Posted on 09/18/2011 7:03:53 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
he Republicans have had 12 hours to digest the news that President Obama plans to propose a "Millionaire's tax" on annual incomes over $1 million.
As expected, they're freaking out.
And if they had a good argument as to why such a tax was a terrible idea, we'd be happy to say so. But so far anyway, they don't.
Obviously, no one likes higher taxes. And it's no surprise that the potential target of higher taxes will squawk in protest as soon as the idea is proposed. But if the country is to begin to find a way out of its massive debt-and-deficit problem, it's important to separate the self-interested squawking from actual logic.
The Republic arguments against Obama's millionaire's tax boil down to the following:
Raising taxes on millionaires will kill their ambition and discourage them from working
Raising taxes on millionaires will punish successful people for being successful
Raising taxes is always a terrible idea--the problem is spending
Taxes are a form of theft: The government has no right to take our money away
Raising taxes in a weak economy will further weaken the economy
Of these reasons, only the last one is valid. Raising taxes in a weak economy might, in fact, further weaken the economy (or the private sector, anyway). This weakening effect will certainly be less than it would if one raised taxes on the middle class, but it still could weaken the economy. And that's why it's important to consider the tax carefully and phase it in over time.
Just admit it: He's right on this one.
The rest of the Republican counter-arguments are just silly, self-serving, or obstructionist. Let's take them one by one, ending with the one that seems most persuasive to reasonable people.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.businessinsider.com ...
No personal insults please,let's fight reason with reason and evidence.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
How about a 90% tax on “assets held less than 1 second.” But that would nail Goldman and the other high frequency traders ... can’t have that.
“Raising taxes in a weak economy will further weaken the economy “
but that’s not a big deal because taxing everyone so that the govt can spend it on Solyndra will create TONS of jobs.
Liberals hear that Warren Buffett pays less in taxes than his secretary and say, “That ridiculous, he needs to pay more.”
Conservatives hear that Warren Buffett pays less in taxes than his secretary and say, “That ridiculous, the secretary needs to pay less.”
High taxes provide nothing more than incentive for business to bribe.....er lobby congress with massive amounts of money.
Eliminate the corporate taxes and roll back regulation and business will have little reason to buy congressmen.
Juswt confiscate all their wealth which won’t eve touch this years deficit and then we don’t have to listen to this sh6t from Obama an the Henry Blodgets of the world. This will of course raise the unemployment rate forthwith.
I thought the problem was that Warren Buffet and his type don’t pay their fair share. This taxes income and all their money comes from investments and capital gains. They keep their “income” lower just to avoid income taxes. Buffet still won’t pay any more taxes if this is passed.
How about because you cannot tax your way into prosperity...? Just a thought.
Blodget's claim to fame? Giving investment advice in the dot-com bubble era when anyone's janitor was making money...whoop-dee do.
If we were to take ALL of the money every single rich person has in the US, even money they don’t have but would have to sell stocks to get, we wouldn’t reach $950 billion, yet, Obama and the Congress spend trillions each year. Trillions. Rich people only have billions. So, just how is this BS story of taxing the rich make any sense to anyone but an ignorant liberal??? This is COMMUNISM being played out here.
“No personal insults please”
That’s going to be hard to do since we know this guy was charged with securities fraud and permanently banned from the industry.
How much money can actually be collected by raising the tax on millionaires?
How many Americans earn more than a million/year?
And finally, would the money collected actually balance the budget?
I only know the answer to the last question.
This conservative says both should pay less unless they choose to pay more or better yet, give to worthy charities.
As soon as that question can be settled, then let's talk about the class-warfare-fueled, jealous, envious money grab by the confiscatory rules of the IRS of from those who happen to be legitimately successful. Ready? Go!
Seriously? And I’ve been reading this guy’s crap as it is breathlessly posted here?
We all know it’s just a manipulation tactic to get jealous people to think the govt is doing something by punishing the bogeyman. It doesn’t do anything to help the poor or create jobs so it’s just done out of pure spite.
On the second page, they make a claim that business owners, in order to avoid tax, will instead invest back into their companies. That is certainly possible, and, the author just admitted that people do what they can to avoid taxes, many of the people on the list won’t pay them by avoiding them, and it won’t work.
Why debate a thief who has been banned for life from the securities industry? If you hadn’t put his article here, there wouldn’t be more than 50 people in the world who even read it.
I know! Why are we giving this guy all this undeserved attention?
I’d like to raise taxes on ONLY the people working in the Dept of Education, EPA, and maybe a couple of others....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.