How is Kerry going to play for total health care, college for everyone on the backs of everyone making over 200K if they aren't paying their fair share? I hope Bush nails him good on this. also, Therayzuh has more money than that. She's a multi billionaire. I wonder what her tax return really looks like since she's hiding it.
bttt
I agree with you. Every time I hear Kerry saying he is only going to tax the rich more I get so angry. The rich can afford to pay accountants to find every possible loophole around taxes. So how is the tax money from the rich going to pay for any of his proposed programs? It's not!
Sheesh! Thanks for posting. I've circulated even further.
Ping
Bump that!
bookmark
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.
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.