The debate over the Bush Tax Cuts has centered on the Wealthiest Americans!
As the far left and far right wage battle over the sun-setting Bush Tax Cuts, the middle-class is held hostage.
Despite the failure of 10 years of low taxes to produce jobs and stimulate the economy, Republicans insist that continued tax breaks for the rich will tinkle down.
The middle-class continues to struggle under the weight of 12 years of Republican policies; policies that transferred wealth from ninety-eight percent (98%) of the American population -- hard-working Americans -- to the two percent (2%) wealthiest Americans.
In the last 30 years, incomes for the wealthiest one percent of Americans rose 281% while middle-class wages have remained flat. Yet Republicans argue that letting the tax breaks for wealthy Americans expire would dramatically slow the economy and prevent job creation.
What the argument should highlight is the dispassionate position of the American rich and their UnPatriotic silence.
The silence has been both deafening and damaging to the country as the partisan dialogue escalates and becomes more divisive. Wealthy citizens could end the vitriolic debate allowing the country to move forward.
This should be front page news with journalists exposing the hypocrisy of the arguments against higher taxes when we are currently enjoying the lowest overall tax rates in 50 years while watching the deficit soar due, in part, to unfunded wars and Medicare Part D.
But shining a spotlight on the wealthiest in this nation is not in the purview of the duplicitous 21st century media. The media relegates stories like this to the back pages.
The current battle over the tax cuts that plunged us into deficits as far as the eye can see is a microcosm of the brewing culture wars -- the filthy rich vs. hard-working Americans who have been forced to endure the burdens of a failing economy.
Wealthy Americans, in receiving the gift of tax cuts during a time war, have paid virtually nothing for a war they advocated and supported. A war that cost the nation thousands of young lives and billions in national treasure.
In fact, many have actually made money from the wars while millions of Americans and Iraqis have paid the ultimate price for Bush's presidential folly.
The rich have paid nothing for the destruction their advocacy has caused.
Nor have they paid a cent for this nation's deteriorating infrastructure or the hand-out to Insurance companies through the passage of Medicare Part D.
Most sit idly by, letting the Republicans fight their UnPatriotic battles.
But there is hope. A group of more than 80 "loyal citizens" who now or in the past have earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more' have signed a letter to the President. Members of Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength are urging President Obama to let the tax cuts expire for those earning over a million dollars.
There are 375,000 Americans who have incomes over $1,000,000, and these 80 patriotic citizens are urging more wealthy Americans to sign the letter.
Senator Schumer offered a compromise that would raise the level from the proposed $250,000 to $1,000,000 last week. This would eliminate 99% of small businesses from the dreaded tax increases that Republicans are fighting so hard to keep. This would end the argument that raising the top two tax rates would hurt small businesses and job growth.
Truth be told, raising it from $350,000 to $500,000 would have the same effect, excluding nearly every small business from the increase.
It's time to break the silence. Patriotic Millionaires is a great start and these patriotic Americans need to be commended for stepping forward and doing the right thing for America and for democracy. It's time for the rest to step forward, sign the letter, call their congressional representatives and encourage them to do the right thing.
It's also time the Republicans quit holding hard-working and unemployed Americans hostage to perpetuate the greedy decline in this country.
Follow Jim Worth on Twitter: www.twitter.com/authorofmystery
http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
The wealthy have it better in the US than just about anyplace else in the world except tax havens -- which the wealthy also enjoy. Google's international income plan is a prime example -- $80 Billion in revenue with a 2.27% tax rate.
As a middle market investment banker, I have seen many, many sub-S corps and LLC's (small businesses) which are run at a loss, allowing their owners to pay no taxes or in many cases receive refunds in future years by utilizing NOL carry-forwards.
We either need a higher tax rate or many many less loopholes, that includes me.
And right on....the money!
As for your question...I think that the upper limit should be the same for everyone...let's say 34%.
"In fact, many have actually made money from the wars while millions of Americans and Iraqis have paid the ultimate price for Bush's presidential folly. The rich have paid nothing for the destruction their advocacy has caused. Nor have they paid a cent for this nation's deteriorating infrastructure or the hand-out to Insurance companies through the passage of Medicare Part D."
For starters, the rich who anger you so much pay a lot more for all federal programs than anyone else. The top 1% of households by income paid 38% of federal taxes. The top 5% paid 58% of federal taxes.
As for Medicare part D, this program is designed to help the middle class and poor seniors pay for medication! How on earth is this a benefit for the wealthy? Likewise the wars were an expression of populist rage against "terrorists" and polls at the time indicated they were very popular with the majority Americans and not the advocacy of the rich.
If you look past your own lopsided rage, you'd note that taxes are at the lowest point not just for the wealthy, but everyone. In all other industrialized nations, individual taxes are significantly higher across the board. Here in the US, the middle class do not understand what it means to pay for the programs they demand.
Now on top of robbing us blind in hidden fees, unjust mortgage agreements, deceptive credit card terms--you now want us to give them more tax cuts---why??? Does that poor, struggling individual small business owner need the additional tax cuts to put food on their table--NO. The rest of us do!!
I get irritated by the hyperbole used to justify a double standard -- keep taxes low for me, but raise it on the other guy. This doublethink is usually justified by demonizing the wealthy like you did with comments about financial institutions robbing people.
