Some things sound good but maybe aren’t. The Made In America Motors Act might be one such thing. It is a proposal to enact a tax deduction for interest paid on new car loans – if those cars are made in America, the latter defined as vehicles chiefly assembled in America.
The deduction would be as high as $10,000 – depending upon the amount of taxes paid. The proposal has the support of President Trump and carries the signatures of Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan.
The latter says “The Made in America Motors Act is a win for American taxpayers, autoworkers and Michigan. Making interest on car loans tax deductible was a key campaign promise made by President Trump. The Made in America Motors Act delivers on this promise by giving individuals and families a financial incentive to buy American, which in turn supports good-paying automotive jobs in Michigan and across the nation.”
Italics added. Explanation follows.
On the one hand, anything that returns money to the person from whom it was taken is just. This money is not a gift or some kind of grift. It is recompense for a wrong done. It’s a measure of our acceptance of indenture that we even use terms such as “deduction” and “refund” in the context of legalized robbery, for that is what being compelled by threats to pay what are styled “your” taxes are. An honest mafiosi would never say such a thing. He would say – pay up! – and forget “deductions” and “refunds.”
But government says it differently and so we come to think of it differently. The government already allows – note the word used – tax-victims to deduct the interest they pay on their home loans. So why not expand the idea to encompass interest paid on car loans?
Well, because it causes us to believe the government is doing us a kindness. This is a bad idea because the government never does us kindnesses. What it does is ensnare us and manipulate us into playing its game.
A prior example come to mind: The federal Cash for Clunkers program that paid Americans to destroy the cars they had – which were paid-for cars, it’s worth pointing out – in order to egg them on to buy into fresh debt, in the form of a new car loan. They were offered the lure of a $4,500 check to hand over their paid-for “clunker” in order to get them to sign up for payments on a new one. This served to stimulate demand for new cars. It also served to reduce the supply of paid-for older cars and – thereby – make it more difficult for people who preferred to live within their means (by avoiding debt) to do so.
This brings up the other reason why these inducements and manipulations are a bad idea. Egging on debt eggs-on dependence. People are encouraged to buy into 30 years of debt-paying on a home loan because they are allowed to deduct the interest on their taxes. (The italics are added to make note of the subtleties of government etymological jujitsu.) And now the government is proposing to egg-on buying into new car debt by generously allowing the indebted to “deduct” some of the interest on that debt from their taxes.
But only if they buy cars chiefly assembled in America. Those who buy cars that aren’t will be punished by not getting the “deduction.” See how the game is played? See how the government leverages us against each other?
Imagine how much more affordable affordable homes – and cars – would be if people were allowed to keep their income rather than egged-on to be grateful for whatever “refunds” and “deductions” they are allowed. The average-income tax-victim in this country pays about 15 percent of their annual income in taxes. The average tax-victim earns about $60,000 annually. The federal taxes on that – not included Social Security “contributions” – would be around $9,000. That money would more than pay for the monthly payments on a $50,000 six year new car loan and never mind the interest.
It is of a piece with President Trump’s campaign promise to exempt the tips paid to service workers such as barristas at coffee shops and waiters at restaurants from taxation.
Why is it that there is never a promise to exempt everyone from taxation? Then there would be no necessity for all this “refund” and “deduction” rigmarole.
But that’s just the point. The rigmarole is the end in itself. Or at least, it is a key element in getting the populace to accept paying their taxes. It presents them with the opportunity to claw back some of what has been taken from them and in this way causes them to believe they have achieved a victory of some sort and there is a degree of truth in this in that it is a victory to get back some of the money taken from you by a thief. It feels good. It seems like a boon.
But the plain end-of-the-day fact is you’ve still paid your taxes. Only now, you’ve gotten a little of it back via a scheme designed by the very people who took it in the first place.
. . .
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As you point out, Eric, people bow down and thank GovCo for “their deductions”. In that same vein I had a conversation over the weekend with a fellow Boomer that was talking about a tree coming down in his yard. He went on to explain how the City of Atlanta and many other “big cities” (in which he likes to live) have tree ordinances that prevent you from cutting down “your tree”. When he said you have to get permission, actually a permit, to do so I said, “So, they aren’t “your” trees. He then stated the cost was minimal, around a hundred dollars, if your tree was diseased and was falling down. This, he stated, merely covered the cost of the permitting. At which point I said it’s like a self-licking ice cream cone.
He was totally clueless as to the real ramifications of what he was supporting. He went on to say it was to prevent developers from clear cutting large trees when putting up projects. And, that those large trees actually increase the price and profitability but, they cut them down anyway. He actually thinks developers deny themselves profit just to cut down trees.
To quote that famous philosopher, Bugs Bunny, “What a maroon!”
