[Congress] Working on the Work Tax!
Day 2,371, 12:12
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Published in USA 
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by
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by Hazelrah
What a weekend in Congress.
Full Disclosure:
I am a member of the American Military Party and voted in favor of repealing the FSPA and temporarily maintaining the 10% work tax. Opinions here are mine alone.
If you've been following the conversations in Public Congress, you'll know that the Work Tax debate is heating up.
First, a little background on the Fiscal Solvency Protection Act (FSPA).
In September of 2013, Congress decided it would be prudent to establish a minimum amount for the national reserves in order to be able to deficit spend during an invasion and potential wipe. The number $10 Million was decided on somewhat arbitrarily but based roughly on spending during the previous invasion.
The Act required that the work tax be increased to 10% in order to more quickly establish the aforementioned reserves. The intent of the Act was that once the $10 Million in reserves had been reached, taxes could be lowered as long as income at least matched budgeted expenditures.
The reserve target was recently met. This combined with the arrival of the fiscally conservative Black Sheep Party to Congress led the discussion to a tipping point.
The following are the work tax discussions from the passing of the FSPA until today.
Sep 13 - Reserve Target http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,28332.0.html
Oct 13 - Tax Decrease [Failed] http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,28500.0.html
Dec 13 - Tax Decrease [Failed] http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,29478.0.html
Jan 14 - Spending Inquiry http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,29879.0.html
Jan 14 - Reserve Update http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,29881.0.html
Jan 14 - Tax Decrease [Failed] http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,29849.0.html
March 14 - Tax Decrease [Failed] http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,30784.0.html
May 14 - Tax Refund [Failed] http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,31408.0.html
May 14 - Tax Decrease [Failed] http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,31532.0.html
May 14 - FSPA [Repealed] http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,31561.0.html
After the reserve target was met, Speaker of the House Cromstar removed the FSPA from the Code interpreting it as having achieved its intended objective. If Congress wanted to vote to lower the work tax rate they could, but his interpretation was that the Act did not mandate an immediate reduction.
An initial discussion to decrease the work tax to 8% did not gather much support until it became a discussion of enforcing the language of the FSPA. The dissenting interpretation of the Act was that it mandated an immediate tax reduction to match budgeted expenditures. This was calculated to be approximately 6% if we continue to hold all current regions. Some supporters of the FSPA found the 6% number to be too low and recommended a compromise of 8%. When the "Enforce the FSPA" proposal went to a vote, it included the 8% number.
Some argued that the proposal was not in fact a referendum on the FSPA, but rather a simple tax reduction proposal to 8%. This would be more consistent with the language in the Act, since Enforcement would mean a reduction to 6%.
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-Since the FSPA was being used as the catalyst for this particular tax discussion, a Repeal of the Act was discussed.
-On 5/16 at 8:11pm, the 8% tax proposal was proposed.
-One hour later at 9:07pm, the Repeal of the FSPA was proposed.
-The repeal proposal reached the necessary approvals and went to vote first on 5/17 at 2:30am.
-The tax reduction proposal titled
What did this mean? If the repeal passed first, would the tax reduction as described be void?
Was it actually a vote on a tax decrease to 8% independent of the interpretation of the FSPA?
Today, those questions became irrelevant as the FSPA was repealed 25-21 and the 8% tax was rejected 26-25.
The work tax will remain at 10% for now.
Interestingly, the votes emerged in a fairly uniform fashion with Federalists and the Black Sheep Party voting in a straight party line in favor of both enforcing the FSPA and decreasing the tax to 8%.
USWP voted as a block along with most of the WTP and AMP in favor of repeal and maintaining the 10% work tax.
The following congressmen bravely broke rank and have very nuanced perspectives on the state of the nation's taxes. I have enjoyed my conversations with them and respect them greatly:
John Largo - AMP
The Mike - WTP
Geronimo100 - WTP
As we approach another congressional election, the conversation is shifting to the purpose of the national reserves and the question of "Exactly how much should we save?" Other questions that will likely be explored further include
-"Who benefits the most from a tax decrease?"
-"Do the benefits outweigh the risks?"
-"How often will we need to re-raise taxes to avoid spending down our reserves?"
-"Should we raise taxes every time we begin to lose occupied regions and our income falls below budgeted expenditures?"
-"Should every budget adjustment be accompanied by a tax adjustment?"
-"Who should approve unbudgeted Executive spending: Congress or the Select Committee on Intelligence?"
