IT'S EASY - OR IT SHOULD BE

Given that the federal income tax is what we have to work with (as far as individual citizens is concerned), the only way we can raise federal revenues is to increase the tax base. That means put more people to work by making it EASY for employers to hire employees.

Key ideas: increase the tax base; make it EASY to employ people.

I have hired people back when it WAS easier to hire than it is today. It was not easy then. It is even harder now.

If you have never been an employer, you have no idea what hoops have to be jumped through for the privilege of hiring someone, for the paperwork involved (regulated by federal guidelines), for the regulations you have to adhere to (regulated by federal guidelines) and for the benefits packages you have to assemble (regulated by federal guidelines).

There is also scheduling of work hours (that have to abide by federal guidelines), provision for employee illness (also regulated by federal guidelines), the payment of payroll taxes, social security taxes, medicare taxes and soon AHA taxes and/or penalties (regulated by federal guidelines).

If that weren't enough, there are OSHA regulations, EOE regulations, EPA regulations, DHS regulations, ethnic hiring regulations, immigration regulations, AWD regulations, and a myriad of other federal guidelines and regulations that employers must abide by to hire workers.

Add to that the government regulations that brought on this recession, and it is a nightmare to try to start a business that requires hiring employees.

Yet the only way to bring down the unemployment numbers is to have more people working. That will increase the tax base (that is: the number of people paying taxes) and will increase federal income tax revenues without putting an additional burden on those already paying taxes.

We DO need to close loopholes that are really loopholes, too. Nobody and no corporation earning more than $20,000.00 should be exempt from federal income taxes and there should be no loopholes to allow them to.

(See previous posts for more discussion of the exemption issue).

Politicians, however, love loopholes because they give them leverage to get votes from business owners and corporate leaders.

Now, they are trying to redefine what a loophoop is. Now they're trying to tell us that ALL deductions are loopholes. That's what liberals do...they just re-define terms.

Nobody should have to pay a greater portion of their earnings than anyone else. That would not be fair.

The best way to accomplish that is a flat tax, as discussed in previous posts.

In the meantime, the federal government MUST make it easier for businesses to hire people or unemployment will remain high and the recession will stay with us.

There is no down side to making it easier to hire people (thus increasing employment). There is only an upside.

That being the case, what could possibly be the motivation for refusing to make hiring employees as easy as possible?