James Pethokoukis
Politics and policy from inside Washington
5 reasons why Obama will hike middle-class taxes
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C’mon, how about some Walter Mondalesque candor from the Obama White House on taxes? Yes, yes, it was 25 years ago this summer that the Democratic presidential candidate self-immolated on the issue at his party’s convention in San Francisco. But surely Americans have become more urbane and sophisticated since then as to what makes for sound economic policy, oui?
[Find out five ways to boost the economy and create jobs]
Nope. If you had any doubt that higher taxes are still poisonous policy in center-right America, all you had to do was listen to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday. He briskly and precisely walked back the White House from the ambiguous statements made by Tim Geithner and Larry Summers on the Sunday chat shows. “I am reiterating the president’s clear commitment in the clearest terms possible that he’s not raising taxes on those who make less than $250,000 a year,” Gibbs said.
But what’s so clear, Mr. Gibbs? “Commitment” in this context is a schemer’s word, the much-weaker-yet-more-conniving sibling of “guarantee.” Did Broadway Joe express a mushy “clear commitment” to winning the 1969 Super Bowl? Clearly not. In any event, feel free to ignore Gibbs or any other White Housespinmeister who gives the impression that President Obama raising middle-class taxes would be the equivalent of playing himself in a Hollywood biopic — so unlikely as to be fanciful. It’s not and here’s why it will happen eventually:
1) Obama knows the budget math doesn’t work. Put aside today’s budget mess. It’s gospel among center-left wonks (the kind of folks who give Obama economic advice) that structural government spending as a percentage of GDP is headed sharply higher over the long term because of entitlements — and there’s little that can be done about it. The ratio has been around 20 percent or so the past few decades, and number crunchers forecast a sharp rise to 25 percent (best case scenario) to 30 percent (worst case) of GDP over the next few decades. Tax revenues typically hover around 18 percent of GDP. That gap — representing $500 billion to $1 trillion a year — will need to be closed or else cause economic chaos. The possible answers: a) less spending, b) higher tax revenues from higher growth, or c) higher tax revenues from higher rates on the non-wealthy. Oh, and the wonks are convinced “a” is a political impossibility and “b” an economic one. They’re wrong, but that’s what they think.
[See if Obama's big economic gamble is paying off]
2) Obama seems to prefer tax hikes to spending cuts. Reduced future healthcare spending needs to be a huge part of the budget solution, and ObamaCare doesn’t make the grade at this point. Right now the various Obamacrat plans actually make things worse by failing to “bend the curve.” What’s more, Obama has proposed nothing as president to make Social Security solvent. And during the campaign, his preferred fix was higher payroll taxes rather than commonsense measures like extending the retirement age or changing how benefits are calculated. Of course, Obama has also proposed raising income, investment, corporate and energy taxes. Cut spending or raise taxes – forObama it’s an easy pick, unfortunately.
3) Obama has already tried raising taxes. Let’s, for the sake of argument, ignore the increased federal cigarette tax that would certainly seem to be a violation of Obama’s tax pledge. Call it a misdemeanor offense. But what about his cap-and-trade proposal, a de facto energy tax on everyone? Before the plan was modified in the House, the White House expected the plan to bring in some $80 billion a year from 2012 to 2019 by auctioning off carbon emission permits (probably to pay for healthcare reform). And making energy more costly is as about as broad-based a tax as you can get.
[Find out how healthcare taxes would affect you]
4) Obama’s advisers are for higher taxes. Let’s review, for example, what White House economic adviser and guru Larry Summers said on Sunday about tax hikes: “There is a lot that can happen over time. It is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out no matter what.” Indeed, Summers won’t rule it out because he thinks all the Bush tax cuts need to go, not just the ones for so-called rich folks. Here is Summers from earlier this year on Meet the Press when he put no qualifiers on letting the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2010: “I don’t think there’s any question they have to be repealed. The country can’t afford them for the long run. … They can’t be, they can’t be part of the long-run budget picture.” Not for anyone, it seems.
