We Need Higher Taxes, and Not Just for the Rich (Hussein lubin', snot-nosed kid knows best) CAPTION?

The Atlantic ^ | 4/14/11 | Derek Thompson

[Libloather]

We Need Higher Taxes, and Not Just for the Rich
By Derek Thompson
Apr 14 2011, 3:40 PM ET

President Obama is going to have to break his campaign promise and raise taxes on Americans making under $250,000. There's really no way around it.

The president's deficit plan would raise taxes by $2 trillion in the next decade. The first trillion would come from letting the Bush tax cuts expire for families making more than $250,000 a year, or 3.2% of the country. The second trillion would come from reducing "spending in the tax code," like the mortgage interest deduction. The president wasn't very specific about where these tax increases would come from but he did not suggest that the middle class would have to share in the sacrifice. Here's what he said:

**SNIP**

Of course, the rich are different from the rest of us: They have a lot more money and they see most of the gains of income growth. Any sensible tax reform should begin with raising the effective rates at the top before we gradually lift rates for the middle class. But the fact is the United States has, for the last 30 years, promised better benefits with lower tax rates, and the inevitable collapse of that promise is growing nearer.

We all paid a little bit more in 1999. We could afford it then, and we can afford it again. Let's have real tax reform that gives meaning to the term "shared responsibility." It's time for the president to break his promise.

[Libloather]

I'm wondering what Derek makes. He doesn't say.

Derek Thompson is an associate editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about economics, business, and technology. Derek has also written for BusinessWeek, Slate, and The Daily Beast. More

Derek Thompson is a blogger at TheAtlantic.com and an associate editor for the Business Channel, where he writes about economic policy, technology, and the media industry. He is also a visiting research fellow at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget at the New America Foundation. Derek graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University majoring in journalism, political science, and legal studies, but he doesn't plan on doing anything with that last bit. He has also written for Slate, BusinessWeek and The Daily Beast. He has appeared as a guest on radio and television networks, including NPR, the BBC, CNBC and MSNBC. Follow him on Twitter.

[JoanneSD]

Of course, the rich are different from the rest of us: How in the h7ll does he equate him self, with us?

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Hey, Derek, you smarmy little putz--the top 5% of taxpayers pay almost 60% of the taxes. The bottom 50% pay less than 3%. How much more progressive can we be?

Who pays taxes

[apoliticalone]

In the 1950s the USA had much higher taxes especially on top income. My recollection of the USA of the 50s as a kid was a country that did much, accomplished much and built much and was a shining star to the world. Everyone had more of everything. That was before the elite outsourced everything.

So I’m not as enamored with the prospect of a USA where everyone but a few (the few who promoted outsourcing) has much more.

I know for a fact I’m not making as much as GE, and I’m paying more in taxes. I’m also paying more in taxes as a percent of income than Warren Buffet. So are those of us in the middle income category getting screwed, or do we just think we are?

[rabscuttle385]

We could afford it then, and we can afford it again.

Wages are stagnating and in some cases deflating...and this idiot cries for higher taxes.

Let's have real tax reform that gives meaning to the term "shared responsibility."

The "responsibility" isn't shared" when half are paying and the other half are receiving, now is it?

[DTogo]

"Derek Thompson is an associate editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about economics, business, and technology. Derek has also written for BusinessWeek, Slate, and The Daily Beast."

Questions for Derek:

- Name several private sector jobs you've held since college that make you something of an authority on the subjects you write about?
- Have you ever started a business, had to meet/make a payroll, and how sucessful were you at this business?
- What was this business, with regards to economics/technology?
- What's your current "self-earned" net worth?

[Cyber Liberty]

Here's what he said:

**SNIP**

You suck.

[An American!]

The problem is the bottom 40% who get paid taxes...they don't pay taxes. The net is that tax credits result in income redistribution. They actually pay less than $0.00 in taxes. The top 5% pay almost 60% of the bill already, regardless of what rate they are at.

Get rid of tax credits and start downsizing all programs big and small. Take a look at our national infrastructure...it is deteriorating at a rapid pace and because of entitlement spending and payments to individuals.