-"Should we limit Combat Order spending with a budgeted line item?"
I look forward to being a part of the discussions next month as the LAPers who missed out this month arrive as part of the WTP.
Sincerely,
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Comments
✯✯✯ Feel the AMPS! ✯✯✯
It was pretty close.
Pretty close?! It was soooo close.
To close.
That's what made it fun.
Good article.
It was very close.
Nice article on this subject, i really dislike the way some topics were renamed before voting on, we will get back on this subject i am sure about that 🙂
Seems like you won't get on the topic of tax reduction for a while, the Speaker of House locked the most recent thread on the grounds of "already discussed" seems like you'll need to wait a while 😉
A Old wise man once said "Those who are sore winners, hurt the worst when they lose"
But we can get on the topic of reducing your taxing presence in Congress.
/me starts censure discussion based solely on eRep's freedom of religion policy in the new ToS. sup, doe?
@Roper: I've lost plenty of times, and I'm still just as ballin yo.
@eShades: I'd love a censure discussion up on me. Would be #hilarious 😃
Well-discussed. It was a fun time, even if we couldn't get it passed.
Just gotta get myself to remember that even though we congressmen agree on very little, we're all still in the eUS congress together & that does mean something.
Very good article. It was a great discussion in Congress, and this was a very accurate article on what happened. I look forward to more awesome discussions with you and others next month
Good Article! Fair account on the events and I thank you for that! o7
★★★★ Baaaa ★★★★
This just in: Congressman Arrden uses the previous discussion of 8% tax to propose 2% work tax. He gets 4 approvals before it is derailed and locked.
Derailed, by dis guy 😃
★★★★ Baaaa ★★★★
✯✯✯ Feel the AMPS! ✯✯✯
✯✯✯ Feel the AMPS! ✯✯✯
✯✯✯ Feel the AMPS! ✯✯✯
✯✯✯ Feel the AMPS! ✯✯✯
Nice article DW! I think it is extremely fair to both sides, and definitely something that players in game should be kept informed of!
Great article, bookmarked for future use.
✯ ✯ ✯ Feel the AMPs! ✯ ✯ ✯
All I got out of this was that we could drop the tax to 6% and maintain current expenditures but we didn't.
Budgeted expenditures are not the same as total expenditures. There are millions being spent that aren't in the budget because war is unpredictable.
And the CBO has over $7.5 million USD. If we need to boost funds for war time, we can always have a temporary tax increase, as I can tell was the intent with the FSPA.
Rephrase that to "there are millions being spent because the "powers that be" are greedy and want BH's and 74 Q5 Factories. Lot's of that money goes directly to the pockets of the firmly entrenched elite leaders of the eUSA.
Hampton I pushed the button to spend a good amount of that money myself by setting COs in Canadian battles. I own a single Q7 that I purchased with my own profits from years of playing and gold buying. There are detailed reports available as to what the communes are producing and where the products are going. They are absolutely not profiting off the taxpayer's dime.
citation needed, Hampton.
Sorry America, we tried to get you some relief. If you'd like to see the WT lowered, please consider voting for the Feds or BSP in the upcoming Congressional elections. We lost this month by a single vote, with your help we can finally get you the fair tax that you deserve next month, instead of you overpaying so that a small minority of the country can protect the money that they believe belongs to them.
We won't stop fighting for a fair and responsible work tax, but we need the voters to do their part to help.
✯✯✯ Feel the AMPS! ✯✯✯
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/2329233/1/20
Congratulations America. We succeeded in preventing people from cutting government military spending and depleting our reserves, which has time and again proven to be the driving force behind success on the battlefield, thanks to a well-oiled military machine that supplies the players who are not rich enough to self-supply and putting them back on the battlefield.
Government military spending provides the most needed public good that is important in this military simulation game: directed damage. Damage where and when we need it. Damage that we can promise to our allies. It is the directed damage we have that makes us valuable as a country, and not a mechanical collection of separate individuals or militias who would then seek to conduct their own foreign affairs with other countries instead of acting as a whole. E pluribus unum.
We will not stop fighting the good fight, and prevent MUs that refuse to follow government orders from pauperizing the country and making our country susceptible to outside threats. Every eUS citizen benefits from our success on the battlefield, so everyone who has the means to do so (as measured by number of companies) and is benefiting from the bonuses we have should chip in, and not free-ride on the efforts and money of the others.
