Quote:Corporate tax revenue is down 60%. That was the 60% number I quoted. But if you want to look at the current situation overall...Are you trying to make my head explode or something? You said:
Quote:Tripling the deficit, while watching revenues plummet by 60%...You didn't say "corporate tax revenues". You said "revenues". That changes it from approximately right to very wrong - which was my whole point.
Quote:This guy charts overall Tax Revenues down 18% for 2009, after a decline of 15% in 2008... That is 33% so far... Add in the losses from SSI, Transportation, and other sources and we're getting close to 60% overall. There are many, many things that are now unfunded that were depending on a stable economy. Since income taxes are a pretty taboo subject, governments have relied on other mechanisms for revenue generation.Okay, so, despite the fact that you have no actual numbers to support your assertion, you just kind of add stuff up (I'm pretty sure you're double-counting the decline from 2008-2009- adding an estimate of that figure to the actual figure) get a number less than half what you claimed in any case, and then murmur a few vague phrases without support, and the number almost doubles to "getting close to 60%"?
There was no 15% decline in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. The numbers you gave earlier, in the excel spreadsheet, which are known quantities, show that 2007-2008 was almost identical to 2006-2007.
We'll have the numbers for the 2008-2009 fiscal year soon enough. If they're as high as 30%, that would be extremely bad. If they're as high as 60% (heck, I'll sport you: 50% drop, from 2006-2007 numbers, or wherever the peak was.) I'll humbly apologise for questioning you. But for the moment, it seems to me like you're exaggerating enormously.
My guess? Just under 20% drop in 2008-2009, which combined with almost no drop in 2007-2008 fiscal, makes... well, it makes about 20%.
-Jester