Payments to individuals is the worst...look at this

Year	1990	2000	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Total Millions Payments to individuals	$585.7	1,054.5	1,398.0	1,490.9	1,592.8	1,690.4	1,825.8	2,094.1

And this year I think it is something like 2.7 TRILLION dollars!!! If you don't know what a trillion looks like or how long it would take to pay it off... http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html Luckily though if you could pay off a Trillion at the rate of $190,000 per minute it would only take 10 years at zero percent interest!
It has NOTHING to do with tax rates...it has EVERYTHING to do with the size of our government...it is unfathomable. Just try to picture $41,000,000 per second...yes that is close to the spend rate of our government this year.

[RockinRight]

High INCOME people pay a lot in taxes. High WEALTH, as in assets, not always.

[RC one]

America’s wealthiest 25 percent of households own 87 percent of all U.S. wealth.

[Tzimisce]

[scooby321]

Reagan, who was the head of the Actors Union said in the 40's actors would stop after making two movies because if they made more the Government would get the money.

Freaking progressives act like when talking about couples makng 250,000 are Warren Buffett rich.

[wac3rd]

Derek is another balloon-head Lib “business” journalist who will not ever expect useless bureaucrats and regulators (paid for life, with healthcare) to ever stop being hired or a part of society.

Business operates on profit, on which the government is paid on...the government pays itself and hands out more than it can tax business...and it’s business’ fault?

Libtards all drank the same Kool-Aid in Commie Colleges of overpaid, unfireable, tenured professors who make six figures for life, with no real achievement.

[Richard Axtell]

If I were to personally explain to this self proclaimed expert why raising tax rates above the optimum Laffer Curve percentage will not make taxes “higher”, and will ultimately drive down revenues as it strangles the economy... would it sink in?

In a word, no. I fear that the kind of lack of understanding of what should be an easy to grasp concept will very soon act as a tree in the middle of the road for our out of control spending-mad government. We are going to all suffer a disastrous and largely unnecessary economic crash as a direct result of the latent malignancy of Keynesian economic thinking that blinds our current leaders to what lies clearly before us.

I hope Derek is prepared to smile his way through future columns as he blames Wall Street for the collapse of the American economy. Idiots should grin, it might save them from the gallows, however well deserved.

[apoliticalone]

High INCOME people pay a lot in taxes. High WEALTH, as in assets, not always.

---

The issue is the tax rate on wages, pensions, IRA distributions which usually represents a much larger percent of income for middle class is much higher than qualified dividends, capital gains and carried interest of billionaires. My own view is that wages, etc should not have a higher tax rate than other forms of income.

[Rummyfan]

He is also a visiting research fellow at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget at the New America Foundation.

That's a mouthful, but WTF is it really????? And who funds it?

[BillM]

When one talks of assets there needs to be a bit of extra information. What are the assets?

Houses or commercial property?
Stocks or bonds?
Cash?
Businesses?

The only one of these not creating financial activity is the cash. All the rest create tax revenues form others.

So I guess what is being proposed here is the seizure of cash.

[apoliticalone]

Your chart illustrates the results of a USA government that has purposely pushed the absurdity of one way “free trade” which has resulted in USA corporations becoming Chinese or International corporations.

The good paying manufacturing jobs that allowed most Americans to pay taxes, became Wal-Mart jobs that were paid our taxes instead of actually paying income taxes. It outrages me to see what has happened to our once great USA. I blame it on the financiers. They are the reason we became a welfare state.

Manufacturing which formed the basis of the most powerful and self sufficient economy on Earth was touted by politicians as passe and replaced by Wall St globalist financiers who produced financial products that turned out to be harmful to most while beneficial to those who ran the casino.

Up until about 1913 our government was run on import tariffs and Republicans favored that. Companies scrambled to locate in the USA because we were then as we are still a huge market. It was beneficial to the USA.

Then the central bankers on behalf of Democrats got control and that resulted in the income tax in 1913 and the march to globalism and our ever present incessant debt to the Fed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_United_States_history