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Billionaire Donald Trump Has A Big Problem With Basic Math
Investor's Business Daily ^ | 2/4/2016 | John Merline

Posted on 03/05/2016 5:05:44 AM PST by IBD editorial writer

For a person who claims to be an incredible businessman, Donald Trump sometimes seems to have difficulty handling simple addition and subtraction.

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...


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KEYWORDS: donaldtrump
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To: Hugin

Basically, because he is kicking the Shiite out of them, on attendance, on votes, on polls, on and in every, that is EVERY, voting block, not by a few percent points, but by two to three TIMES theirs.


81 posted on 03/05/2016 8:14:47 AM PST by going hot (Happiness is a Momma Deuce)
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To: wny
Actually, incredible businessmen can go bankrupt anytime. Did you know that 95 per cent of business startups fail within three years?. Some get up, brush off the dust, and get right back in.
82 posted on 03/05/2016 8:19:55 AM PST by going hot (Happiness is a Momma Deuce)
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To: norwaypinesavage
The "plumber, carpenter, electrician, mechanic and other tradesman" that I know don't pay a "business" tax, they pay simple income taxes. With the deductions Cruz proposes, their taxes, even as a percentage of income, would be far less than the "corporate executives" you name. In addition, even businesses large enough to pay the business tax, the 25% rate would still be significantly less than the 35% (plus....) of today.

Sorry, either you've been drinking too much of Ted's Kool-aid or you don't understand his actual tax proposal.

Any self employed individual will pay both the Cruz 16% business tax and the 10% individual income tax. That's a 26% tax rate.

Your statement about "businesses large enough to pay the business tax" is not a part of the Cruz tax plan. His actual plan says:

"Instead, all companies will pay a simple, low rate Business Flat Tax of 16 percent. The tax will be based on revenues minus expenses such as equipment, computers, and other business investments."

Your statement "The 'plumber, carpenter, electrician, mechanic and other tradesman' that I know don't pay a "business" tax, they pay simple income taxes" is typical of what happens now, except in a few states that already have a gross receipts business tax. But Cruz's plan changes that, to require every business to play a 16% gross receipts tax. So you friends who are tradesmen will find themselves paying a new tax equal to 16% of their gross receipts (minus the parts they buy).

So even before they pay a 10% tax on their income, they'll pay 16% on their gross sales (minus the parts). That rate is higher than what the CEO of a Fortune 500 company will pay on his income by 6%.

You may not believe it, but Sen. Cruz is proposing a tax structure which puts a higher rate on small business owners and self employed tradesmen than hedge fund managers and employees of Goldman Sachs earning millions of dollars per year.

I'm sure that will work out just great in the general election. You may think giving rich corporate CEO's a tax break is a good idea, but most people don't think that way. We certainly don't want to pay a higher tax rate than they do.

83 posted on 03/05/2016 8:23:35 AM PST by freeandfreezing
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To: freeandfreezing
You may not believe it, but Sen. Cruz is proposing a tax structure which puts a higher rate on small business owners and self employed tradesmen than hedge fund managers and employees of Goldman Sachs earning millions of dollars per year.

Yeah, but he's not the frontrunner, so he gets a pass on his math skills.

84 posted on 03/05/2016 8:28:55 AM PST by going hot (Happiness is a Momma Deuce)
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To: norwaypinesavage
In addition, even businesses large enough to pay the business tax, the 25% rate would still be significantly less than the 35% (plus....) of today.

You also don't understand the difference between a gross receipts or VAT tax and an income tax. The current 35% corporate rate only applies to C style corporations, not LLCs, partnerships, proprietorships, or S corporations. And the 35% rate only applies to corporate income amounts, after deductions, in excess of about $75,000.

But remember, the corporate income amount is after all salaries and expenses have been deducted. So that amount is a small fraction, often 10% or less of the total sales.

Here is an example - assume $1,000,000 of sales, with $900,000 in deductible expenses, 750,000 of which are salaries. The US corporate tax is around $22,000.

Under the Cruz plan the business tax is 16% of $1,000,000 minus the non salary deductible expenses, $150,000. So the taxes due under the Cruz plan are $136,000.

So under the Cruz plan the business pays 6 times as much in taxes.

85 posted on 03/05/2016 8:36:29 AM PST by freeandfreezing
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To: wny

Having only 4 out of hundreds of businesses go into receivership is actually a very good track record. Real Estate developing is a tough business


86 posted on 03/05/2016 8:38:03 AM PST by cassiusking
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To: IBD editorial writer
Fun with numbers....trump\wallace\ibd....