Most private military units also "supplies the players who are not rich enough to self-supply" and it doesn't cost the government one cent.
"Government military spending provides the most needed public good that is important in this military simulation game: directed damage." but so do the private units. Just recently, there was a joint strike coordinated between two private MUs and groups like SealTeam6 have been doing it longer than the current government-funded military unit.
"Damage that we can promise to our allies." Yeah. That's why alliance members are dropping out... the USA provides SOOOOOO much assistance while being tied up in an high-cost damage waste called Operation: Grey Cup.
You used to be better at this when you weren't trying to defend your aristocrat circle with half truths and smoke and mirrors.
Most private units also supplies the players who are not rich enough to self-supply, but impose their own standards, regulations, and hit for their own orders. What if I tried to join a private MU and was denied advancement or supplies because the financiers of that MU did not like me? Government MUs provide an alternative where you won't be subject to the decision of private individuals.
So do private units? No. They fight for their OWN orders. The damage they have is not directed damage. You are admitting yourself that the private MUs are coordinating it among themselves. Does the unilateral military action of feudal warlords count as the directed damage of the country? Can the POTUS count on it when conducting FA? No, and no.
The fact that we have our own battle right now does not change the fact that eUS has fought much more for its own allies than for the country itself in the past years. You are choosing the time frame to suit your needs. Government military has existed for years, not just during Operation: Greycup. Plus, our allies are doing great, have a look at how Servia was smashed.
You used to be better when you were an honest player instead of a half-baked role player who makes ridiculous accusations without any basis and condemning the countless hours of skilled labor people have put in for the betterment of this country in an online game. Where were you when we were knee deep in s***? Where was your so-called conscience when you were a part of the government? You are just twisting facts and being rude towards people who you should treat better, and you know it.
What DoD orders? It's only infrequently that they are updated with orders for current battles. It is even less frequent that they are updated every day.
Lol. Is Kemal saying private MUs are more exclusive than the USAF? Slyk Willy was discharged twice for his political beliefs (he was too outspoken for the DoD). Kemal has never even been in the USAF. Let them do their own talking, plz.
I was in Special Forces up until I took over OWLS USA from pearlowl. That should be roughly 2 years.
So....join the elite-sanctioned MU or starve?
My recent article shows that even if you are completely self-interested (as in just care about your own welfare), you would still want to pay the tax so that the country can reap the bonuses. No one is starving. Foreigners who want nothing to do with eUS want to come here to reap the economic rewards of our success.
So much spite and so much delusion. I just find it amazing that this level of exclusionary behavior is the norm. Truly an unproductive move for the eUS. I R disappoint.
I was there when your private MU declared independence and walked away with millions of taxpayer money in infrastructure. If the government infrastructure had not walked away, we would need to collect less in taxes. So what are you talking about?
More delusion and misinformation. It just keeps coming. The rhetoric is phenomenal.
Cubby, I personally did the analysis on how much we should expect from your MU during your separation. If I look through my files, I can exactly tell how much you were supposed to pay, but didn't.
I paid precisely what was determined and in full. Contract signed and verified by Cromstar, then SoD. I honored and paid back the prorated funds. A first for MUs parting ways with the eUS (which had DEFAULTED on its agreement with ST6 regarding the funding we were to receive). ST6 honors its agreements. eUS does not. And the refusal to even honor the legislation mentioned in the article above is proof. I'm tired of the manipulation and lies.
You paid the negotiated amount, not the real amount you should have paid. You can tell me how much you paid, and I can check my files to tell you how much you should have paid. Deal?
Lies, damned lies, and statistics. You are the king, sir.
You know that I am right, so you cannot even tell the people the amount you paid. Everyone who was on the SCI when you left knows this.
So excuse me if I do not take your comments seriously. It was different when you were getting money from the government, right? MU > country at its finest.
The only thing your attack on my MU proves is that said administration should not be trusted by the US taxpayers to manage the money or negotiate on their behalf. It is the long history of poor decisions that is in question indeed. We deserve better.
But, if we paid the negotiated amount, how can you still hold this against us? If we paid the negotiated amount then we've held up to our end of the deal. If you wanted more money then be mad at the negotiator that brokered the deal and not us. We did what was asked of us and paid it back, stop crying that we just walked away. This is like claiming that a country didn't hold up their end of a NAP when they've done exactly all that the NAP forces them to, just because you're not satisfied with the signed NAP.