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. -- is undertaxed, compared to other industrialized nations. and we look at work that focuses on the african american community. in eight days, watch coverage of the republican and democratic conventions, live on c-span. next, "q&a," with washington post columnist walter pincus. after that, secretary of state hillary clinton. then, economic lessons learned from the calvin coolidge

is america undertaxed? guest: the united states has lowered taxes.otal taxes in united states if we add federal and state and municipal taxes comes to about 25% of gdp. compare that to the rich industrialized democracies, they earn about 34% of their economies in taxes. u.s. taxes are low in comparison. host: you can see it denmark at the top with 40%. new zealand, spain, switzerland ancoming in above the united states. what do those numbers tell you? guest: we spend less in a variety of areas. we learned last tax revenues of various types in the united states. the difference is not so much in the income tax. it is about the same as the other countries in average. we earn somewhat less in corporate taxes. the largest difference is in value-added taxes. that is a tax that most countries have but the united states does not. we have less spending in a variety of areas. there is national health insurance, paid parental leave, sick leave, more expensive system of insurance. we also have less infrastructure spending. but it the same set of countries and we

well, we have a guest who says you're wrong and that you and every other american are undertaxed. >>>hen bond king bill gross says an 80% chance the fed taking steps to stimulate the economy but will the fed act right before the presidential election? well, bill will join us to defend that bold call. we'll get to see you at the top of the hour on "closing bell" but first "street signs," mandy. it is your turn. >>> isaac could become a hurricane by friday tracking towards florida and that could cause problems for the republican national convention in tampa next week. the ninth named storm of this year's hurricane season and todd santos of the weather channel is following isaac for us. todd? >> mandy, thanks so much. yeah, this system barely holding on to tropical storm strength but agreeing to come to cuba in the weekend and then in to start of next week and those, of course, why we are seeing the questions with the convention is concerned. the latest stats. 40 miles per hour with the sustained winds are concerned. you can see part of the center of circulation there and little bit diso

is the middle class undertaxed or overtaxed?k to people about how they feel about it, they certainly don't want their taxes increased. i think they'd say, we're overtaxed. we also need tax reform. so the good news is governor romney, congressman ryan have said let's move to a system where rates are lower, but let's try to clean out as many of the exemptions, deductions, credits as possible so we have a flatter, simpler, more transparent, more pro-growth tax code. and that's directionally where they want to head. i think directionally that's spot-on. >> bottom line, governor -- can we pay our bills as a nation with current tax policy? because just raising taxes on the 1% isn't going to do it. >> well, the question is, do you have some appetite for higher growth and do you also have some appetite for reducing spending? right now they take in about $2.5 trillion a year and are spending $3.5 trillion, give or take. so they don't have 40 cents of every dollar they're spending. it is not just raising taxes. that's not something republ