[yobid]

Forbes’ plan eliminates government workers. You will NEVER see a REDUCTION in government workers. Never. EVER. TSA - here to stay and growing larger every day. EPA - here to stay. IRS - here to stay and growing larger every single day. On and on and on it goes. Will it stop? No.

Catastrophic failure is the only way anything in this country will ever improve.

Happy New Year.

[TLI]

Russia has a 13% flat tax.

Ours should be no more.

.

[vpintheak]

All indirectly, yes. But no, it’s the working stiffs of all income levels who are getting the shaft. Bums of all ages, genders, colors, and backgrounds are getting the freebies at an increased rate, not taxes.

[The Great RJ]

Our tax code is byzantine because Congress has used it to reward friends and big contributors and to redistribute income. If everyone paid their taxes as a flat 17% the billion dollar tax preparation business (H&R Block etc) would be gone overnight and I’m sure they would be heavily contributing to members of Congress to keep the current mess.

[GeronL]

collapse is probably inevitable

[skinndogNN]

The 90% of the electorate who’s politically ignorant is going to want to know what the hell happened with they get their paychecks. Don’t let the DEMS pull off the “tax holiday” bull. They just created a fiscal cliff bill. They could’ve extended it if they didn’t want to raise taxes on the middle class.

[Sooth2222]

The payroll tax, which funds Social Security, was cut from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent in 2011 and 2012 as part of the deal to make the extension of the Bush income tax rates palatable to the Democrats -- since it applied to Democrat voters who don't pay any income taxes. I thought it was an awfully bad idea at the time because of the shaky actuarial footing of the Social Security system. But a self-employed guy who gets hit with these taxes twice, I was happy to take the money and run!

Now the Bush rates are permanent for 99% earners, the 1% are still smart enough to minimize or eliminate Obama's tax increase, and the payroll taxes are back to where they were when Bush was President.

I heard Rush today say that this interpretation is wrong. Okay --- by making the economy just a little bit more inefficient, I guess he's right. But -- as with most of what Obama's done for the last 4 years, it hurts his core constituents more than it hurts that bogeyman, "the rich".

[kearnyirish2]

“Obama’s Affirmative Action: Tax Increases for Everyone!”

Everyone except those who won’t work and those who work for cash (coincidentally two of the same groups that get into colleges with a combined SAT score of 30).

[Cyber Liberty]

To ask the question, “Why go after the middle class?” is to ask of Willie Sutton, “Why do you rob banks?”

[pabianice]