I like trees. One of the things gs that I like about Atlanta, specifically, is that it has quite a lot of trees especially considering the size of the city.
Having said that.
If it’s your yard, and they’re your trees, you’d think you’d get to do whatever you want with them.
That’s one of my pet peeves about the South in general. They tend to chafe against tederal government tyranny overreach, which is all well and good, except they turn around & have the state do it only more corruptly and 5x more tyrannically. And they won’t put up with your bitching about it, either. A small amount of generalized grumbling that doesn’t challenge any fundamental premises, is the maximum that is allowed.
State tyranny is not better than federal. In fact, I would argue that in almost all cases it is worse, because it is closer to home and much more difficult and risky to ignore it. I have seen shocking levels of sniveling bootlicking compliance shockingly far south in Illinois…Governor Lardass isn’t even there, he’s holed up in his toiletless mansion outside Chicago 8 hours’ drive away, none of you voted for him, and yet…? I weep for the future.
Hi Publius,
Yup. This business about having to ask permission to cut a tree down on one’s property establishes pretty clearly that it is not your property. You are allowed conditional possession, is all.
“Imagine how much more affordable affordable homes – and cars – would be if people were allowed to keep their income rather than egged-on to be grateful for whatever “refunds” and “deductions” they are allowed.”
Imagine also how much more affordable things would be if the government did not hold a monopoly over the nation’s currency, which it can inflate at will, with essentially zero constraint.
It is, in fact, the unbacked, monopolistic fiat currency, which is by far the most important reason behind the ever-growing state, and ever-growing prices of everything.
We are by now well conditioned to accept ever-increasing prices as normal, while in reality there should be slow deflation, as productivity and technology improves.
In a slow deflation world, even the ordinary Joe and Jane would be able to save something for their retirement, because their money would over time buy more, and they would not need to go to expensive ‘advisors’ and take up risky strategies so as to try and beat the Fed’s money printers.
Taxes are robbery, and inflation is theft. In other words, the government is here to help.
Amen, John –
It is arguably true that most if not all of our major problems arise from the manipulation of the fiat “currency” we’re forced to use as the medium of exchange. If that power were gone, that thing called “inflation” would disappear and so also the debt-based economy. We’d be free again. Imagine that.
‘INCOME’ ‘TAXES’? Made in America Motors Act. The LIES are ALL connected-
http://billsropesupply.com/TheTruthInTenSegments.pdf
https://losthorizons.com/Cracking_the_Code.htm
http://www.losthorizons.com/Newsletter/CtCStudyGuide.pdf
YOU’VE GOT TO LEARN THE LAW – IT’S NOT WHAT LYING LAWYERS SAY IT IS!
Furthermore, realize this:
When the government wrongly taxes our wages or salary, then the money we have left HAS ALREADY BEEN TAXED.
But then this same money is taxed again and again every time we buy something.
Our Rulers are not stupid, not mistaken. They have deliberately built the whole system to bleed us of our money. Purpose: So we all become only renters, not owners, not independent, not powerful.
Likewise, they continue to bleed us — deny us — of our rights. They lie and call our rights privileges and make us beg and pay for them. And “The People” are too stupid to rise up. And we have a minority of people who know this but are do-nothing cowards. And only a handful of us are ready and willing to act but know that it would be suicidal for only a handful to act.
“If we won’t kill the tyrants, we deserve the tyranny.”
Let’s not forget our Veterans who fell this Memorial Day weekend no matter the differences and disagreements we may have.
I don’t forget them. I sneer at those dupes. No veteran since the war with Mexico has fought For White Americans. They have all fought, and still do, for jewry, to increase jewry’s power and control over us, and to further enable jewry to infest our White-founded White-built country with blacks and arabs and latinos and asians to squeeze out and snuff out my White race.
Fuck the veterans!
Why would I honor those who serve the very powers of evil, and who help them impose that evil upon innocents all over the world and at home? Would you honor a German SS officer?
Fuck the veterans; fuck the cops. They are our enemies- the very ones who impose the dictates of tyrants, without whom those tyrants would have no power.
May they all die slow and painful deaths and then rot.
We are basically agreed on the veterans and cops.
But I know the truth about WW2 and that Gen. George Patton said “We fought on the wrong side,” and the jews killed him before he could return to the USA and carry out his plan to inform The People.
“Would you honor a German SS officer?” Yes, I would. My dad was duped and sent by jewFDR’s government to go kill the best Whites on the planet. I loved my dad, but I do not honor his “service.”
Well, I will give ya this, Jim- at least ol’ Adolf actually tried to do good for his people and country- unlike our traitors who are destroying their own people and culture while deifying non-Semitic lampshades who fancy themselves Jews.
“The average-income tax-victim in this country pays about 15 percent of their annual income in taxes”
Unless you include all the non-income taxes, and local taxes, and fees, in which case it’s 50%, or more.
