Posted on 10/11/2004 10:26:00 AM PDT by admiralsn
Middle Class Said To Pay Higher Tax Rate Than Heinz Kerry And Kerry Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, writes in the WALL STREET JOURNAL on Monday: "According to the Kerrys' own tax records, and they have not released all of them, the couple had a combined income of $6.8 million in income last year and paid $725,000 in income taxes. That means their effective tax rate was a whopping 12.8%.... "Under the current tax system the middle class pays far more than the Kerry tax rate. In fact, the average federal tax rate -- combined payroll and income tax -- for a middle-class family is closer to 20% or more. George W. and Laura Bush, who had an income one- tenth of the Kerrys', paid a tax rate of 30%. ... END
Mon Oct 11 2004 10:22:17 ET
"Here is the man who finds clever ways to reduce his own tax liability while voting for higher taxes on the middle class dozens of times in his Senate career. He even voted against the Bush tax cut that saves each middle-class family about $1,000." The Kerrys "have unwittingly made the case for what George W. Bush says he wants to do: radically simplify and flatten out the tax code. ... So before John Kerry is given the opportunity to raise taxes again on American workers, shouldn't he and Teresa at least pay their fair share?"
I can't figure it out. The problem for the Kerry campaign is that anything less than a complete release of the return poses MORE questions, and in two different rationales. First, it's just the nature of the analytical process, to want to see as much as possible; and second, assume that in a 100 page return, the campaign releases 98pages..Immediately everyone starts screaming for the other 2 pages, figuring that's where the dirt is hid. Go back and look at Ferraro's fiasco...Kerry seems to be following the same stupid pathway in handling this..
As I understand it, Kerry's wife has invested the bulk of her fortune, reputed to be somewhere between $750M and $1B, in tax-free municipals.
Notice that she is earning less that 1% (tax-free) on her net worth, suggesting that not only is she getting the typically low rates of return offered on tax free municipals but also that she has sustained substantial losses somewhere.
Municipals are tax free by federal law. They are popular with rich people for their "safe" money, because the amount they lose on interest is less than the amount they save on taxes. The amount lost on interest, however, amounts to a hidden tax. The savings are not nearly as great as her effective 12% tax rate would suggest. It's not the free ride that many think it is.
It sounds like something any similarly super rich, risk averse freeper would also do - if he were sane.
""If they released it 6 months ago, it'd be an old news cycle..now, it will dominate the last 3 weeks of the campaign. All the GOP has to do is tell Americans..pull out your tax returns, check your bracket..""
I don't think they can AFFORD to release her tax return. Her real gross revenues before write-offs must be in the mid-8 digits, given her 10-digit net worth.
The media won't call them on this, naturally.
She announced they would be released this week..
I believe I read that the bulk of the Heinz-Kerry income is derived from tax-free municipals and investments which are subject to the lowered (by Bush) capital gains rate of 20%. This makes the Kerrys a low cost source of funds for municipalities, thereby lessening the burden on tax-payers by eliminating another level of bureacracy, and, in the case of capital gains, they are INVESTORS in our economy, de-facto EMPLOYERS in our economy.
When taxes are lowered on INVESTMENTS the ultimate result is more jobs, and more economic activity.
The argument that the Kerry's pay TOO LITTLE plays right into the hands of the economic egalitarians, with whom we are battling to save the capitalist system from being CLASS WARFARED into oblivion.
Bush should compliment them for doing precisely what any investor, employer, or entrepreneur SHOULD do, invest it for the advancement of all who participate. If the cure for this situation is to eliminate incentives to invest, I am totally against it, and if we play this card the way Stephen Moore intends, we'll play right into their hands.
I realize that some of Heinz-Kerry's charitable giving is to organizations which play on the dark side, but that is a topic for another day,IMHO.
The ENTIRE return or just the first 2 pages, as she mentioned earlier?
great reply...
FWIW, the only reason I think they're coming out is that the Kerry campaing worries about an over the transom distribution, like the Pentagon papers...
It was a terrible yet hilarious moment.
BTW ... Didn't the Kerry's say they would release the rest of the tax papers in the fall??
WELL ... WHERE ARE THEY?????
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