Posted on 11/17/2012 4:56:15 PM PST by moneyrunner
Let's discuss raising us some revenue without hurting the little people.
With the re-election of Barack Obama, I feel compelled – in the spirit of coming together for the common good – to get on the tax raising bandwagon. Here’s my proposal .Let’s raise taxes to 50% on people making more than $1 million dollars a year. How much will that raise? Warren Buffer says that the top 400 earners in the US made $90 billion, so that means $45 billion to the treasury. Plus it will satisfy Chuck Schumer.
·Let’s have a 100% sales tax on the sale of movie tickets, CDs, videos and all other entertainment. These are purely luxury items and will not affect the ability of the poor to live. Movies tickets, CD rentals and DVD sales alone should raise $30 billion.
·Let’s have a 100% sales tax on newspapers and magazines. Circulation revenue for newspapers is $10 billion, let’s assume the same for magazines. That’s $20 billion in new revenue for the government. Reporters and editors have been calling for higher taxes and surely they would not mind doing their fair share.
·Let’s have a 100% sales tax on advertising in all media. Advertising is not only irritating but it is the way in which evil corporations get us to spend our money on frivolous and unnecessary goods and services. We should get about $100 billion just from the major networks and that isn’t counting newspaper and magazine advertising which could double that number to $200 billion.
·Let’s tax all foundations with assets over $100 million with a 10% tax of their assets each year. Some of the biggest foundations have been funding programs that increase taxes on the little people. Since they are in the business of philanthropy, they should welcome doing their fair share. And while we’re doing that, let’s limit the highest paid person working for the foundation to a salary of $75,000 annually. If they refuse to comply we’ll revoke their tax exemption. The hundred largest foundations have assets over $236 billion dollars, and that only includes those with assets over $600 million. Total foundation assets are about $500 billion. A 10% tax would produce nearly $50 billion per year.
·Let’s also tax endowments with assets over $100 million with a 10% tax on their assets each year. They, along with foundations, should welcome doing their fair share. The Yale endowment alone is worth over $16 billion dollars and what do they do with that? Not much that I can see. Does Yale need that money more than the people of the US? No! And while we’re doing that, let’s limit the highest paid person working for the foundation to a salary of $75,000 annually. If they refuse to comply we’ll revoke their tax exemption. Endowments total $250 billion; a 10% tax could raise $25 billion to help our government balance its budget.
·We should investigate the accounting practices of the movie industry. There is something seriously wrong with an industry that claims that Forrest Gump never made a profit. We don’t know how badly this industry has cheated the IRS, but let’s assume that $30 billion is a lowball number.
In keeping with President Obama’s position that we will do no “dynamic scoring,” we have already identified $400 billion in new revenue to help close the deficit gap while only raising taxes on 400 people! We have simply put in some much needed sales taxes and are asking those who have been most vocal about the need for everyone to do their fair share to come to the table. Surely no one could deny the reasonableness of these proposals.
Now, if anyone wants to tax the income of people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett or the buffoon who suckered thousands of people to fill his pockets by taking Facebook public, people who already have all the money they could possibly spend in their lifetimes at, say 100%, you would hear no objection from me.
The fellow certainly likes to name-drop, so it's no surprise that he drops the names of Sweden, Norway and Denmark (all of them constitutional monarchies, by the way.)
Note that we're not invited to look under the hood, for:
Ummm I’m not disagreeing with you. I lived in VA for a little over a year and agree with your view on the Pilot btw. Someone asked how long $400b would last and you corrected me. I was replying to your correction.
only those living within the United States
the mentally handicapped should never be allowed to even discuss tax proposals
“However, I have little faith that the GOP court eunuchs will do nothing but give the Emperor what he wants.”
I suspect that on the upcoming tax “compromise” bill we will find out which Republicans have thick FBI files and which are not vulnerable to persuasion due to their moral lapses.
Perhaps its time to cut the pay of the part time politicians and set term limits. Don’t guess that’ll ever happen so I’m out of Ideas.
How about a excessive earnings tax on Federal elected and senior appointed officials equal to 75 percent of all income above their base pay as a Federal employee or officer? They are receiving pay from the people to do the people's work, and that amount keeps rising so as to keep up with inflaction.
How about a 30 percent tax on campaign donations?
I believe $400 billion pays the annual interest on the national debt or close to it.
If you REALLY wanted to cause a financial collapse, raise capital gains taxes.
It would stick it to old Warren real good, but everyone else would suffer.
You just hit the nail directly on the head. Among Dingle Barry’s many tax proposals for fairness is the increase on dividends from 15% to 43%-—this applies to all dividends not just stocks and bonds.
People are not thinking creatively enough. My proposal would tax capital gains, dividend income and other tax favored income in excess of some number, like $1 million, at 50%. For everyone else, it stays the same. Problem solved. Plus, it has the advantage of simplifying the tax code. It's a win-win!
See, there are some creative ideas out there that we can all agree on as long as everyone is willing to share in the sacrifice. I know it's tough, but for the good of the country these are sacrifices I'm willing to make.
I think you are putting the number too high. Remember, this is for the good of the country. I would put the limit at $1 million. It's going to be a sacrifice, but I'm willing to do it FOR THE CHILDREN.
Well, you have a point. But would Warren Buffett really fire someone if his taxes quadrupled? Or Bill Gates? For people like these, money is not something they need to buy groceries or even their next mansion or yacht. It's a way of keeping score, to see who is ahead on the “Forbes richest” list. Or would Barbra Streisand fire her staff if she had to pay a few million more in taxes? Would you want to work for her anyway? Would the Yale endowment's janitors suffer if we taxed their assets at 10%? Doubtful. Besides, how many people work there anyway? I'm not talking about taxing the clothing store or the guy who installs windows, or the building contractor. The guy who owns the plastics factory or the small manufacturer with 500 employees is probably already a "C" corporation or can become one in short order.
The problem with the conversation the country has had on taxes is that the thinking is stuck in a rut. Conservatives have golden opportunity to change to conversation. The Left says everybody needs to sacrifice, right? By saying this they have fallen into a trap that was explained by Saul Alinsky. Let’s make them live up to their own standards. Let’s talk about taxes on the left’s wealthy fat-cats. let’s talk about the obscene wealth found in tax sheltered foundations and endowments. Let’s talk about taxes on entertainment like movie tickets and CDs. There was a tax on movie receipts back in the 1950s to pay off the war debt.
I’ll bet once you begin to think about it you could come up with some good tax ideas of your own.
You should’ve told him.
Obama’s certainly ruined my night.
That’s just what I want. To be like Sweden, Norway, or Denmark.
FOAD Mr. Butterfield.
If your proposal includes the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, World Wildlife Fund, the League of Conservation Voters, the Center for Biodiversity, Earthjustice, etc. then...
Sign me up.
I know my tag line has a play in your response, but I think $1 million is too low. We don't want to discourage venture capitalists from investing in the next Bill Gates. There is a good reason why the capital gains tax rate is lower than ordinary income tax tates.
I agree with you completely—My point is that we also need to go after, aggressively, the “hidden” wealth that insulates the Left/liberals from their policies that hurt average Americans.
A tax on some officials ... now you are talking.
I think we need to start trimming from the top down with lay-offs, hiring freezes and wage freezes for bureaucrats and their staffs.
Fire all of Obama’s czars and lay off all of their staffs. Cut the white house staff. Put all federal employees on Medicaid instead of gold-plated health insurance.
I think the president should lead the way by volunteering to take a 10 percent wage cut and working with a skeleton staff.
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