A tax whore speaketh

Truly Grover Norqust is one of the biggest nut jobs in the GOP.

The one per centers love Grover and the Bush tax cuts.

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Dangerous Intersection: Dialog with a Republican.

Tony Coyle | October 11, 2010

My neighbor, B, is a progressive republican and a tax partner in a large CPA firm. We had a conversation…

“Obama needs to go”, said B.

Why? He’s doing pretty well considering the mess he inherited!

“Because all he wants to do is raise taxes! If we don’t get control [of congress and senate] my taxes will go up by almost 20%. I already pay almost half my income in taxes: income, property, FICA and the rest”

What? How do you get a 20% increase?

“FICA – is capped at about 100k. As a partner, I pay FICA at 15%. Lose that cap and my taxes go up immediately by 15%. The top rate of income tax is set to climb to 39%, which is an extra 3%. And there are a bunch of others, too”

No — that’s just wrong. Even assuming that happens… an example, if you earned $200k your effective FICA rate would be 7.5% on that $200k, right? So even without a cap, your effective FICA rate will never be greater than 15%. If you earn $200k, that means an increase of 7.5%, not 15%!

“OK! But that wouldn’t be a 7.5% increase if I earned 300k or 400k or 500k. It would be much greater than 7.5%”

B, Sure it would, but if you earn $500k and can’t absorb that kind of increase, I’d advise you to start looking for a new tax accountant! LOL

“Well ok! But do you think it’s fair that 60% of the people in this country don’t pay any taxes?”

Where did you get that number? Do you think it’s right that the US has such a large population of poor people they fall under the threshold for federal taxes?

“Most of those people aren’t poor!”

But all of them pay taxes. You included property taxes in your 50%. I assume you included sales taxes, 7% for most everything here in GA? Then those people who pay nothing are paying way more in effective taxes than you – for food and energy and shelter.

This is the kind of misinformation that the GOP promulgates. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax is a United States payroll (or employment) tax imposed by the federal government on both employees and employers to fund Social Security and Medicare.

For 2008, the employee's share of the Social Security portion of the tax is 6.2% of gross compensation up to a limit of $102,000 of compensation (resulting in a maximum of $6,324.00 in tax). The employer provides a matching 6.2 per cent.

For 2009 and 2010, the employee's share is 6.2% of gross compensation up to a limit of $106,800 of compensation (resulting in a maximum Social Security tax of $6,621.60).This limit, known as the Social Security Wage Base, goes up each year based on average national wages. The employee's share of the Medicare portion is 1.45% of wages, with no limit on the amount of wage subject to the Medicare tax.

Because of the cap on Social Security, this part of the tax is regressive and has little effect on the most affluent Americans. When Republicans take the presidency, they often refuse to raise the cap because the tax is starting to effect upper income Americans. Keep in mind this tax has primarily been borne by the middle class since Social Security was instituted in the 1930s.

Hate government and taxes?

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Republicans are gnashing their teeth over Bush tax cut expirations

Supply Side economist Arthur Laffer, chairman of Laffer Associates,  created the Laffer Curve. Laffer warns of coming tax hikes when the Bush era tax cuts expire. Laffer was a Reagan era economist considered to be the father of discredited Supply Side economics.


• the highest federal personal income tax rate will go to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. this rate will affect the most affluent Americans. 

• the highest federal dividend tax rate pops up to 39.6 percent from 15 percent;

• the capital gains tax rate will hit 20 percent from 15 percent;

• the Estate Tax rate is restored  to 55 percent. Bush suspended the Estate Tax during during his presidency. 

“Lots and lots of other changes will also occur as a result of the sunset provision in the Bush tax cuts,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Laffer says the coming hikes — coupled with the prospect of rising prices, higher interest rates and more regulations next year — are causing businesses to shift production and income from 2011 to 2010 to the greatest extent possible.

