Posted on 11/05/2008 10:57:21 AM PST by codejack
Hi there! I'm a liberal, and I want to help you guys out. The fact is that neither side was particularly well represented this year, and in the interest of improving the level of conversation between liberals and conservatives, I thought I would offer to answer some questions and give some advice.
Read the rest before you ask, please, and if I say something that sounds sarcastic, it probably is, but I mean no offense.
Let me ask you this: Was Eisenhower a socialist for supporting a 92% tax rate for the highest earners? I think we need the tax revenue, and we can't tax the poor, the middle class no longer exists, so that only leaves one option.
Thanks for your response, but you avoided answering the 4th question by asking a question. Do you agree with Obama's socialistic precept of "spreading the wealth"?
And BTW, do you believe that you are entitled to the free college grant and state public health care program? If so, for what specific reasons are you entitled to services you did not pay for?
so that only leaves one option.
No there is another option. Cut government spending. Cut entitlements. Either afford it out of your own pocket from your own earnings, or do without. Quit sucking off of someone else's financial tit and fend for onesself.
I appreciate your willingness to discuss this. We usually don't see such bravery in liberals.
Okay I have to jump back in :)
You wrote:”ahem ... your statement The current tax rate for the highest earners in the country is less than 35%, when is was over 90% under Eisenhower, just 50 years ago. is disingenuous and you know it. One needs a broader lens than that to see the real problem, and taxing individual income is NOT the way to reduce the debt. I say STOP SPENDING at the Federal level ... back to fiscal conservatism. Wed disagree on the specifics here, though. What I would say STOP, youd want to continue, and vice versa. FIRST wed need to agree/argue the proper role of the Federal Government.”
I couldn’t agree more. When I’m running out of money in my household, I find ways to eat less, clip coupons, use fewer diapers, etc. I don’t demand my customers pay me more.
Government has no concept of cutting back.
ETA: I don’t use the diapers, my 2 boys do *rolls eyes*
Pell grant = welfare
I’m re-posting this again (thank you Irishguy) because it’s probably one of the best posts I’ve ever seen here on Freerepublic:
i am from europe so let me tell you what is going to happen. i have lived in ireland when we had 17% unemployment, 25billion in borrowing, over 60% tax for EVERONE working then a mere 150,000 thousand. I saw queues for a fast food outlet with over 100 people looking for the only job.
thats socialism. you like all liberals read the books but have not experienced it. you have not experienced the sheer horror ...HORROR of a government involved in controlling your life. the desperation, the emigration, the savagery of it....oh you have fallen for it. you have believed the text, the enigmatic writing, the caring, the speeches. all that is bullshit. it leads to a dead end where you tax and tax and tax a ever decreasing circle and wind up like we did educating people to leave your country. Do you honestly think people will stay and work for others with less and less. if you do, you sir, are a moron. I hate people like you, and your smug educated arrogance that you know better.that same educated arrogance that is not based on actually delivery but talking talking talkin about delivery. you are so full of caring for others you deny them the right to get off their ass and save themselves. you think you know best and it leads to a desperate clawing poverty that goes from generation to generation. Over the last 15 years ireland dumped as much of that as we could and thank jesus we did. we have loads to go and loads of problems now as we tried to think we we so fracken smart we could do both, yes we fell for the compassionate crap. we still have families, thousands of them who believe getting preganant, leaving school, getting free housing, getting social welfare is a life. That is what you created yesterday. what is hilarious to me, is you actually think you are giving people hope. you think education is some miracle cure. God you have not a clue. HERE IS WHAT WORKS..give people a chance to get a job, to pick themselves up and look for the only thing govts should be involved in, encouraging an environment for success, everthing else they balls up. however what you want is some faceless beurocrat to visit you to see what you are and are not entitled to, to asssess you lifestyle to ensure you dont poke your head above the scronging misery of your peers.
you, you complete moron voted for that yesterday. Welcome to socialism, whether you like it or not... the truly sad part is you probably think i am making this up or no doubt will have so really cute one liner like yes we can as some cure all or a smart comeback quip. you know what enjoy it, here is a thing i learned in those years on an unemployment queue...you cant sell a quip or eat it. to my dying day the saddest image of my life was an old man in his 60s with his life written on a torn corn flake box, trying to explain to a govt bitch how he had worked 45 years, yes 45 years paying tax, was made unemployed and why was he only going to get 100 pounds and how he could not feed his family on that. thats socialism or what ever your yes we can barry likes to dress it up in. i truly hope no one experiences that ever again....but you voted for that. open your eyes and answer me this...is that what you wanted yesterday, because as God is my witness, thats what you have today. you are about to learn a hard lesson. i hope you make it, but i suspect you feel it is above you, like all liberals. you want the govt to solve the issues so you can ignore them. how desperately desperately sad...
131 posted on November 5, 2008 12:26:39 PM PST by Irishguy (How do ya LIKE THOSE APPLES!!!!)
Just sit still...This won't hurt too much.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . . don't be shy.
When more of what you make next year gets “redistributed” away from you in favor of someone who did nothing whatsoever to earn it, themselves: think back to this day.
Joe the plumber is ready to lay some pipe!