5) Obama doesn’t seem to think high taxes are harmful. Think about this: Not only was the top income tax rate a stratospheric 70 percent when President Reagan took office in1981, the tax code was not indexed to inflation. A lethal combo for economic growth. But here’s what Obama wrote about the Reagan tax cuts in The Audacity of Hope: “The high marginal tax rates that existed when Reagan took office may not have curbed incentives to work or invest, but they did distort investment decisions — and did lead to the wasteful industry of setting up tax shelters.” That’s it! Heavens, if Obama doesn’t think the pre-Reagan tax code wasn’t a disincentive to working, saving and investing, is there any tax system that he would find anti-growth?
Bottom line: The belief in the need for higher, European-style taxes (like a VAT) fills the policy cloud that surrounds Obama. It’s hard to overstate this. It’s right up there with global warming. Obama knows he faces a looming fiscal crisis and higher taxes will be his weapon of choice. To paraphrase Mondale, “Obama will raise middle-class taxes. He won’t tell you (yet). I just did.
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I hope he does raise taxes and I hope it makes the people who had no problem receiving tax cuts during wartime crap their pants. We have become a country of greedy, ignorant rubes who are fine with billing our grandkids for tax cuts but won’t seriously consider leaving them a decent health care system.
Obama will try to pass of hidden tax raises, much like he’s trying with the Cap and Trade Bill. All sorts of taxes will go up on the middle class with health care, but they just won’t be called taxes. As long as he doesn’t actually raise income taxes, he’ll call all of his de facto tax raises something else.He is proving to be politically inept once in power. Dogmatically bound to ideology, he cannot fathom cutting taxes for anyone even remotely rich or involved in business – even his measly tax breaks for the middle class have more to do with his ethos of “compassion” and “fairness” than any kind of economic reasoning. He is incapable of offering anything but spending and tries to call it “systemic” change that will cut costs in the future. No one buys his economic arguments because they know he doesn’t care about efficiency and growth – the entire base of support for health care “reform” is ideological or crony capitalism or bureaucratic power grabbing.If he doesn’t raise taxes, the deficit looms large over his re-election prospects. If he cuts spending (almost inconceivable) then he loses his base. He has put himself in a lose, lose, lose situation. The only reason he’ll get re-elected is simply because of no viable Republican opposition.
B A N A L — This commentary is so childish. So is its author.
Did Broadway Joe express a mushy “clear commitment” to winning the 1967 Super Bowl?No, he did not. He gave an iron clad guarantee to win the 1969 Super Bowl.As a Baltimore Colt fan, I’m still waiting for him to break it.
Very well done article James Pethokoukis, I totally agree with this aricle.The ridicule of Obama has to be explained more often.
If you aren’t rich now, you better hurry up and get rich, b/c once Obama puts all his new taxes in place, that will be it for growth for a long, long time. So, if you’re middle class, I hope you enjoy it b/c your wealth won’t be going up anytime soon. Of course, prices will – for gas, for energy, for political favors – but you’re buying power won’t. And, frankly, you deserve every last bit of pain that this stagnation brings. You were stupid and ignorant in voting for this charlatan. All the warning signs were there. People were screaming from the rooftops. But you wanted to believe in a childish fairtytale. You fat, happy, TV-anesthetized, uneducated rubes fell for it all. Rather than pick up a book, you ate up the slop that the media sold you. Guess what, the people that control the media are rich already, so why should they care if you stay poor? You are too stupid and lazy to stand up for your own freedom. And Obama knows that, and he is going to exploit you for every ounce of power and wealth that he can take. I’m glad I’ve got mine, because there won’t be any more soon. Good luck, fools.