Your counterpoint seems to suggest that, because lower income households work hard to be able to buy things, they are entitled to a greater share of the profits. I'm not sure how a middle class family taking a vacation to Disney World gives them a right to part of the salary of a Disney executive, but that's what you're advocating.
I presume you think that the Federal Government can transfer some of that wealth back to the families that really need help.
Raising taxes on only the wealthy will not bring significantly more money into government programs. The problem is that there are not enough of them, no matter how much you tax them.
If you want the programs, you too will have to pay more taxes. Just take a look at tax rates in other industrialized nations like Canada, France, Germany, Spain... you'll see that income tax rates are higher across the board and there is a national value added tax on all goods and services (like a sales tax, but smarter).
winning this war and are well on their way to removing the middle class entirely. What will the
arguments from the right be then when only the rich and the poor live in this country.
You Don't Have To Be Rich To Be Selfish....
Selfishness is not a function of socioeconomic status; but more of a function of the soul and what kind of family and community the person experienced as a child and young adult.
I think you might want to focus upon improving the sense of community and the importance of selflessness regardless of personal wealth. When you examine the giving of those with wealth as opposed to the all about me without then you would see it has nothing to do with wealth but the person inside.
Warm regards,
Michael Winters
It blinds you to the needs of others, hardens your heart-and-soul to stone, and addicts you to the acqusition of more-and-more wealth...the more you have, the more you want.
Eventually, there is only one thing you end up truly loving...your wealth.
Which you cannot take with you when you pass into the afterlife.
When Scrooge saw where HE was heading to in the Afterlife...he repented and changed his ways!
I wonder if any of these "Modern-Day Scrooges" will do the same?
--RKJ
It is a re-work of Reagonomics. Reagonomics created billionaires. It is plain wrong
as a theory as to what is required to achieve growth and prosperity.
Everything has been privatized. Remember the theory privatization would improve everything?
Now we have schools on the stock market (whose only income is financial aid) training students
for minimum wage jobs and debt from the big financial institutions, insurance companies who hold doctors and patients as hostages, all jobs that were not commodities shipped overseas...This
problem did not start today...
It is sad that both the left and the right do not acknowledge we have a serious structural
problem caused by economic policies. Our elected officials may understand calculus and
actuarial bean-counting, but do not understand (or care) what government for the people, and
by the people means. Their only concern is re-election.
When the US Congress fails to see 4 million people out of work as not being a national emergency
requiring immediate attention, when the media doesn't even bother to cover the crisis, and
Republican Congressmen think the only emergency is re-election. When they see budget deficit
in terms of extending hand-outs to special capital interests and blaming the current problems on the
poor, the sick and the unemployed...WE HAVE A PROBLEM.
"Republican Congressmen think the only emergency is re-election" ~ I would submit to you that Democratic Congressmen are no better.....
# A Nevada LLC is tax-free.
# There is no state corporate income tax for Nevada companies.
# There are no Nevada capital shares or stock transfer taxes.
# There is no state inheritance tax on stock held by non-residents of Nevada
So, it appears all we have to do, people, is call ourselves a corporation, set up a Nevada LLC and sock away our money like the big wigs so we don't have to pay tax on it either.
First of all none of that has anything to do with Federal Income tax.
Secondly, it is simply how that state (Nevada in this case) taxes its citizenry. And even if I (or any other business owner) created an LLC in Nevada it would not shield the business owner from paying taxes in the states in which they operate. In my particular case, I live in California but operate businesses in Idaho, Ohio and California. So I have to apportion my (pass-thru) income, based on where the work was done and the revenue generated, and pay state income taxes in three different states. Now that being said, I could of course close up my shops and lay my people off and move to Nevada and thereby lower my STATE income tax burden. And many businesses are doing just that.
I promise you the government will get its money so it can waste it. And I don't care if its Bush and the Republican party or Obama and the Democrat party or Daffy Duck and the Looney Tune party.
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqrguz/housingbubble/las_vegas.html
But to each his own.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/24-2
Firms See Long-Sought Goal in Sight: Major Pay Cuts | CommonDreams.org
"...These firms are systematically implementing a major strategy to permanently drive down wages far below anything considered "middle class." The key tool for corporations: forcing acceptance of permanent two-tier wage structures and the insertion of nonunion casual workers into union plants to drive down union pay to levels unimaginable a couple years back. Big business is essentially trying to take back the hard-won gains of working people won over generations.
[snip]
Expect the downward wage spiral to continue under relentless pressure from corporations who see an endless surplus army of labor with 9.6% unemployment and benefits running out for two million in December.
For example, "Toyota 's goal has become $12.64 an hour, the median wage for comparable manufacturing in Kentucky, where it has its largest plant, or $10.79 in Alabama, where it is building a new plant," reports UC-Berkeley Prof. Harley Shaiken, a long-time scholar on labor issues and the auto industry..."
http://wwwÂ.taxfoundaÂtion.org/nÂews/show/2Â50.html and http://wwwÂ.ntu.org/tÂax-basics/Âwho-pays-iÂncome-taxeÂs.html
I'm in no ways favoring tax breaks for the rich. I believe that Obama will do the right thing and let those tax breaks expire for the wealthiest 2%. But I think we should stop thinking that all corporations a filthy rich. Some are just ordinary businesses that are struggling to get by. Those probably won't get affected by the tax cuts if it is signed. It will be the ones that earn profits that they don't use anyways. If corporations want to cut down on their taxes, all they have to do is spend the money. Its that simple.