Excellent choice!
ACORN multivoters united..*Barf*
Not a liberal position? This kind of thing is already being done in Canada and Europe. Of course it is a liberal position. I mean, the guy and his jackboot cronies want to shut up talk radio in violation of the First Amendment.
Parroting another great liberal lie! I don't begrudge you sticking with the effective tactic of class warfare, but you picked the wrong crowd to crow faux liberal platitudes. As you will see below, not only do the top 1% pay more than their fair share, their aggregate income share is far less than 90%. Since you libs always like to use the Euro-fags as a metric: News To Obama: The OECD Says The United States Has The Most Progressive Tax System:
But a new study on inequality by researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris reveals that when it comes to household taxes (income taxes and employee social security contributions) the U.S. "has the most progressive tax system and collects the largest share of taxes from the richest 10% of the population." As Column 1 in the table below shows, the U.S. tax system is far more progressivemea
ning pro-poorthan similar systems in countries most Americans identify with high taxes, such as France and Sweden.
October 4, 2007
Data also show incomes growing across all percentile groups
For more information, contact: Bill Ahern at (202) 464-5101.
Washington, DC, October 4, 2007 - New data released by the IRS today offers interesting insights into the distributional spread of the federal income tax burden, new analysis by the Tax Foundation shows.
Summary of Federal Individual Income Tax Data, 2005 (updated October 2007)
|
Number of Returns |
AGI ($ millions) |
Income Taxes Paid ($ millions) |
Group's Share of Total AGI |
Group's Share of Income Taxes |
Income Split Point |
All Taxpayers |
132,611,637 |
$7,507,958 |
$934,703 |
100.00% |
100.00% |
- |
Top 1% |
1,326,116 |
$1,591,711 |
$368,132 |
21.20% |
39.38% |
above $364,657 |
Top 5% |
6,630,582 |
$2,683,934 |
$557,759 |
35.75% |
59.67% |
above $145,283 |
Top 10% |
13,261,164 |
$3,487,010 |
$657,085 |
46.44% |
70.30% |
above $103,912 |
Top 25% |
33,152,909 |
$5,069,455 |
$803,772 |
67.52% |
85.99% |
above $62,068 |
Top 50% |
66,305,819 |
$6,544,824 |
$906,028 |
87.17% |
96.93% |
above $30,881 |
Bottom 50% |
66,305,818 |
963,134 |
28,675 |
12.83% |
3.07% |
below $30,881 |
Source: IRS
The table above shows that the top-earning 25 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $62,068) earned 67.5 percent of nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86 percent). The top 1 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $364,657) earned approximately 21.2 percent of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.4 percent of all federal income taxes. That means the top 1 percent of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal individual income taxes as the bottom 95 percent of tax returns.
The IRS data also shows increases in individual incomes across all income groups. Just as the highest earners lost the biggest percentage of their incomes during the recession of 2001, so they have prospered the most as the economy has continued to rebound. In sum, between 2000 and 2005, pre-tax income for the top 1 percent group grew by 19.1 percent. In the same time period, pre-tax income for the bottom 50 percent increased by 15.5 percent.
This pattern of income loss and growth at the top of the income spectrum is the same during every recession and recovery. The net result has also been a sharp rise in federal government tax revenue from 2003-2005 compared to previous years.
Including all tax returns that had a positive AGI, those taxpayers with an AGI of $145,283 or more in 2005 constituted the nation's top 5 percent of earners. To break into the top 1 percent, a tax return had to have an AGI of $364,657 or more. These numbers are up significantly from 2003 when the equivalent thresholds were $130,080 and $295,495. Top incomes in 2005 are also continuing to surpass the peak they reached in 2000. At the height of the boom and bubble, $313,469 was the threshold to break into the top 1 percent, and then it fell to $285,424 in 2002 only to finally recover fully last year.
The IRS data includes all of the 132.6 million tax returns filed in 2005 that had a positive AGI, not just the returns from people who earn enough to owe taxes. From other IRS data, we can see that 90.6 million of the tax returns came from people who paid taxes into the Treasury. That leaves 42 million tax returns filed by people with positive AGI who used exemptions, deductions and tax credits to completely wipe out their federal income tax liability. Not only did they get back every dollar that the federal government withheld from their paychecks during 2005; but some even received more back from the IRS. This is a result of refundable tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit, which are not included in the aggregate percentile data here.
View the full study, Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data, here.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit Tax Foundation has monitored tax policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937. Best known for its annual calculation of Tax Freedom Day®, the Tax Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization.
ROTFLMBO!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You voted for a guy who has proposed a trillion dollars in new spending and you say you did it to get fiscal conservatism? That's like voting for Alan Keyes and expecting a daily gay pride parade through the Oval Office.
Why do you believe that? Why should somebody who's nobody to anybody be somebody to everybody?
*Birth Certificate —— Not released
I just have to ask. Nothing is free. Who is going to pay for that free stuff?
I was busy, and didn’t get in here yesterday.
My biggest problem is that if I had the associations in my past that Obama has, I would never have gotten the security clearance my job requires.
And Obama is going to be privy to all security matters?
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