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$318 Billion Tax Hit Proposed (Would See Deductions Cut on Charity and Mortgage Interest)
WSJ ^ | 022609 | LAURA MECKLER

Posted on 02/26/2009 12:48:29 AM PST by Fred

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Thursday will propose $634 billion in new taxes on upper-income Americans and cuts in government spending over the next decade to pay for his promised health-care expansion.

The tax increases and spending cuts will be included Thursday in Mr. Obama's comprehensive budget blueprint, and signal his ambition to overhaul the health-care system, one of the main planks of his presidential campaign.

The tax increases would raise an estimated $318 billion over 10 years by reducing the value of such longstanding deductions as mortgage interest and charitable contributions for people in the highest tax brackets. Households paying income taxes at the 33% and 35% rates can currently claim deductions at those rates. Under the Obama proposal, they could deduct only 28% of the value of those payments.

The changes would be phased in gradually over the next few years. For the 2009 tax year, the 33% tax bracket starts with couples with taxable earnings of $208,850, when adjusted for personal exemptions and various deductible expenses. A taxpayer in the top bracket paying $1,000 of mortgage interest, for example, would see a tax break worth $350 reduced to $280.

During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama promised not to raise taxes on families earning under $250,000 a year, and the administration said that this plan would roughly line up with that limit.

The plan targets high-earning families in other ways. Wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would have to pay higher premiums to participate in the prescription-drug plan, much like they pay higher premiums to participate in Medicare's doctor plan.

Aiding the other end of the income scale, the president's budget plan would extend his

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho44; bhobudget; bhoeconomy; bhohealthcare; congress; nationalsocialism; obamaisacrook; porkuli; porkulus; porkulusi; socialism; spreadthewealth; taxandspend; taxes; taxincrease
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1 posted on 02/26/2009 12:48:30 AM PST by Fred
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To: Fred; rabscuttle385

a corruption at all levels ping at you rabscuttle385


2 posted on 02/26/2009 12:58:59 AM PST by Fred (In the US, we have a totally new school, it is call the Zimbabwa School - Marc Faber)
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To: Fred
...reducing the value of such longstanding deductions as...charitable contributions for people in the highest tax brackets.

Lunacy.
So, does he think all those "evil" rich folks and fat-cat corporate CEOs are going to keep funding charities out of sheer altruism?
Charities such as hospitals, orphan-care groups, et al, will then have to turn where to make up for the drop in funding?


3 posted on 02/26/2009 12:59:35 AM PST by XR7
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To: windcliff

zero ping


4 posted on 02/26/2009 1:05:08 AM PST by I Drive Too Fast
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To: Fred

Idiocracy. Chump change. Cash out and escape.


5 posted on 02/26/2009 1:13:05 AM PST by screaminsunshine (f)
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To: I Drive Too Fast

The Dems continue their brilliant economic policies of punishing success and rewarding failure.

Watching the Obama Administration is deja vu back to the Clinton Administration....we will be the most ethical Administration ever...blah, blah, etc etc. But so far, the Obama Administration is making the corrupt Clinton Administration look ethical and honest.


6 posted on 02/26/2009 1:15:07 AM PST by OldArmy52 (Mainstream Media cheered: Ascension of Castro, Chavez and now Obama.)
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To: Fred
Not only can one deduce the final outcome of this onslaught of tyranny, one can actually feel the coming revolt congealing into reality...
7 posted on 02/26/2009 1:31:40 AM PST by JDoutrider
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To: screaminsunshine
Chump change.

Chimp change.

I feel a hint of tyranny in the air.

8 posted on 02/26/2009 1:43:07 AM PST by meyer (The left is flooding the ship - let's quit bailing water. We are all John Galt.)
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To: meyer

Screw em! I am bailing out.


9 posted on 02/26/2009 1:45:42 AM PST by screaminsunshine (f)
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To: Fred
You know, I really don't have much trouble with cutting of deductions - to be honest, a lot of it gets kinda crazy sometimes, and I don't really see why someone should have a deduction off their taxes for keeping a mortgage. I'm sure that I'll need the special undies for the flames I'll get about that, but it's contrary to basic economic concepts to encourage people to stay in debt - the bankers certainly don't want to see any slices taken out of this part of the pie..

And charitable deductions, again, the last thing you should be thinking about when contributing to a worthy cause is how much this will get you off on your taxes.

I would like to see more simplification in taxes, more justifiable tax brackets. And more equality in taxing - two people who earn the same amount of money should be paying a similar amount in taxes, and it really shouldn't take a CPA who has yearly updates on tax law to file one’s taxes.

