re: #2 Backwoods_Sleuth

Come on @GroverNorquist lets play! Pretend I never studied economics. Explain to me the optimal corporate and personal income tax rates and how deviations from them impact the economy.

this is unarguably the wrong question
its the cart before the horse question

first question has to be how much money does the government need. - ie what does it have to pay for. these are the real policy debates. arguing about what is and is not the fed gov’ts role(s). you cant discuss how much to tax until you know how much tax the govt needs to raise. you dont spend what you raise, you raise what you need to spend.

the second question is what’s the number the rate will be based on - ie what is taxed. some definition of gross income, an “adjusted” income, wealth, or something else?

the third question is who pays how much - is it flat, progressive, proportional, fair, reasonable etc?

the “rate” question must be last because it is isolated and meaningless without the context of the first three. after you know the answers to the other 3, the rate or rates are whatever amount covers the first question.

any rate too low causes deficits - a separate, reasonable, discussion. any rate too high leads to surpluses. also not a bad idea - sometimes you save money for future needs - think infrastructure, fema, and other unanticipated disasters