Posted on 02/25/2009 8:25:14 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans," and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won't see their taxes increased by "one single dime."
This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can't possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama's new spending ambitions.
Consider the IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and "the wealthiest 2%." Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That's about 7% of all returns; the data aren't broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% -- about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 -- paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income.
Note that federal income taxes are already "progressive" with a 35% top marginal rate, and that Mr. Obama is (so far) proposing to raise it only to 39.6%, plus another two percentage points in hidden deduction phase-outs. He'd also raise capital gains and dividend rates, but those both yield far less revenue than the income tax. These combined increases won't come close to raising the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that Mr. Obama is going to need.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
No wonder Barney Frank is in favor of it! he loves getting gore’s
oh, he was telling a half truth. It won’t be a dime.
It’s hard to imagine this guy isn’t sitting in the oval office all day, getting high and then dreaming this blarney up.
Nevermind all that. A lot of people making over 250K are my customers. And some of them are my customers’ customers. Everyone’s already feeling pinched. Those who resent people making 6 figures just don’t know an honest way to do business with them. There’s so much money out there if you are creative and willing to work, and willing to bet on your own wits. Of course, for many that’s a losing bet, I guess.
Someone needs to prevent this trainwreck...are there enough ‘BlueDogs’ that would join the ‘pubs or are “our guys” going to stab us in the back???
“Someone needs to prevent this trainwreck...are there enough ‘BlueDogs’ that would join the ‘pubs or are “our guys” going to stab us in the back???”
As long as nObama lets these crooks attach pork to these bills our elected officials really don’t care. They all see dollar signs and that’s about it.
I don’t think there are any blue dogs left. there might be those 11 in the House who originally voted against stimulus
I just quit my second and third jobs moonlighting...it just ain’t worth it.
I’ll play golf instead.
I ain’t working for everyone else...life’s too short.
I just read another thread that stated that five of those eleven reversed thier votes on us at the last minute too.
O knows how to threaten. He does it the Chicago Way.
I think they took lessons from Mussolini and Hitlers SS. The similarities are there to be sure.
True, but the American people don’t believe that. Their great-great-grandparents thought in 1913 that they could tax mostly the rich to pay the costs of government. The American people as a whole have never been very bright.
remember when clinton raised the taxes on the yachts and every yacht builder when belly up.
Libs make this mistake so often one must believe they have a different agenda than normal people.
The math is simple.
First, print tons of fiat money so inflation pushes everyone into “high income” just to make ends meet.
Next, tax those “rich people”.
Done deal.
BRILLIANT!!!
Something I learned way back - whatever you do, don’t make Joe Six-Pack the target audience for your widget or arm-waving service or whatever. He has more problems than money to spend.
Target Jim High-Roller - or, more precisely - target Jim High-Roller’s wife or female companion. He has more money than sense and she can influence him to spend it in subtle ways nobody else can.
I was thinking about a few things…
As recently as 2001 I was part owner of a business that employed 38 people in northern California. I have since sold my interest in the business and today there is only one person working for that company still living in California. Company “headquarters” is essentially a PO box in Reno. All development is now done by sweet, enthusiastic Filipinas in the Philippines.
I no longer have the interest, patience, or temperament to conduct business in California (or the US, for that matter).
I do have business interests in another country. They bend over backwards to attract business and when I visit I get every sort of discount you can imagine. I take great pains to make sure money made elsewhere _stays_ there.
The article stated that, “Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006.” In 2006 I made significantly more than that amount. Today I maintain a part-time job as a verifiable source of income but the “real” money is made doing other things for cash and barter-for-things-that-can-be-sold-for-cash or used.
It’s kind-of fun. I don’t have any expenses to speak of, really. No kids in college, no house payment, etc. Just basically property taxes, insurance, utilities, food and fuel. I’m sure those will increase.
Interesting issue is this - 2007 verifiable income was $500K+. 2008 was roughly $140K. 2009 will be roughly $12K.
I wonder if Uncle Sugar sees that coming…
I’ll actually make significantly more than $12K but it’s only $12K that’ll be on the books. I’m pretty sure I’m going to forget to disclose the rest.
I’m not hurting but have decided not to play ball. Add to that a bunch of people that ARE hurting and can’t play ball. I think tax receipts will not meet expectations this year and will decline further next year. JMO though.
There’s so much money out there if you are creative and willing to work, and willing to bet on your own wits.
There’s money out there but you have to get up off the couch to get it. Yep.
Is whole WSJ that well written? I might subscribe again. Note the lack of a vanity byline. Try to get a modern mainstream media “journalist” to agree to that.
(1) Many "boomers" are approaching retirement age. A lot of them are small business owners who will simply retire rather than pay even higher taxes.
(2) The conservatives among us will refuse to fund the socialist agenda that is being jammed down our throats. We will find ways to reduce our taxable income.
For my part, both factors apply to me...
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