Interesting: near as I can figure, the CMS says medicare spent 143 billion (not 78 billion) on rx in 2014. Includes part B & D.

https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2015-Fact-sheets-items/2015-12-21.html

These numbers exclude Medicaid & VA. Add those numbers in and RX spending was 297 billion for 2014.

https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.html

87 posted on 03/05/2016 8:46:43 AM PST by stylin19a
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To: freeandfreezing

You certainly have convinced that it’s not just Donald Trump that has a problem with basic math.


88 posted on 03/05/2016 9:06:19 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones)
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To: norwaypinesavage

Yep, Cruz has a similar problem. You may too.


89 posted on 03/05/2016 9:57:53 AM PST by freeandfreezing
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To: freeandfreezing

You’re 100% wrong about Cruz, and you know nothing about me.


90 posted on 03/05/2016 10:53:13 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones)
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To: wny

So? How could “hyperbole” be worse than what we have had for the last 20 years or so?


91 posted on 03/05/2016 11:44:32 AM PST by Bogie (Just a coincidence?)
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To: IBD editorial writer
Could it be that the problem is not Trump's, but IBD's myopic focus on Macro economic factors, and consistent ignorance of the terrible results of certain policies on actual rooted American citizens.

As for Trump, see Trump: Metaphor For American Conservatism.

A Conservative President must take care of his actual citizens, even ahead of Corporate (fictional persons') bottom lines.

92 posted on 03/05/2016 11:51:06 AM PST by Ohioan
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To: patq

Common core math


93 posted on 03/05/2016 12:38:14 PM PST by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Ohioan
IBD is a blog pimp. If you check their posts, you will find they have responded to any freeper question in years.

They aren't very good at reading either:

I’m not only talking about drugs, I’m talking about other things. We will save $300 billion a year if we properly negotiate. We don’t do that. We don’t negotiate. We don’t negotiate anything.

Opponents always misrepresent Trumps' positions.

As you will note in the underlined above, Trump is saying that pharmaceuticals is just an example of the savings that can be had from better negotiations.

And negotiating was just one example of how costs could be cut.

94 posted on 03/05/2016 12:44:09 PM PST by xzins (Do You Donate to the Freepathon? It's time to take YOUR turn!)
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To: xzins
Their biggest problem--and most obvious fallacy--is that they focus on macro economics, which is simply the aggregation of economic data. The actual effect of such an approach, is that it makes real problem solving impossible.

I have dinner plans tonight, and have to get out of the office; but there is a fundamental flaw in such an approach, analytically similar to the insanity that burst into public recognition in 2008, where major financial institutions were trading bundles of thousands of sub-prime mortgages, without a clue or even a serious attempt to find a clue, as to what such bundles were actually worth.

The genius of the Founding Fathers, is that they based their theories on actual experience.

95 posted on 03/05/2016 12:53:39 PM PST by Ohioan
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To: Ohioan

I would cut costs via

1. The penny plan: require that cost reduction to be spread evenly throughout the entire budget and require each department to spread it even throughout every section within their department. I have no doubt that the sections can find 1% of their budget to cut. I am positive of it. Most hold back a huge chunk of their budget until end of July to make sure it covers the year, and then they splurge spend to hit the end of September end of fiscal year spending requirement so they don’t lose money on the next year’s budget.

2. Attrition of federal labor force via not hiring replacements for retirees or those who leave their jobs.


96 posted on 03/05/2016 12:59:10 PM PST by xzins (Do You Donate to the Freepathon? It's time to take YOUR turn!)
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To: Cboldt
but he is generally considered to be a successful one.

Oh?

I feel it's more like...

..promoted as...

97 posted on 03/05/2016 4:07:22 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: freeandfreezing
"The 'plumber, carpenter, electrician, mechanic and other tradesman' that I know don't pay a "business" tax, they pay simple income taxes"

No business actually pays ANY 'taxes'.

They just are another cost of doing business like raw materials, utilities and wages.

They ALL get rolled into what the final purchaser pays for the product.

And these 'hidden' taxes on to each taxpaying citizen and I'll bet we are WAY over %26!!!

98 posted on 03/05/2016 4:10:24 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

“No business actually pays ANY ‘taxes’.

“They just are another cost of doing business like raw materials, utilities and wages.

“They ALL get rolled into what the final purchaser pays for the product.”

That depends upon tax incidence and elasticity of demand. Sometimes tax must be absorbed by the producer in the form of lower income. Sometimes it means lower wages for the employees. Sometimes it gets passed on to consumers.


99 posted on 03/05/2016 9:20:11 PM PST by Pelham (more than election. Revolution)
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To: Pelham
Sometimes tax must be absorbed by the producer in the form of lower income.
Sometimes it means lower wages for the employees.
Sometimes it gets passed on to consumers.

In each of these in stances; it's a human, somewhere; that end's up paying for the taxes the gummint places on a business.

1. The Owner of the Business
2. The Workers in the Business
3. The Consumer of the Businesses product.

100 posted on 03/06/2016 3:36:40 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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