Does anyone out there really believe that $250,000/year is middle class? It’s less than 4% of the population!Make the richies pay more taxes! They live in a country that enabled them to earn that much- time to pay for the privilege.Bob
It’s a new day for the Democratic party, no longer can they be labelled ‘tax-and-spend’. They have left that vile trait behind and moved on bigger and better things. What might that be you ask? It’s SPEND-THEN-TAX.
This guy actually gets paid to be a writer? What a hack! How many times does he have to say he WILL NOT raise middle class taxes.
Part of the stimulus package was a tax cut.I’ve only recently come to Reuters.com, does this guy get to write a factless column every day? Is he the William Kristol of Reuters?
Jeb, I think the article’s point is that signs point to Obama being a liar everytime he says it.
i agree with BOB. are the top 5% paying enough back to the system they are so good at profiting from?
Someone wrote a comment here saying it’s time for the “richies” to pay for the privilege of being rich.Liberals are telling you exactly who they are and what they want for America. The question is: are you listening?
A general comment: I don’t view these comments as enlightened discourse. We (and I do mean “we”) so easily descend to the point of labeling anyone who does not agree with our views (totally) as utter fools. Personally, I don’t tend to become more receptive when someone labels me as an idiot right off the bat. Whether I typically admit it or not, I see validity in almost all of the comments I read, right or left, if they are civil. But I don’t seriously consider any comments delivered viciously. I bet I’m not the only one. I am very liberal, but I will listen to others if they will do the same for me. Sorry, folks, but for some of you who are so righteous in your indignation here, I really wonder what you would actually do if you found yourself in the position of developing and implementing economic policy. That, in my opinion, should be a sobering thought. For anyone.
The liberal whiners here are so tiresome. Yes, he gets paid to write and you’re here reading him, thereby proving his worth. It is no wonder you can do no better than to regurgitate class warfare talking points. Capitalism has been waging and winning a war against socialism since at least the FDR era. In the 30′s these idiotic policies deepened and lengthened a depression that should have been a recession. In the 70′s even Republicans tried anti-free market price controls with predictable results; shortages.You think that tax rates can be increased only on upper brackets with no impact on you but history proves otherwise. Shrinking economies and rising unemployment are the result. Tax the “rich” and you hurt the middle and lower class.There is plenty to be outraged about. Read the budget or any of the assinine bills being rammed through congress. Money is being seized from hard working people and redistributed by congress in a vote buying scheme. The only ones who benefit from big government are the politicians and their parasite pals.
Of course he’ll raise taxes on the middle class, there’s no where near enough millionaires to fund his remaking of America. And Elitist always like to spend other peoples money, and the great unwashed will be his next ATM…http://cooperscopy.blogspot.com/
You know, and I know that Obama is going to hit everything that lives and breathes in our country with higher taxes. It will be interesting to see how he does it while still claming he isn’t? And even more interesting to see if the majority of the American people will buy it?
Bob said: “Make the richies pay more taxes!”LOL! They do! Did you know that the top 5% pay over 90% of all income taxes. The bottom 50% pay less than 3% of all income taxes. Did you know that? I bet not.As Maggie Thatcher stated so wonderfully: “The problem with Socialism is that, eventually, you run out of other people’s money.”That’s what’s happening here, Bob.Also… did you know that when Reagan took office (when the top tax rate was 70%) income tax receipts were about $500 Billion? When he left, and the top rate was 28%, income tax revenues were almost DOUBLE!Yes, I know folks like you DO NOT understand (it’s ECO101), but lower taxes bring in more money (to a point) and higher taxes bring in less. It’s a fact.EVEN JFK KNEW THAT and lowered taxes as soon as he got into office.
