Democratic Debate – Ka-ching, Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching

In other words, every time somebody gave something away, whatever it may have been -- free health care, free education -- the other one would stand up and, 'We'll give you at home, this -- and we'll give you' -- I'm saying to myself, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, because that means the money is just going out the door, and you know, we're a country that owes, we have a debt right now of $19 trillion.

Donald Trump, Morning Joe, October 14, 2015

The returns are on last night’s Democrat debate are in - Hillary Clinton had a big night and did what she had to do to stay number one; Joe Biden suffered a setback and may not enter race; Bernie Sanders gave Hillary a gift by downplaying those “damn emails,”; and critics are asking: how on earth are we going to pay for all that “free stuff” – Social Security, Medicare-for-all, free college educations, and other entitlements.

The answer, ala Hillary Clinton, is being a “progressive” with a purpose, the nature of which she did not specify. Her response translates into moving to the left - raising taxes on the rich, expanding the social safety net, erasing income differences between the top 1% and the rest of us, redistributing income from individuals to the collective population, and saving money by avoiding foreign entanglements .

Bernie Sanders said we ought to be more like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The total taxes of these countries compared to the GDP are: Denmark 49.0%, Norway, 43.6%, Sweden 25.8%, and United States 26.0%.

Hillary responded that we are not Denmark. Indeed, we are not, if you compare our tax rates to Denmark
Corporate tax rate - Denmark 23.5%, U.S. 35.0%
Pay roll tax rate – Denmark 8.0%, U.S, 15.3%
VAT Tax – Denmark 25.0%, U.S. 0%
Income Tax Rates, Denmark, minimum 29.7%, maximum 47.8%
U.S. 59.9% , Federal and state, with no federal income tax on the bottom 50% of population.

I suppose we could go the way of Denmark by imposing a 25% VAT on every citizen. We could also raise our maximum tax on the top 1% to 50% or 60%, whatever it takes to expand ObamaCare to Medicare-for –all, free college and to expand that social safety net to more “free stuff” for more people.

But Ka-ching, Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching. Given our $18.5 trillion national debt and our runaway entitlement programs, the main contributors to the debt, how are we going to pay for it all? There simply aren’t enough rich people to go around. The middleclass will have to shoulder most of the burden.

Maybe we could start by reducing our corporate tax rate, the highest in the world, to stimulate our economy and to bring jobs and $2 trillion back to America. And maybe we ought to just slap a 25% VAT onto everybody, so we can mimic socialized countries.