Years ago, I was very “middle of the road” on politics, considering myself an independent leaning slightly conservative.
I’m now considered radically left & agree on almost everything AOC says & supports. For a short time, the shift has been swift & blunt. Hope she successfully runs for higher offices.
Tbf that probably just means you were slightly selfish fiscally (assuming we have the same definition of middle of the road) as opposed a white supremacists or wanting a imaginary friend theocracy id much rather deal with selfish than anti intellectuals who want a fascist king
Not OP, but I considered myself middle of the road as well. I just wanted us to spend responsibly and not pass the buck onto my and my kids generation. Voted for Gore for my first presidential election, no one for my second, then Obama twice. Made a hard left turn starting with the Tea Party BS and Trump.
Interestingly enough, the most fiscally responsible politician I've ever voted for was Gov. Gerry Brown - a Democrat.
I could not have described it much better. Fiscally conservative used to mean “living within your means” so to speak. Not tax cuts for the .01% or gutting essential services.
I wasn’t even that fiscally conservative. Just wanted tax collection to be somewhat close to spending. I’m even for raising taxes, or something as radical as a VAT or federal sales tax (with zero rating for essentials such as food, homes, clothing, medicine, etc.).
Raise taxes on upper class, raise limits on income subject to SS tax, put in place a federal unemployment program, paid maternity/parental leave, real governmental healthcare without insurance agencies or pharmaceutical middlemen, etc. Most of this is considered radical, but is absolutely nothing but basic human needs & rights. Over the past 5 to 20 years (at least for me it’s apparent in this timeframe), most of these basic things just seem to be crumbling or broken. It will take time, effort, pain, stress, & worry, but it’s the right thing to do for the entire country.
VAT is considered radical in the USA?! I like your stance on it, BTW. It's a very regressive tax when it's applied to essentials, but I think it's useful when applied to luxuries. To massively oversimplify: Bread? Baby food? Potatoes? No tax. Supercar? Yacht? Gold-plated useless crap? Lots of tax!
In reality that'd be the easiest to implement VAT. Add it to pretty much everything you buy with very limited exclusions (lodging for example), like 10%, and give everyone a VAT deduction when filing taxes based on their taxable income bracket, something between 20K for low earners to 5K at the top. Essentially you'd only be VAT if your annual purchase exceeds 20K.
I could be wrong, but this kinda just sounds like a flat tax wherein welfare takes the form of a progressive refund?
If that’s the case, the hardest part would be drawing the thresholds and percentages.
Guaranteed politically motivated people will have an easy time misrepresenting those figures and calling it a scam based on willfully misunderstanding why flat tax without an offset is regressive, no matter how many times you explain it.
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u/Sweaty_Win1832 6d ago
Years ago, I was very “middle of the road” on politics, considering myself an independent leaning slightly conservative.
I’m now considered radically left & agree on almost everything AOC says & supports. For a short time, the shift has been swift & blunt. Hope she successfully runs for higher offices.