Posted on 02/25/2009 8:25:14 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans," and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won't see their taxes increased by "one single dime."
This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can't possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama's new spending ambitions.
Consider the IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and "the wealthiest 2%." Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That's about 7% of all returns; the data aren't broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% -- about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 -- paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income.
Note that federal income taxes are already "progressive" with a 35% top marginal rate, and that Mr. Obama is (so far) proposing to raise it only to 39.6%, plus another two percentage points in hidden deduction phase-outs. He'd also raise capital gains and dividend rates, but those both yield far less revenue than the income tax. These combined increases won't come close to raising the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that Mr. Obama is going to need.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I want to retire to a simple life in the peaceful woods too someday. That’s something I’ve always thought about. It’s just that life has been far richer for not having given up on life in the beehive. Against my wishes I have always ended up working in the highest taxed, most leftist, most whacked out areas of the country. I’m happy despite this, certainly not because of it. I could bail out now but I’ve got 20 productive years left. When I do go, I hope to do it on my timetable and not from getting beat-down by the dark side.
Are they that stupid not to notice that they are getting less money in their pay checks once the Bush tax cuts expire?
Well, it will be now (probably).
Would the withholding amount change when Bush’s tax cuts either were implemented or expire?
Me too. I’m tired of working for the government for no reason. I’ll retire this year, and become a liability. Live off my savings, SS and pension.
You aren't the only one! Anything we can do for cash is going to be done for cash ONLY! Screw these big government elected officials. Let them pay for it!
Oh, me. I am so tired of being called a class envious socialist that I think they ought to keep all of their ill-gotten loot. Indeed, let us provide jets for them to take it all to Switzerland and not pay any taxes on it at all. Last thing I would want to do is take any of this money back which they stole by the sweat of their own brows pouring over the books of their funds at 3AM while their investors were idiotically sound asleep.
Besides we need them. Without their genius in investment [sarcasm emphasized for nitwits like you who cannot get a point] who will finance the next boom in big box stores, Miami condos and casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City, all of those enterprises upon which the wheels of American industry turn [again emphasizing the dripping pointed sarcasm].
If you're getting feedback from multiple people along those lines then maybe they have a point. Leftism is motivated by envy and resentment, so whenever you throw an envy tantrum you come off sounding exactly like a leftist.
You didn't answer my question seriously. What do you want to do to the Wall Street bankers? Confiscate their commissions after the buyer lost their shirt? No one made anybody buy the new fangled scrutinized mortgages. It was a stupid product idea but salesmen, and politicians, sell stupid ideas all the time.
Leftist politics caused this depression and now leftists have exploited the situation to impose much more socialism. Your attention seems to be diverted away from the main action towards confiscating past commissions made on Wall Street, just like a leftist. Other than fleetingly placating your envy and resentment, how would that solve anything?
Bubbles are really bad. Right now we've got a government bubble forming. Half of America seems to be cheering for the total financial destruction of America, out of envy of other Americans.
Just wait in 1 year 6 months during the congressional elections, democrats will be spinning that the tax INCREASE is really a tax CUT.
all those useful stooges are going to be really happy.
and what is going to happen when INFLATION MAKES 250,000 tommorrow the same as 20,000 today?
Obama voters are delusional.
“A second front could be to put sand in the socialist gears, help turn every redistributionist program into an over-budget disaster, not that it wouldn’t become one anyway. The internet is our information friend. We now have super-human powers of communication, open source wisdom, and information sharing.”
IF, (and IMHO, that’s a huge if) we can keep that communication sharing...
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