the game. Happy tax day. 704 on a Wednesday. Good morning. Thanks for joining us on KCMO. What can we do in this country as we sit here on tax day and create a country where everybody has skin in the game? To me, it's very simple. It's so simple that Congress will never do it because they don't want everybody to have skin in the game. They want to have a chance to vote for their lobbyist friends. But what if we just had a world where everybody paid? Pick a number 10% of their income. 12% of their income 15. I don't know what it is. You can tell me at 913408 795 7. But I can't sit here and not think about the fact that you know you got to file by today. If you haven't filed yet, you got to ask for a refund here in the last couple of weeks as well. You may have owed the government something. No one really knows why. Right? I mean, you may have an accountant. You may do it on Turbo tax yourself or whatever you use. And that's fine, too. But do you really understand unless you're an accountant right now listening? Do you really understand why you owe what you owe or why your tax is so expensive? Could you imagine how simple the tax code would be? If it was like whatever you bring in, you're paying 10% to the feds. That's it. No loopholes. No carve outs. You know, Mark was mentioning before the break that we have kids, so obviously it's beneficial from a tax perspective to have children. But what if all that was just taken out of the equation? I mean, I think we should encourage if the government's going to encourage children. Considering that we're not like in a place where we're even replacing the people we need to replace. We don't even have replacement birth rate going on right now in America. So if you're going to encourage anything through tax policy, having kids would be it. But set that aside for a moment. Just make it a flat tax. I mean, Ted Cruz talked about this 10 years ago when he ran for the state of America. He said you can pay the tax tax and you can fill it out. And you know, you prove your income. Here's what I made. Here's my 10% leave me alone. And that's it. Now you know, my friends who are accountants probably would not like this because it would not be great for their business. But how much simpler would it be? And how much easier would it be to for people to feel like they've all got skin in the game? Because right now there's a lot of money in the state of America. So the federal income tax. And the bottom 50% of earners in this country. Pay roughly 3% of the federal income taxes. So think about that. The top 50% of earners in America pay 97% of the taxes. The bottom 50% pay the tax tax. And the bottom 50% of the federal income tax. And you know, you're like Elizabeth Warren doing her, you know, routine. I mean, not that routine. Sorry, not the Indian routine. I mean the, you know, rich got to pay their fair share routine. When she's doing that. Well, what's what's the fair share? What's the number? When you already have 1% paying 40% should they pay 60% 70% like what do you want it to be? When you're doing that, what is it? Tell me the number. And wouldn't we have a better economic system and I believe actually we would have a better culture, a better society. If we all felt like we were equally in it together. Because if you had a 10% tax rate across the board, right? And you had the guy that made a million dollars. He pay 100 grand in taxes. The person who paid the tax rate in taxes. I mean, that's that's a big difference. The individual making a million dollars paying 10 X. But you've got the same amount of skin in the game. And you feel like, okay, this is equitable and you feel like you've got the same stake in the country too. Because if not, if right now, you know, you're in the bottom 50% you're not really paying the government anything anyway. In fact, with other government programs out there, you may be getting a lot of money over your lifetime. Conversely, those at the top are not getting close to, you know, getting out of it what they put in and that's okay. I mean, if you were blessed with some skill set and you honed it and you developed it to make a ton of money, God bless you. That's amazing. I'm not saying you should want more or really want anything from your government. But you have this system that pits people against each other. You have to be able to live in a good country. You have to live in a good country. You have to live in a good life event. Scott Jennings was an outstanding keynote speaker from CNN. He had a line that stood out to me and his line was I don't want to live. In just a rich country. I want to live in a good country. And he went on to, you know, weave it into obviously the pro life movement and he said, you know, I'm not sure I'm going forward. And it just it rang so true to me. It's it's nice and it's great to be a rich country. We shouldn't take it for granted. Now we're $37 trillion in debt, so I'm not sure how rich exactly we are. But it does seem like at times over the last several decades, this country has sold away its moral compass in exchange of the almighty dollar. It does feel like that's happened at times. It's not because of what is morally correct as a nation. And that's not because of one person. That's just because of the country and the way that both political parties have acted over the last at least 40 years, probably going back longer. But he's right about that. And if you want to be a you can be a good and rich country, but part of to me being a good country is feeling like everyone's in it together. One way is represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented represented figuring out reasons to be divided against their fellow American. And by the way, there's a lot of people profiting off of that. Please don't kid yourself online. A lot of people profiting off of that right now. So as we sit here on tax day, that's where my head is at. And I want to hear from you as well at 913-408-7957. Let's start in St. Joe. That's where Steve is this morning. Steve, what's going on, my man? Hey, my advocacy is always that there should be no taxes. You asked about, you know, do you know why your taxes are what they are? I don't think you should have any tax withholding. I think you should get a bill for the entire amount you owe on April 15th, and you got to write a check for it. And election day should be the next day. That sounds April 16th. All elections on April 16th. That's outstanding. You know, here's what I would say. I've heard a lot of people float the idea out there of like, no withholdings because you're right. People don't understand. No withholdings. I don't think you can give them a big bill on April 15th because most Americans will spend the money that they get. But if on a bi-weekly basis, it's like, here's your flat check, right? Let's say you get paid twice a month. You make $48,000 a year. So 24 paychecks, you get two grand a paycheck just to give you an easy number to comprehend, right? You get two grand every week or every other week, and then you got to pay, you know, the government, whatever that number is, 300 bucks. You got to write that check out or you got to do a direct deposit to the IRS on the internet. And that will change things very quickly. Where am I going? Where do you want me to go next, John? All right, let's go to Victor and Parkville. Go ahead, Vic. You're on KCMO. Good morning, Pete. I mean, we all have great ideas about this. I mean, there's a lot of different stuff floating out