Man, some of you people scare me.Why should the successful get punished? I am not wealthy and I have NEVER been jealous or envious of other people’s money. Why should the Federal Government confiscate the wealth of others to pay for YOUR kids, YOUR house, YOUR food, YOUR healthcare? I don’t get it. I would NEVER think to turn to ANY government agancy to pay for me or my family. What kind of a unmotivated loser would expect the government (or anyone) to pay for THEIR family.Here’s an idea. Stay in school, get a good job, spend within your means, don’t have kids you can’t support….. I don’t know, seems pretty simple to me. But no.. we have guilty white liberals who think they are doing others favors with these lifelong social programs than do nothing but re-enslave others.You bought a house you cannot pay for? Don’t worry, the government will pay. You ran a company into the ground? Don’t worry, the government will pay. You have 4 kids by three different father and have no means of supporting them? Don’t worry, the government will pay.Seems to me that we are quickly becoming a country that rewards irresponsible behavior and punishes success and good decisions.Man, we are in HUGE trouble if this trend continues.
It us truly sad how many voters took Obama’s “free lunch” policies as truth.The idea that we can have massive increases in government handouts, converting the US to a more European-style social democratic system, and pay for this only off the “rich” is ridiculous.Have any of these voters actually been to Canada or Europe? Every other major social democratic country pays for their entitlements by taxing the heck out of the middle and working classes. Go to the UK, where at the peak gas/petrol was $10 a gallon, cigarettes are $10 a pack, a glass of beer in a grimy pub is $6, there is a 17.5% VAT/Fed sales tax on every purchase and someone making $55k a year is in the 40% income tax bracket.The funny thing is, even with all these taxes they still have to ration healthcare and they are still going bankrupt.This is the truth of where the US is headed.High spending means high taxes for EVERYONE.
“Why should the Federal Government confiscate the wealth of others to pay for YOUR kids, YOUR house, YOUR food, YOUR healthcare?”It’s called Socialism, and at least 25-30% of the population wants that. So does Obama. It’s usually the lazy and jealous that want it.It works so well, right? Cuba (average monthly income: $20), USSR (collapsed), etc….
The top 5% of EARNERS pay about 60% of all income tax. This is a fact that liberals just can’t come to grips with, along with the Laffer Curve.It is also a rarely discussed fact that taxes are levied as if the tax payer makes that amount of money EVERY YEAR. An entreprenuer who makes $100K one year and nothing the next pays more tax than the no-risk guy who makes $50K each year. Talk about NOT FAIR.The constant tug of war in tax rates makes business planning difficult. Taxes should be paid by all to provide shared services. Period. The current “system” is a joke and it is keeping this capitalist country from reaching its full potential when we need to very badly.http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/m enu/irs_screen_grab.guest.html
Stop with the lies on taxes and the rich. The facts are the rich have paid more, even under Bush and the poorest have paid less. Unlike our elected officials please educate yourself before you speak.http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?P ageID=6
Obamowhamo has made many promises that he can not keep. Not taxing the middle class is yet another. I don’t care how many times he says it, he will destory us with taxes!
BOB and Mike Flynn, see the stats from last week (7/30)on tax revenue. The top 1% of Americans pay 40.4% of our taxes which is more than all of the bottom 95% combined. In gaining their wealth they have no doubt provided employment for many of the bottom 95%. Plus Bob, who do they owe for the privilage? It was not handed to them by the government.
Can you say Federal Sales Tax? Canada has a 7% GST[general sales tax] to go along with their PST[provincial sales tax} so much for free health care!I just wonder how he is going to exempt the poor from paying it as is is collected at retail
Also… did you know that when Reagan took office (when the top tax rate was 70%) income tax receipts were about $500 Billion? When he left, and the top rate was 28%, income tax revenues were almost DOUBLE!posted by ster____________________________________ ___________________This is an oft-quoted Hannity “fact” that is easy to prove wrong. Go to irs.gov and look at the revenues for the Reagan years. Revenue dropped like a rock after his tax cut, then went up only after he raised taxes several times.
