they have equal access to all of the institutions that are established and paid for through our taxation under the Constitution.
09:43:12 Well. the taxation is not under the Constitution, but all the institutions that they have access to are established under the Constitution, and they pay nothing, and they can file lawsuits.
09:43:23 They can donate to campaigns that oppress citizens.
09:43:29 Now who throughout the States, Florida is a prime example today that's sliding towards authoritarianism.
09:43:38 Much like it may have been in the past right no place new for Florida. No place new for the South, I mean Connecticut's not much better, anyway.
09:43:45 When it comes to religion. so I won't go there I grew up there. it's only used when I throw it out. i'm sure there's plenty of northeast states that are a little too in bed with religion I
09:43:58 think about Boston, and I think about all of the children that have allowed to be and be abused over the years, and not just in Austin.
09:44:04 I mean I want i'm not going to touch that right now, So that's it on religion.
09:44:13 I hope you all understand the point where making first and foremost back to the Constitution. The fact that we allow some religions to not pay taxes while others do shows the hypocrisy.
09:44:27 The fact that we shouldn't recognize any religion we shouldn't treat them any differently.
09:44:31 Company is a company in organization, as an organization, a nonprofit, as a nonprofit, equal and fair.
09:44:42 Last boy last bullet, unless we want to talk more but businesses. I haven't been talking about businesses right, and they have to pay taxes, too, although they have the best they have access to the best parts.
09:44:55 Of the tax code. they get the most deductions.
09:44:59 They business is, if I can recommend to everyone to like become a business one way or another.
09:45:06 That's the way to go that's how you get the most taxed deductions.
09:45:09 So we would propose, and this is the direction it seems like a lot of the Western governments are going is to propose a minimum tax rate for all businesses, and that tax rate should be set so that it's competitive to
09:45:22 our international peers, and we should be placing a higher burden on industries with environmentally and sensitive components.
09:45:30 Quite frankly, anything, any industry we want to change. We want to evolve or move in a new direction from for the betterment of society, which is the whole point of having businesses.
09:45:40 To begin with, to make things better, we can use tax policy to to steer things, encourage businesses to move in those directions that we need them to.
09:45:52 After all the government, we, the people, is usually paying to clean up their messes, and so it behooves us to keep those those kids playing nicely on the playground as far as businesses go.
09:46:19 I mean that's that's about it I we don't need to go into.
09:46:23 I think a bevy of detail on how taxes should be applied to businesses other than to get to motivate them in the direction that makes the most sense for the betterment of society.
09:46:36 So when we take a pause here and reflect on constitution's opening from Episode 50 there, anything that stands out in relationship to this topic.
09:46:54 So this was back when we were talking about forming a perfect, a more perfect union for justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, promoting general, aware of welfare, securing liberty for our posterity, feels like
09:47:14 taxation and representation touches on all of those bits and pieces. it's the how and and the what the what in the how, What are we going to do?
09:47:27 Tranquility, justice, defense, welfare How are we going to do it.
09:47:31 We're going to pay for it how are we going to pay for it with taxes.
09:47:35 Everyone. How are we going to make sure that our taxes are spent?
09:47:40 Well proper representation, the government people who really represent our best interest and the best interest of those investment dollars.
09:47:57 Can you make that can you do you have any additions modifications subtractions, my goodness, i'm just i'm just running on time clock at this point you know given it I've been as quiet as a
09:48:12 i've been as buttoned, as a as i've ever been that today. You're like I burst in at the seams with historical facts, but i'm just trying to keep your time clock thank you all right then let's
09:48:24 just move into calls to action. Rays being so respectful I appreciate it.
09:48:28 I don't want to I don't want to bowl over We're going to make it under an hour.
09:48:32 So for calls to action. let's just you know in the past. We've talked about house resolution one for the people act.
09:48:40 Unfortunately, that thing isn't going anywhere that on arrival has been in the Senate, and it's the first thing the House passed from this Congress, so it's not going anywhere. But now we can keep our eyes and peels for
09:48:52 our eyes and ears peeled like fruit for some flurry of smaller changes to specific mechanisms of our election systems.
09:49:04 So we'll include an example in here House Resolution 5746 freedom to vote the John R.
09:49:11 Lewis Act, which is amalgamation of some other acts that have been going around, obviously based on the number I was talking about.
09:49:15 Hr. one, the first resolution up to 5,700, and 46 in this current 100 and Seventeenth Congress, and this may be the one number 5,746 might actually pass and make it to the president's
09:49:31 desk that'd be fantastic you also need to find out if your State is assigning its slate of electors.
09:49:37 So I mentioned the election electoral College earlier in this episode.
09:49:41 Check out the national vote interstate compact so we don't have to change constitution to work our way around the electoral college.
09:49:51 We can do it once. state at a time. If you think liberty to vote is being nickeled and dived. The list of bills focused on taxation, Literal Usd.
09:50:03 Is dizzying. This is an area where our principles on the macro level play an important role motivated by a simple idea that even our most social primate cousins understand fairness.
09:50:19 Thank you to science, and pbs we're going to include a link to a very short segment from newshour which has touching its eye, opening and it behooves us all to re-examine ourselves in our system so
09:50:35 keep in mind our emotions what we've learned thank you science, teaching us that our emotions are not unique to us as humans.
09:50:45 Fairness is something we've evolved with for a very long time, and it is not something to be taken lightly.
09:50:52 It is not something to be taken advantage of and it's something we're sorely missing throughout our system today.
09:51:09 All right. we're way over time thank you ray for letting us run the clock out us letting us letting me talk.
09:51:16 Everyone's ear off. I appreciate that we have been your host Thank you to Mr.
09:51:21 Raymond Wong, Jr. thank you Mr. Piscatelli.
09:51:25 It's truly been a bit of a laugh because you celebrated the last bullet when the program notes literally had like 5 bullets more, and this segment has probably hundreds of bullets more.
09:51:40 So it's been a delight Oh, it's been something that's for sure.
09:51:46 Let's call it a grand experiment for more information on this in other episodes.
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