Roger tat, John!
But – not to worry. Just write “void” on your 1040. The judge will understand…
Yep.
I’M JUST AN EXECUTIVE ORDER
(Schoolhouse Rock parody)
https://youtu.be/1o4V1WVqG5o?si=nC_DRuUCGw7BdLwD
Nailed it!
Pretty funny as far as biased drivel goes, to those who can take a joke.
Some school teacher is going to play it for the class though, and I weep for the brainwashed youth.
[On the one hand, anything that returns money to the person from whom it was taken is just. ]
Anything?
I’m still confused whether taking the money from SS is immoral or not.
I used to feel like that, and still somewhat do, but considering that we have no say in the matter and are forced to pay *As are our neighbors; our children; their children, etc.) and that 99.9% of the people being mulcted adamantly support that socialist program and that it will not go away regardless of anything we do, might as well just take it until and if such time that they require a CBDV account or “Real ID” or some such thing that is incompatible with our personal liberty and privacy.
No one’s tax burden is going to be reduced just because we opt out of receiving “benefits”. (Funny how that works, eh?)
If the Ponzi scheme is still solvent in the near future, I intend to use “my benefits”[sic] to live abroad in a place where one can actually live on such “benefits”. If the masters and their complicit slaves who voted for this crap impose themselves on us all without an opt-out [Can’t have opt-outs in socialism, else there’d be no one to fund it, as only the most dependent desperate types would volunteer for it!] then I’ll gladly let them pay for my expat retirement.
Of course, I still feel that it isn’t right (and it indeed isn’t) but we can’t do anything about it. To refuse “benefits” would only hurt us, without helping anyone else. Take what they want to give you before the place burns to the ground, which it will.
That reminds me, remember when it was common to refer to our “tax BURDEN”- (Which it is)? vs. the modern “your OBLIGATION” or “Your FAIR SHARE”…..
If George Carlin were still alive……
Hi Ken,
I don’t think it’s immoral, especially for older people who have been forced to pay into it for decades. That said, I’d like to see the benefits paid-for by transferring money wasted on “defense.” And I’d like to see young people freed from being forced to “contribute.”
You can have my tax money when you pry it from my cold dead hands…
Notice that Trumpenstein’s promise to not tax Social Security benefits didn’t make it into his Big Bullsh*t Bill. So the serfs get taxed twice on the same income stolen from them.
Another day, another 100 million barrels of crude oil are being shipped to all corners of the earth. Some call crude oil the master resource. Don’t have to wonder why.
That’s why there are motors, cars, wheels, tires.
It’s Memorial Day Weekend, go for a drive. There are places to see and not soon to be forgotten.
A message from MasterResource.
‘So why not expand the idea to encompass interest paid on car loans?’ — eric
Deductability of interest on personal loans (including autos) was eliminated in the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The loss of personal deductions was compensated by dropping the top marginal tax rate from 50 to 28 percent.
The underlying idea was to make federal income tax simpler, so that most people eventually could file their tax return on a postcard.
But of course, this never happened. Over time, a government obsessed with molding personal behavior tacked on a dizzying array of tax credits and deductions for everything from child care to EeeVees. Now here we are full circle, bringing back some (but not all) personal interest deductions, depending on where your vehicle was assembled.
Likewise, at the high tide of the World trade Organization, which succeeded the post World War II GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), it didn’t matter where goods came from. Tariffs were negligibly low, so the cheapest resources (materials, labor, capital, technology) governed where products were made.
This late 20th century world is being dismantled before our eyes. If Trump carries the trend far enough, we’ll return to neofeudalism, with each village self-sufficient and maybe even keeping its own local sun time. The collapse of global trade will roll back living standards, just as the end of the Roman empire’s trade routes ushered in the Dark Ages in Europe.
For now, we bask in the orange glow of the setting sun, as cities burn on the darkening horizon.
I long to see the late 20th century world of communism dismantled. Would that it were so. Remember the “dark ages” were an age of relative freedom, with many competing kingdoms and city states.
You worry too much about Darth Tangelo. He’s a surfer, riding a wave which has been building a long time. Surfers know not to fight nature, but to time it and ride it. The bankruptcy of the communist state is inevitable and mathematically unavoidable. The only question that matters is what replaces it.
“..With each village self-sufficient and maybe even keeping its own local sun time.”
That doesn’t sound too terrible to me. Hell, I’m trying that with my own homestead.
Not that I wish for the end of the ability to trade globally. I do question how necessary that often is, however.
I think we’re already experiencing Neofeudalism, but have replaced the feudal titles with those sounding more innocuous. But we still pay our yearly tributes and never truly own what we have.