After 28 years of no tax and spend big republican administrations it would not be a big surprise if tax raises were required to reduce the deficit. You can’t say charge it for ever. Between my employer and my self my current HMO cost over a thousand a month for myself and my wife. If I no longer had to pay for my HMO then my employer could afford to give me a raise and I would gladly pay $500 more per month in taxes. It would put more than $5000 back in my pocket annually. Bring on national health care, bring on a socialistic health care. Our current system under the insurance companies thumbs is an absolute rip off, its not working, and its time for America to give insurance companies the boot.
Ditto John Galt.
Let’s face some reality. Obama’s and Pelosi’s legislation will increase taxes for those families making LESS than $250,000 as well as for those making more. There is just no way out of it. And these higher taxes are going to reduce spending on goods and services and investments by individuals and families. It’s a shame we cannot get rid of Obama after two years. His complete lack of experience in running any organization and very liberal background (based on Saul Alinsky’s teachings)is showing up in poor judgments on how to run a country, especially with the severe economic downturn that we are experiencing.
So if the rich want to pay less taxes and want the poor to pay more maybe they should try paying their employees enough that they do get taxed.Since some of the richest are the worst tippers I find it hard to believe they have any generosity towards the poor. The rich have been eating your cake while you get the crumbs…..Enjoy
Consider this: the Obama administration has unprecedented control over the finance and the treasury. Once the recession eases their plan is to allow inflation so more and more households and small businesses are above the $250,000 mark. Eventually the middle class HAS to bear the burden. The rich will just pack up and leave and can afford to do so.
I started to build an insurance business once.It was incredibly difficult. I finally decided to give it up and become a producer for a successful agent.I have total respect for anyone who builds a successful business in this country.Most liberals have no idea what it takes to be truly successful and become “rich.”The big disconnect is this: those ‘horrible’ rich folks are the ones who employ most Americans.Tax those folks, make it practically impossible for them to run a successful business, and they will cut their staff, or sadly, just give up.Quit whining, you miserable liberals.You seem to always want something for nothing.If you think socialism/communism is so great and America is so bad, why don’t you take the next boat to China, or North Korea, or Cuba?
roger- while I agree the repub’s have spent too much, if you think it will get you a bunch more money in your paycheck to have the gov. take over the healthcare- think hard about it.There is nothing the gov. does efficiently, so obamacare will cost more, deliver less and drive the whole insurance industry out of business, keep the smart “would-be” medical doctors in other professions, since after obamacare dictates that doctors should “spread the wealth around” and work for 50K a year, there will be fewer doctors.This should start a good business oportunity to set up private clinics/doctors so if you can afford it you can see a “real doctor” rather the obamacare subsititute.
I agree wholeheartedly with this writer. Thank God someone has the guts to tell the truth about Obama and this democrat congress. At 64 years old, I am working to just get insurance for me and my husband. I don’t want “Free” healthcare because nothing is free. Someone pays. Ditto on the writer who said, get a job, don’t spend more than you make and don’t have children for me to take care of. I left my children to go to work and help my husband take care of our family. I hated to put them in childcare which we paid for but it was what we needed to do to keep our heads above water. I feel like everyone else can do it too.
Obama qualifications to reform health care:No birth certificateCannot stop smokingDifficulty telling the truth.Narcissistic personality disorderTherefore, I Igor produce Obama Birth Certificate at http://www.igormaro.orgCompare Obama Care vs Igor Care at Obama vs Igor Care
I’m laughing my butt off here. Not for all you decent middle class people that didn’t vote for the fraud. I’m laughing because all those suckers, trolls and Obots that DID vote for him are going to take it up the butt on taxes. At least the 48% of us knew this was coming had a chance to prepare. It’s even worse when your such a rube that gets taken to the cleaners, all by your own doing. You know, the same peoplke that fall for the Nigerian prince has your winning lottery ticket again and again. Despite all the evidence that tells you it’s a flat out scam and you wil lbe ripped offMe? I don’t have any debt to my name but I don’t have a single asset either. Life will continue on the same for me whether there is a tax hike or not
OLDSCHOOL”I hope he does raise taxes and I hope it makes the people who had no problem receiving tax cuts during wartime crap their pants. We have become a country of greedy, ignorant rubes who are fine with billing our grandkids for tax cuts but won’t seriously consider leaving them a decent health care system.”Spoken like a true Communist hippie. When are you going to realize that taxing the poor in America is a BAD idea?You want a class war, it’s coming, and when your too old to fight you will be discarded just as you taught the youth of this nation to do with old toys.Do you really want to see bitter, gun clingers? Your going to get it. There are a lot of pissed of people in this country and Hippiecrats like you are just pissing kerosine on the fires of our discontent.
