Desperation grabs for revenue are nothing new in politics, but California is once again leading the way in creative financing.

To help close yet another gaping budget deficit, now estimated to be $7 billion this year and reach as high as $20 billion next, Sacramento lawmakers have authorized a 10% increase in the amount of taxes withheld from worker paychecks starting November 1 and through 2010. The extra withholding tax will reduce Californians' take-home pay by about $1.7 billion for the year. But the lawmakers say this isn't a tax increase. OK, how about calling it a compulsory interest-free loan from taxpayers to the state?

According to the Franchise Tax Board, 10,004,000 Californians overpaid their state taxes last year and received an average refund of $903. The withholding penalty is expected to snatch between $20 and $90 a month from middle-class families. For those feeling the pinch of recession and living paycheck to paycheck, that penalty will hurt.

Of course, the government is obliged to return this money next spring when workers get their tax refunds, so this is the ultimate budget gimmick. It borrows from taxpayers now and deepens the budget hole next year. And we almost hate to ask: What happens come April if the state doesn't have enough money to pay the tax refunds it owes its citizens? Will taxpayers get IOUs the way state contractors did last year when Sacramento ran out of money?

Meanwhile, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature now face their sixth "extraordinary session" to balance the budget. Income tax rates went up last year by 0.25%, bringing the top rate to 10.55%, but receipts are already coming in $1 billion below projections, according to the state controller.

The politicians could use this continuing crisis as an opportunity to reform the state's tax code with lower rates and fewer deductions and loopholes, as recently proposed by the governor's tax reform commission. But that plan has been panned by the ruling classes in Sacramento. They claim to want to steal only from the rich, but their latest withholding ruse is showing that they'll steal from anyone with a paycheck.

The top rate to... 10.55?

I pay 40% top rate income tax.
And 17.5% VAT (Sales tax)
And tax on savings and investments
And national insurance

holy ****

The top rate to... 10.55?

I pay 40% top rate income tax.
And 17.5% VAT (Sales tax)
And tax on savings and investments
And national insurance

holy ****

Hillary Clinton
"We [the United States] tax everything that moves and doesn’t move"

Except our taxes are much higher because the deficits between the budget and revenues collected from various taxes (the stated numbers), not to mention deficit which eventually gets funded by Treasury Securities which bare interest, gets glossed over and lost due to monetary inflation. M3 isn't published anymore so it's not really possible to say what this number is.

Couple this with the fact that we are increasingly become a debtor nation at a magnitude much greater than we were ever a creditor (and we were once the world's largest creditor) and the inflationary money problem with government budgets funded by increasingly less desirable Treasury Securities and you have quite a Tax on the Average Working American who pays his way through life with his wage.

This man or woman cannot measure the taxes, but he sure and **** can feel them.

Every Western country has large amounts of public debt. European countries in general have our SS and Medicare problems times ten with their own social insurance.

Every Western country has large amounts of public debt. European countries in general have our SS and Medicare problems times ten with their own social insurance. Even China, the country people like to trot out as "doing things right," has a large amount of public debt.

I really have a hard time accepting that large public debts cause economic ruin because if that's true then the entire world economy is ruined forever. The fact is, pretty much everyone runs massive public debts. The only exceptions are the oil exporters, and not only is that going to dry up soon for them, but even some of them have started running large debts despite their massive oil wealth. (Saudi Arabia)

If we want to be the 1950s economic powerhouse again we're going to have to take the Chinese philosophy regarding human life. China's economic growth is so high because human life is worthless there. Not only does the government only provide minimal social programs, but decades of Communism have left the country three-fourths atheist. Every Chinese citizen knows that if they get into ****, not only is the government not going to help them, but there's no Abrahamic charity that's going to help them either. In fact, their neighbors are more likely to spit on them and ask them to please die quickly to stop dragging our economic miracle down. That's why they all work 16 hours a day and save 25% of their income.

Which European countries have social nets due to become insolvent within 8 years?

I'm honestly curious.

Well actually we'd be europe.