A milder anti-progressive tax column here. I understand it to a point and, in all honesty, I am for a flat tax rate if the first X number of dollars can be exempted. I don't know what that number should be because I'm just an opinionated ass and not a policy wonk, but I'm thinking somewhere around the 25 to 35 thousand mark. In addition to that, I would want to see a consumption tax in the single digits--closer to 5 than 9--that primarily benefits the welfare state. In that way, we would have progressive taxation by effect rather than design.
I really don't understand fully the angst behind Obama raising the tax rate 3-4% on dollars made over 250K, however. I really don't. I certainly understand not wanting to give my money to idiots in Washington (or even brilliant scholars in Washington)--that's easy. But it is not that that seems to fuel the anger. It is more the very phrase of "share the wealth" that seems to gnaw at these guys. As a conservative friend of mine calls it, "giving my money to people who haven't deserved it."
1. People who make 6-figures, effectively, get a tax break already by not having to pay Social Security taxes above the 90,000 mark (it's actually probably a bit higher than that now--not sure). They can keep 7.65% more of their income to invest and spend however they please on those dollars.
2. 95%+ of what the government does with taxes is a redistribution of wealth. The money goes to highways you never drive on, universities you never attend, weapons you never fire, retirees you don't know, national parks you never visit, etc. Governments have been doing it ever since we've had governments and taxation.
3. A concentration of wealth makes for a less robust economy (see: TODAY's economy with over half the wealth being controlled by 5% of the population). Coddling the investment classs in the hopes of effective trickle-down economics does not, and has not worked.
4. It's a 3 or 4 percent increase! The same rates we had during the very prosperous Clinton years! Get over it! We have to pay the bills somehow and, if the revenues don't come from the largest pool of income in the US, then from where?
There are more points I could make, but I'm so tired of this. President Bush and his giggling gaggle of GOP sycophants put an extra 5 trillion dollars onto the debt just in his term in office. That's approximately $16.5 thousand for every man, woman, and child in the US--obviously more for every taxpayer. And that is just the debt. It is time for adults to run the government now and fix his sorry mess and, if that means raising taxes a few percentage points on the most comfortable in our society, than that's what it means.
It is far from socialism. It is acting like a grown-up.
I really don't understand fully the angst behind Obama raising the tax rate 3-4% on dollars made over 250K, however. I really don't. I certainly understand not wanting to give my money to idiots in Washington (or even brilliant scholars in Washington)--that's easy. But it is not that that seems to fuel the anger. It is more the very phrase of "share the wealth" that seems to gnaw at these guys. As a conservative friend of mine calls it, "giving my money to people who haven't deserved it."
1. People who make 6-figures, effectively, get a tax break already by not having to pay Social Security taxes above the 90,000 mark (it's actually probably a bit higher than that now--not sure). They can keep 7.65% more of their income to invest and spend however they please on those dollars.
2. 95%+ of what the government does with taxes is a redistribution of wealth. The money goes to highways you never drive on, universities you never attend, weapons you never fire, retirees you don't know, national parks you never visit, etc. Governments have been doing it ever since we've had governments and taxation.
3. A concentration of wealth makes for a less robust economy (see: TODAY's economy with over half the wealth being controlled by 5% of the population). Coddling the investment classs in the hopes of effective trickle-down economics does not, and has not worked.
4. It's a 3 or 4 percent increase! The same rates we had during the very prosperous Clinton years! Get over it! We have to pay the bills somehow and, if the revenues don't come from the largest pool of income in the US, then from where?
There are more points I could make, but I'm so tired of this. President Bush and his giggling gaggle of GOP sycophants put an extra 5 trillion dollars onto the debt just in his term in office. That's approximately $16.5 thousand for every man, woman, and child in the US--obviously more for every taxpayer. And that is just the debt. It is time for adults to run the government now and fix his sorry mess and, if that means raising taxes a few percentage points on the most comfortable in our society, than that's what it means.
It is far from socialism. It is acting like a grown-up.