to all the idiots (that’s right, i am calling you idiots), who say that the rich aren’t paying enough, just a few points to ponder in what remains of your IQ:1. when is enough enough? when half of everything you earn is taken away? when 60%? 70%?2. while you may be happy to live in a one-bedroom apartment surrounded by crackheads and dope dealers, some of us try to better ourselves by working harder than you, saving more than you, and pulling ourselves and our families out of poverty. why are you incentivizing FAILURE? Shouldn’t you REWARD success?3. lastly, I earn 150k a year. Between all taxes, fees, charges, etc. I have close to 60k confiscated from me. Isn’t 60k enough? Oh by the by, every time tax rates are reduced, tax receipts into the state and fed govnt increase. makes you think that perhaps odumbo and his cronies are acting backwards, doesn’t it?
Look at what politics have do to this country. There’s not a single difference in Republican and Democratic politicians. Bush spent and taxes our brains out, so will Obama. Bush did it marginally more than Clinton and Obama will do it marginally more than Bush, party doesn’t matter.Guys it’s us vs them, them being the bureaucrats in our country. Bush didn’t care about protecting you, Obama doesn’t care about making your life better, it’s all a sad fairy.It’s statists vs small gov’t advocates, it’s not left vs right. Republican politicians want to grow gov’t, so do Democrats. 45% of the money made in America goes to the gov’t whether it be through income taxes, gas taxes, property taxes, fees, fines etc.Ron Paul 2012, it’ll be our last chance, we’re giving our future sons and daughters no choice but to revolt and I can’t imagine the disaster that will bring in a nuclear age.
That’s not a good way to make people think what you’re saying is smart, screwing up in the first sentence! Lol”Look what politics have DONE to this country”
Obamowhamo has made many promises that he can not keep. Not taxing the middle class is yet another. I don’t care how many times he says it, he will destory us with taxes!- Posted by MIkeI tend to disagree.Obamowhamo will destroy us all with incremental Marxism and Martial law after the collapse of our Government through liberal amendments to our “living” but burned Constitution.Liberal Dems are the same filthy hippies of the 70′s…. and want to tell you what you’re going to do…. Lazy, jealouse stupid hippies. It’s ment to be argumentative. But I bet you would rather the government fight it for you…..Entitlement programs have and will always fail. Only personal responsability prevails and is respected by others.
*****Why should the successful get punished?*****This, in a nutshell, describes the conservative view point with respect to taxes. Now, I’m a proud card-carrying liberal. And the way I see it, although anything, including tax rates, can be excessive, in general I don’t think paying our bills via higher taxes (as opposed to deficit-finance) is “punishment.” Rather, I see it as the price of admission to a civilized society. I don’t like dirty streets, and old and antiquated transportation infrastructure, and sick elderly people living in misery, and dilapidated schools, and poorly maintained public parks. It’s true that quality public goods require a robustly funded public sector, and that means higher taxes than we’re paying now. But I disagree with those who claim this would be a bad thing: all the evidence I’ve seen of late strongly suggest median living standards are higher in higher tax northern Europe than in the US.
Why did so few point out that the increase in the cigarette tax violated Obama’s promise about not raising taxes? We will see the same thing down the road. When the Obama administration or Congress proposes a VAT, they will argue that it was only the income tax that Obama promised not to raise. (By the way, a VAT will undercut the ability of states to raise revenue using sales taxes, which is why we do not have a VAT today.)