“The underlying idea was to make federal income tax simpler, so that most people eventually could file their tax return on a postcard.”
Soon the tax return will only be two lines
1) How much did you make?
2) Send it in
Perspective from an almost 75 year old guy: I don’t remember when this changed (at least 30 years ago . . . ?) but we used to be able to deduct any interest: Car loans, credit cards, etc.
There didn’t used to be any tax on tips either.
The ten-year Treasury has historically been around 5%. It is currently 4.509%, so pretty close. Mortgages have historically been around 6-7%, which they are today. I paid 8.5% on my first house in 1975 and they went up into double-digits after that. A real bank, that isn’t tied to the Fedgov, cannot issue mortgages at 3% and stay in business for long.
So “there’s nothing new under the sun,” we are just attempting to go back to what was normal — despite the online hysteria I see.
And why shouldn’t we be able to deduct interest? It is income for the banks, so they should be paying that as tax. If we are borrowing because we are in need, how can taxing that vigorish be considered in any way moral. And if we are borrowing to float a business, that goes double.
Rackets all the way down…
Some months ago (last year?) when I first heard someone say online that NOT taxing tips would “destroy the economy” I had to laugh, then get dumbfounded. NOT taking money from someone, usually young, whose tips are usually a reflection of how well they did their job, is going to destroy the economy?
And I still hear people harping about 6-7% mortgages being horrible and that they can’t afford “X” house because of it. Well tough cookies, we can’t always have what we want. Any legitimate lending institution offering mortgages (not being propped up by the Fedgov . . . but are there any?) would have to be some percentage point above inflation to make mortgages profitable. Who can predict inflation 5-10-20 years out? Nobody, but loaning money over a 30 year period is certainly risky.
As for income taxes, I have to agree with Richard Henry Lee, one of the signers of the Declaration:
The passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 had infuriated many wealthy and influential colonists, and was responsible for beginning the storm that settled over that historic assembly in Philadelphia in July 1776.
These Americans had become angry not so much at the amount of the taxes exacted as at the realization that this was only the opening move in a program of confiscatory taxation.
If Parliament “may take from me one shilling in the pound,” argued Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, “what security have I for the other nineteen?”
Loaning ‘money’ over a 30 year period might be risky if there was any possibility of loss for the lender.
But the funding for the loans is created from NOTHING, not from actual investment, and the fedgov bails out the banks at our expense any time they foolishly make loans to too many people (or companies or countries) who can’t repay them.
The banks have no skin in the game whatsoever.
It’s long past time to skin the banking cartel as they have been skinning everyone else for 112 years.
(I certainly agree with you on your comments regarding taxes. ;^)
Let’s be clear, there is substantial difference between your local bank and the big international bankers. The local banker is most assuredly not printing money. Though they would if they could.
That’s a vast overstatement.
When we borrow from a bank, any bank, they don’t give us the money in a suitcase. They give us one piece of their paper that they printed some numbers on. But when we pay it back, it has to be in green money or otherwise digits in our bank account that got there by our labor (wages, salary) or other real income.
The banks don’t have cash on reserve to give, on demand, all the money we’ve deposited. They don’t even have 10%. They practice “fractional reserve banking.” Windfall profits on loans paid off, and windfall profits on investments made with our money, not theirs.
That’s the jew fractional reserve banking system.
And if you’re White, do you think they’ll let you own a bank? You think you could pass all THEIR requirements (deliberately made to exclude nonjews)?
Why ?
Because the deduction for interest of ANY kind encourages more debt and more consumption.
That also encourages bigger profits for the banking cartel who are the slave masters of every person who is indebted to them. The banking cartel pays nothing for the loans they make. They create the funding for loans from NOTHING and they profit because they corrupted the federal government in 1913 and every single day since then.
If there was no interest deduction on mortgages, then demand for home loans would precipitously drop. So would housing prices. So would banking cartel profits. So would taxes on ‘real estate.’
It was almost 40 years ago when interest deductions were eliminated. The 1986 Tax simplification act reduced the top rate from 50 to 28 percent (it was increased under George HW Bush and others) in exchange for elimination of the credit card and loan interest deductions.
When a new loaded pickup costs more than what I paid for my house decades ago; it makes you wonder if you really need a new truck. Looking at the economy I know I’m not planning to borrow money to buy something new when the old one is still working fine.
Instead of handing out shiny trinkets I wish President Trump would just fulfill his campaign promises because this sounds like another bait and switch scheme to me.
Limousine liberals and welfare conservatives. Two sides of the same coin.
Moreno made his fortune as…an auto dealer.
Nonsense like this program (and weekend long government celebrations like the current one) proves that the marketers can wrap anything in an American flag and the rubes will eat it up.
Flip) Anyone having income dependent on auto sales would be head over heals for this bill…..