That being said, I hope that the people hammer their legislators hard to dump this idea. Mostly because I want to make it as impossible as is possible for them to implement what has proved to be an unmitigated disaster everywhere it's been tried. The government is the last entity you want to provide your health care from, they're easily manipulated as public employee salaries and benefits shows - I mean, hell, elected legislators get retirement benefits for being voted into a job. Completely disagree with that, and believe that the only real health reform that can ever happen will be dumping all these barriers for people to see the true cost of their health care.

During the grocery worker's strike, not one of them had the slightest concept of how much their benefits were costing their employers whenever I talked to them, and they were pretty much striking over $50 a month per family - while the grocery stores were paying over $800 a month for their benefits. Not even a tenth of the cost, and they thought that was outrageous.

10 posted on 02/26/2009 1:45:58 AM PST by kingu (Party for rent - conservative opinions not required.)
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To: Fred
Since Donks have a poor history of charitable giving, reduction of the deduction may be an attempt to eliminate an embarrassing difference between action & rhetoric.
11 posted on 02/26/2009 1:49:43 AM PST by GoLightly
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To: Fred
charitable contributions

Liberals have none, and are jealous. They think that only the government should give dollars (with other people's money). Conservatives actually open their own wallets. Besides, charity is discriminatory, demeaning and probably racist. (sarc)

Some of them are not really sure where money comes from but they deserve it - gimme, gimme, gimme....

Others are too sophisticated and elite to worry about such mundane matters, they have to catch their private jet. Let corporations, small businesses and people who actually work worry about it in taxes.

Eventually we will be bankrupt as a nation, then we can start over (just make sure the elites who caused it, stay on their vacation to Europe and do not re-enter the country). The gimme's will learn, starvation and work have a way of doing that. It also cures thinking with your feelings instead of your brains.

12 posted on 02/26/2009 2:00:22 AM PST by verklaring (Pyrite is not gold))
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To: Fred
Photobucket

Shazamm! Will Federal Revenues now decrease Mr. Øbama? You've got a great plan to decrease job opportunities too.
13 posted on 02/26/2009 2:26:48 AM PST by Son House (National Disasters Will Be Devastating Since Mr. Øbama's Spending Will Erode First Response Funding)
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To: Fred
In his speech Tuesday night, Obama claimed to have found two trillion dollars in savings. ""We have already identified two trillion dollars in savings over the next decade," Obama said."

I thought, "Oh good, we will finally cut some of those ridiculously wasteful allowances for the beaurocracy"! Wrong! All the cuts that he defined are for the evil rich people and those pesky corporations and businesses.

When do we start hearing about layoffs in Washington DC?

14 posted on 02/26/2009 3:13:32 AM PST by REPANDPROUDOFIT
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To: Fred

Reducing mortgage interest deductions in the worst housing market in decades.....friggin brilliant move......


15 posted on 02/26/2009 3:16:14 AM PST by Wyatt's Torch (I can explain it to you. I can't understand it for you.)
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To: Fred
This is nothing but the alternative minimum tax on steroids, wait till they move it downward and it hits blue state ladder climbers even harder, they will squeal like a stuck pig.

As someone exposed to high net worth individuals and their 1040's during the Clinton Boom Years, I got to see what percent this all took from the producers that employed people, and how they lost their deductions.

Moving to the mythical Colorado woods and dropping out looks better every day....

16 posted on 02/26/2009 3:23:06 AM PST by taildragger (Palin / Mulally 2012)
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To: Fred
Only reason is to destroy private charity, churches, etc. so all “benefits” come from lord 0bama the most merciful, and to destroy the asset base of the producing class even more.

The other possibility is they are idiots about it, and and doubt that, it's on purpose.

17 posted on 02/26/2009 3:24:31 AM PST by machman
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To: Fred

Wow, way to force the “charity” come from Benevolent Leader instead of the people.


18 posted on 02/26/2009 3:37:48 AM PST by autumnraine (Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose- Kris Kristoferrson VIVA LA REVOLUTION!)
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To: OldArmy52

Are you kidding me? 30 days in and I am longing for the Clinton days.


19 posted on 02/26/2009 3:38:24 AM PST by autumnraine (Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose- Kris Kristoferrson VIVA LA REVOLUTION!)
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To: Fred; All

The “rich” (small business owners) lost all these deductions long ago. Nobody cared. Now they’re coming for you. Life’s a bitch.


20 posted on 02/26/2009 3:48:06 AM PST by xcamel (The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it. - H. L. Mencken)
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