The Shelf Project

This is a must read.
Somehow, it seems that whatever the madness is and how great it becomes, Just when you thought you have heard/seen everything, there is always something to top it.
Here is the topper.

The Shelf Project: Raising Revenue to Defend the Tax Base

The Shelf Project is a collaboration by professionals in the tax community to develop and perfect proposals that Congress can pull off the shelf when it needs revenue. By some projections, Congress will need $4 trillion of new revenue over a decade beginning in 2009-2010. Shelf project proposals will strengthen the tax base, raise revenue and chase the money.

There is a link to more about this.
This is disturbing to say the least and a perfect example of the madness in politics.
The Shelf Project:About

Good shelf projects sometimes take years to develop. It took years of tinkering with section 1561 and section 382 before the remedies held water. Section 469 had to be repaired to handle passive income generators, then more commonly known as “PIGs.” Development on proposals that Congress will adopt in 2009 or 2010 needs to be started now. Congress will need to think about raising revenue. Repeal of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) would cost $668 billion over 10 years. “Temporary” rate cuts that Congress adopted in 2001-2005 will expire on December 31, 2010. Taxpayers do not generally know that their current tax rates are just a loaner, not written to be permanent. Just maintaining the “temporary” tax cuts will take $300 billion a year. If the cuts are maintained and AMT is just managed, then Congress will be faced with over $4 trillion of toxic deficits over the coming decade. Under pay-as-you go budgeting, moreover, Congress must raise revenue to spend or give tax incentives for the benefit of constituents. Constituent demands do not stop. It would be a mistake to predict when Congress will turn to revenue raising, but the revenue need is coming.
The projected $4 trillion needed over a decade is a serious number, but not a terrible number. It is only $400 billion a year. There is a lot of money in loopholes. The tax expenditure budget identifies some departures from income. I would venture that the economy as a whole would be better off if a substantial fraction of those tax expenditures were ended. There are industries and transactions that are undertaxed. Consumption tax norms would tell us to go after interest deductions, consumed capital gains and monetarization of assets with built-in gain. There are many opportunities for negative tax in our current tax law, and a zero tax rate is plausibly the lowest that tax on investments should go. Indeed, if The Shelf Project can come up with many good and effective ideas, it can help bring maximum tax rates down lower than they have been.
The need for revenue can drive tax reform. Our tax base has eroded. The tax base is assaulted daily by talented tax planners and constituent-demanded legislated exceptions to tax. A good tax base is firm, level among choices, and unavoidable. In our tax system, harmful loopholes abound. The tax base is in terrible health, as measured by how little people are willing to pay for straight-forward tax-exemption. Investors now need to pay and are willing to pay only about five percent of interest to avoid tax with municipal bonds. Municipal bonds compete directly or indirectly with all investments, so low implicit tax on those bonds shows that effective tax rates are low on all investments.
It has been over 20 years since the Tax Reform Act of 1986, when Congress last undertook a serious attempt to repair the tax base. The tax base is like an Ark on which we all depend. If the tax base is going to hold water, it must be repaired.

and get this..

The coming revenue needs are a precious window for the defense of the tax base. Factors that helped tax reform in the past are no longer available. The Tax Reform Act of 1986, for instance, was driven by substantial cuts in maximum tax rates that could balance the revenue from anti-tax shelter reforms. Before 1981, tax brackets were not adjusted for inflation and Congress’s need to return the inflation revenues then lubricated adoption of anti-loophole tax reforms. This time, it will be the need for revenue that will have to drive the protections of the tax base. When Congress needs revenue, it is a rare opportunity to fill in the loopholes. The need for revenue is an opportunity for tax reform that must not be squandered.
If Congress raises revenue just by raising tax rates, that would be lost opportunity. An increase in tax rates raises the damage that tax does. The tax-caused deadweight loss rises with the square of the increase in tax rates. Raising rates captures those who are in the tax base, to the cackling delight of those who are not.

"cackling delight"?

Sounds like a coven of witches rather than Congress

The shelf must be empty or we are doomed.
If the fill the shelves, we will be taxed into oblivion..

Comments?

Thank you for posting this.

Why do they even let normal citizens be allowed to possess "money" in the first place?

Wouldn't it be much more efficient, if we simply reformed a new system in which "employers" would just send the slaves' entire wages over to the IRS directly?

Then no need to worry about the slaves not giving up enough of their "earnings". Problem solved.

There's a few stars and flags, but honestly nobody has any thoughts on this Shelf Project?

I suppose at this point in history, we aren't surprised by anything anymore...

Alright I'll bite:

I actually think this is a great idea, citizens helping the government devise ways to have funding on a rainy day. It goes with that whole "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." idea of President Kennedy's.

I'm kind of amazed the IRS doesn't already provide the service being done on this wiki for the federal government. It just seems like common sense that a government would know all of their potential funding sources and how they can be adapted or changed.

Originally posted by ProjectJimmy
Alright I'll bite:

I actually think this is a great idea, citizens helping the government devise ways to have funding on a rainy day. It goes with that whole "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." idea of President Kennedy's.

I'm kind of amazed the IRS doesn't already provide the service being done on this wiki for the federal government. It just seems like common sense that a government would know all of their potential funding sources and how they can be adapted or changed.

The problem is, when the rainy day is every day, the shelves are stockpiled with "projects" that are whimsical and any substance would be less thought out tha devised.

Now the Health Care Bill is cast into a law against constituants positions. This has got to make it crystal clear that "Agenda Inc.", (AKA NWO - Government - Military Industrial Complex -Federal Reserve Bank -Treasury - CIA - FDA - UN - WHO - Pharma - Wall Street - etc...,et al.)
takes presidence over Americans positions with defiant voting in both houses.
There are more promises broken by these Reps and Senators than bones in a Quentin Tarantino film fight scene, and they promote each other with a pat on the back, tip of the hat, nods and atta-boys, whilst entangled in a convolution of senselessness that will surely destroy the nation who's constitution they swore an oath to uphold.

The final chapter will read like the Book of Revelation, and will not be pleasant i fear.