In 2011, the first $ one million of an estate's value is excluded from this tax. Republicans like to refer to the Estate tax as a death tax and also suggest Americans are taxed twice because of income tax. The Estate tax, in fact, is the only tax at the federal level that taxes wealth.

Rightardia believes that the tax cut expirations will mainly affect the "have mores" which represent a big part of the GOP base.  Teh Bush tax cuts actually had a negative effect on the middle class.

The Bush tax cuts did not have any clear effect on the US economy and Bush era job creation stats were poor.

Of course, conservative media like NewsMax suggest the expiration of the tax cuts will "end life as we know it in the US."


Source: Newsmax and Moneynews.


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Hillbilly Report:: Note to Conservatives: The POOR Pay More Taxes!!

by: RDemocrat
Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 18:57:09 PM EST

You know how when we start talking about raising taxes on the rich, who have gotten a free pass the last few decades how some Conservative politician or idiot radio-type is always bantering about how the richest 2% pay more than half in [income] taxes or some garbage like that. Well, as always with the greediest and least patriotic among us that talk is just that, garbage.

All over the nation and particularly here in Kentucky, the poor, working citizen pays a higher per-centage of their income in taxes than the wealthy elites:

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C., studied tax codes in every state and concluded that the vast majority depend too much on sales and property taxes, which then puts a greater burden on lower-income population. [This is because sales and municipal taxes are regressive. The taxes the conservatives complain about are the progressive ones: the Estate tax and Income Tax. Bush suspended the Estate Tax while he was president. Is anyone surprised?]

"State and local taxes are profoundly unfair around the nation, and Kentucky is no exception," said Matt Gardner, the author of the study and director of the institute, which bills itself as a non-partisan, non-profit research group.

The study found that, in 2007, people making less than $15,000 a year paid 9.4 percent of their income to sales, property and income taxes, while those making about $36,000 paid 11 percent.

In contrast, the wealthiest 1 percent of Kentuckians, those making more than $346,000 a year, paid 7.1 percent. After federal deductions, the percentage is 6.1.

And of course leave it to the rich and Republicans to fight against Progressive vision for everyone else, while they are benefitting the most from one of the only things in America that is still Progressive, the federal tax code:

Wealthier people do pay more in income taxes, about 5.2 percent of their income, compared to 1.3 percent for the poorest fifth of the population. But, Gardner says, the income tax is the only one designed to be progressive because it can tax people according to their income. But the income tax does not offset the effects of the other two, he said.

State Representative Wayne had a great idea for changing the antiquated tax code in Kentucky:

KFTC and a host of other public policy groups are pushing a tax reform bill from Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, that would give more tax credits to the poor and raise income taxes on the wealthy, while taxing more services, a growing sector of the economy.

"This study is a great opportunity to take a second look at the tax reform package we're pushing because it's a step in the right direction," in terms of fairness and adequacy, Wayne said.

Despite this, Gov. Beshear disagrees because he does not want to "raise taxes". He still dreams of expanded gambling in Kentucky which would not bother me, but for the immediate future it is a non-starter. Even expanded gambling will not solve the problem of fairness however which needs to be addressed. The working poor should not pay more of their income in taxes.

This is a problem which needs to be alleviated all over the country.

Rightardia comment: Conservatives like gambling because it is provides another opaque source of tax revenue. Conservative politicians in Florida have tried to change the Florida Constitution to legalize gambling but have failed for the most part. Gambling is often infiltrated by organized crime and it creates other social problems.

source: http://www.hillbillyreport.org/diary/886/note-to-conservatives-the-poor-pay-more-taxes

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'The Party of No' becomes 'The Party of Death'

Over the years the GOP has been responsible for the death of a lot of people.  Read some of Noam Chomsky's books if you don't know what I am talking about. In the Iraq War alone, more than 1.3 million Iraqis have died as well as 4335 US service men.

The Republican Party is, indeed, the party of death!





graphic courtesy of LtSaloon.org

source: http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

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