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Old 03-22-2010, 01:49 AM   #46
Iowa_Flames_Fan
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Originally Posted by opendoor View Post
Not even close. The disparity in taxes paid between Canada and the USA is greatly exaggerated. Going by % of GDP, the USA's various levels of government bring in tax revenue at a rate of 27% compared to Canada which is about 32%. If you factor in the massive amounts of private money spent on health care in the USA (the equivalent of which in Canada is paid through tax revenues) the disparity largely disappears. Health care costs in the USA are about 15% of GDP and much of that is funded privately. That more than eats up any tax savings in the USA.

Now these are based on national numbers, so there are some places with lower tax burdens (states with little or no state income or sales tax) but there are also many states with much higher tax burdens than Canada.
This is absolutely true. A while back I posted an apples-to-apples comparison, which must include average health insurance costs (since Canadians pay for that with taxes). I'll spare you the gory details, but here's the gist:

For a family of two making 55,000 dollars a year, the tax burden in Canada is significantly lower. I didn't select that number arbitrarily; that's the median household income in the U.S.

Mind you, this bill won't solve that problem. People still have to buy their own health insurance. But it would be nice if we all stopped pretending that Canadians are taxed to death and Americans aren't.
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