there. I think a fairer way would be a straight flat tax of 5%, and then an additional 5% as a consumption tax. This way you have the people on the lower income who are just, you know, they're eating a living out. They're just trying to survive. They're not out there buying the expensive cars, a big house, all the expensive food and everything else. Therefore, they're able to actually save up money and still have skin in the game as you put it. And those people who are out there, you know, and they're shaking and moving and they're out there spending their money where they need to, because they've saved their whole lives and whatnot, they're having the additional consumption tax on it. And also, if you apply this similar to the gas tax, the more gas you buy, the more you're putting towards the roads. Those people who are using the roads more are actually paying more for the services that they get. So if you apply that kind of mentality to it, then I agree with you. And I think one of the biggest issues that we have are those at the very bottom, we don't have any skin in the game and are just sitting there taking, taking, taking, which is where I think WorkFair actually has a lot to do with it. And I like that implementation that came in a couple of decades. Yeah, absolutely. Great call, Victor. Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it. 913-408-7957. A lot of you want to get in the conversation. We'll keep it going with you as we sit here on Tax Day and think about what's the best system that can actually unify America. 714 on a Wednesday. I'm Pete Mondo on KCMO Talk Radio. Tax Day! Hope you paid them. If not, get that extension in ASAP. And thanks for being here on KCMO Talk Radio 957 FM. What is a system we could have in place that would be more equitable? I mean, I'm a flat tax guy. I know Ted Cruz threw it out there 10 plus years ago. No loopholes. No lobbying. Everyone's got 10% of whatever the number is that they're putting into the system. So we all feel like we've got the same skin in the game. Someone on the text line said, Pete, that sounds very socialist of you. No! No, it's actually the opposite of that. It's trying to make a system and tax policy that makes it feel like we don't want to be a winner or a loser, per se, because some people right now try to game the system by not using their God-given talents to maximize their earning potential to say, I'm better off not working in some cases because of the taxes I would owe versus what I would get from the government. And there's a lot of that that goes on out there too. Let's go to Judy. She's first up on KCMO. Hi, Judy. Good morning, Pete. Thanks for taking my call. Okay. I am living on survivors' benefits from my husband. I have to work, and I took a partial out of my retirement to put a down payment on a house. And even with Trump's overtime benefits, I still end up owing $1,100 on my taxes. Okay, so this is really not fair. I just, I don't understand, and I went over this with my accountant. I go, how in the world with all these benefits and everything, I am working. I'm barely making a living. I buy a house, I take an early withdrawal on my social security or my retirement, and I still end up owing $1,100. How do you do this? Well, I can't play accountant on the radio, Judy. That would be irresponsible of me. But listen, I feel for you, and that's obviously a difficult spot. But here's the thing, and this is the tough part, and I appreciate the call, Judy. No one, unless you're an accountant, I can't even start to answer the question. I don't even know where to start. So that's what makes it difficult, right? Where if you had a much more simplistic system in place, everyone knew why they owed what they owed, and everyone owed the same percentage of their income. I think you got a better country too. Walter Springhill, go ahead. I've always said, I've always said that 10% is good enough for God, it shouldn't be good enough for the ghost. And I want to go further. I think we should have 10% for the fed, 5% for your state, 2.5% for your county, 1% for your city. Boom. And then live with it, they need to live within their means. Yep, that'd be good. If you want additional revenue, have a national sales tax. So if you buy something expensive, guess what? You're going to pay more taxes. If you buy something less expensive, you pay less taxes. And it would be fair, and there's no group envy or division or any of that. Yep. I like that better than just the absurd sales taxes that are being collected by the states, the counties, and the cities these days. It's just completely out of control. It is, but this way it would be fair, 10% for you like I said, for the fed, 5% for your state, 2.5% for your county, 1% for your city, and then they have to live within their means. Yep. Oh well. I like it, Walter. Thank you, my man. Dave in Overland Park, you're on KCMO. Hey, Dave. Good morning, Pete. Great show. Hey, this is income tax day. We need to be specific about that. We pay a lot more taxes. This is income tax day. And we're sitting here and talking about rates and dates. It's not so much about that. It's about we wouldn't have to pay income taxes if the government wasn't totally corrupt. If the government wasn't a fake jobs program, if the government spent our money efficiently, we wouldn't even have income tax. So happy income tax day, everybody. Think about that one. Good correction, Dave. Good correction. Nice job. Well done there. Tammy and Shawnee. What's going on, Tammy? Good morning. I just want to remind everyone a bit of history. One of our beloved presidents, who was the Democrat, President Kennedy said when, you know, we still have this mindset and people need to remind it up today. We don't, no one owes us anything. We don't owe you anything. That's what I think. Work for it. Work for it. He said that that's not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. You can take that lots of ways. Quit asking, you know, for a handout. You can take it that way. You could say start thinking about how you can help others in your community. How can you help others in your school, in your church? All those things. But we tend to always look at, well, they're getting, other people are getting this money from the government. What about me? We need to stop thinking about those things. I totally agree. Let's think about yourselves. What you can do for yourself, your family, and for your country. Well said, Tammy. It would be a whole lot better if we would do that. Thank you. I appreciate it. You're right. You're absolutely right. Instead, it's how can I game the system for me? You know what? You got a better tax system. No one can game the system at all. Watch every pig live on NFL Network ESPN and ABC. NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus. It all starts Thursday, April 23rd at 8pm Eastern. Visit NFL.com slash draft for more information. Subscription required for NFL Plus. Visit plus.NFL.com for terms. You're at a financial position. Once you have that, your salary becomes moot. What matters from that point forward, upside gains, any type of ownership stake or ownership potential, that's the money. Remember, you can afford anything, just not everything. You can afford anything. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. For free entry at NFL.com slash draft access today. Full send golf. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. The Vince show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