Great article. However, he fails to mention what the correct solution is, and I suspect it’s “B”; increase tax revenues through aggressive GDP growth. The REAL reason Dems don’t like this option is because the only way (aside from a technological breakthrough which enhances productivity) to aggressively grow GDP is to cut marginal tax rates. And this the Dems will NEVER do; they would sooner cut off their b***ls with a rusty razor.Jack Kemp was a pro-growth fiscal conservative, and he had it correct. If GDP is $1,000 and you have a 10% tax rate, you have $100 in tax revenue. If you drop taxes to 9% and thereby grow GDP to $1,200, you have $108 in tax revenue. Reagan, Bush, and JFK all proved that is really does work.
Not only the “rich” but also small business will be punished. $250,000 in S-corp earnings isn’t much when a business owner is trying to expand and hire more people. That money is counted as personal income until it’s spent. So, if a $300,000 business wants to hire a half-time assistant at $15/hour it’s the equivalent of a 5% additional tax.
First, raising taxes is better than you think. If I had a million dollar income at 75% taxes, I would invest money and get a dollar per dollar investment credit or deduction rather than paying taxes. So higher taxes on the wealthy actually creates investement in the social structure as a tax deduction to avoid the higher taxes.Second, raising medicare taxes 1% over present rate will help just a little with the health care plan. I am for a universal payer and to hell with the 25% average profit of insurance companies. Medicare does not require a profit and more money goes for care. Also, one set of rules and one set of forms for payment is much better than 12 to 15 many doctors deal with.Third, if in perspective of the developments in the economy and overall health of our people, do we want to quibble about money. We need healthy people for a stronger nation, not a lot of obese diabetics with disabled stickers. More taxes for that is reasonable.Fourth, taxing small business will kill incentive. No it will not. Small businessmen are greedy and most do not provide health insurance or retirement as they do for themselves. They put off employee benefits and many never provide them. Also, small business corporations have so many tax deductions and write offs that it is actually better to be an owner with all the loopholes than try to work for anyone. Small businesses want all the money they can get and save, even if they skim out of the till. Forget any sympathy for small businesses.Fifth, Taxing the wealthy. Anyone making over 1 million dollars a year should be hit with a greed tax. The bailout bonuses were astounding up to 25 million dollars, and that on top of an already exorbitant salary. They should be taxed to 90 % on all over 2.5 million. They take that money and put into foundations and keep it from the government and get the fun of spending their own money, like Bill Gates, tax free and with public endorsement.Thank you for reading this.
To Pat, who says “This is a fact that liberals just can’t come to grips with, along with the Laffer Curve.”The Laffer Curve can be used to argue that a decrease in taxes will *lower* revenue unless the tax rate is over 65%… and to quote Nobel prize laureate James Tobin, “[t]he ‘Laffer Curve’ idea that tax cuts would actually increase revenues turned out to deserve the ridicule with which sober economists had greeted it in 1981″Limbaugh gives uneducated conservatives just enough information to help them misunderstand previously unheard of concepts.
adds some new insight into ‘Yes we can’ raise taxes, thats what we can!
Joe,Are you related to Hitler?I hope you enjoy your 1 doctor with your 1 form of paperwork and your 1 form of payment.Sounds as if you have a little experience with the greedy side….. oh, and I sense a little dictator inside of you too. LOL You spent quite a bit of time explaining how you have no problems telling others that they have no right to choose what, when, and how their earned income is spent. I suggest you sell everything you own, give it all to Uncle Bimbo, and move to a collective commune in Cuba. It’s obviously what your abdicating. So get on with it and leave the rest of us that don’t want your way of life alone.I work for a living, not to support you, your form of illness, your habits, your way of life, or beliefs. Now GET OFF MY LAWN!!!