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There is no mistaking which income groups are paying federal income tax, and which aren't. It's right there in the black and white IRS data.
ok.
the top 1% of americans own 50.9% of the stock and bond markets. the bottom 50% of americans own 0.5% of the stock and bond markets. HALF of ONE PERCENT. (or if you want... consider it this way... the bottom 90% of Americans own only 9.8% of stock and bond markets... the top 10% own 90.2% of the stock and bond markets.)
that means a billionaire or a multi-millionaire is paying long-term capital gains rates of 10%, while a $50,000 earner is paying wage rates of 25%, and a $300,000 earner is paying 33%.
that is the imbalance that needs to be corrected (along with the cap on payroll taxes), not the income taxes. The aspect of American taxation that unfairly benefits the rich cannot be measured through income taxes -- it is only obvious when looking at a practical application of how we tax high net worth (capital gains) vs. low net worth (wages).
Roys in your town Kansas you have no clue how GOP economic experiments reak havoc on urban dwellers. If they ever failed to control their feelings about Reagan that mans body would have been dragged in the street and torn apart during his funeral. We bit our tongue out of respect. Now you need to wake up.
Every offset for bottom class was born on middle class back with Bush plans. He punished people who saved money and didn't string themselves out on credit cards and mortgages. He punished the hell out of small business and gave unfair advantages to large conglomerations. We went along with your plan, lower the taxes for the wealthiest class but that's not enough-- they reward everyone paying higher taxes by raising the cost of living. Are your adult kids living in your basement? Can they afford to live in their own home town?
My adult children both live in houses of their own. They don't like having to pay the income taxes they pay, but then who does? I don't like having to pay on 85% of my Social Security either but I get to do just that because I am self-employed and don't make a lot of money at it either.
I never felt punished by the fact that we save as much as possible and never fail to pay off any credit card charges monthly. I wonder just what you are talking about on this subject.
You of the left lean keep talking about how little the wealthiest people pay but I see them paying a helluva lot more in both percent of what they make and total amount, at that.
I guess people who demand living in urban areas get to pay a lot more than we of the tiny town but not on income taxes. It is the unbelievable difference in state and local property taxes that is what I think you are talking about. You do understand that we are talking about income tax here and not all the others, don't you?
We can scream about whether or not the tax cuts should be maintained all we want, but I think we need to both have serious tax increases as well as serious cuts/reforms to programs like Social Security, Medicare, & some Defense cuts as well.
--We blow a lot of money on health care that isn't spent effeictively, for starters.
--Same goes for higher education.(although I realize most of that spending is at the state/local level).The costs of which have far outstripped the general rate of inflation over the last 40 years (same with health care).
--I do think those with high incomes will need to pay more in tax. I don't necessarily think it's fair for the highest income brackets to pay so muich....but it's better than the alternative of defaulting on our debts....which no one will believe can happen until it's too late to do anything about it (a la Ireland and Greece).
--We also need to pay more in gas taxes. This will bring more money to the government in the short run, and get us thinking about alternatives & conservation for the long run. It will also help our trade deficit...1/2 of which is because of oil imports.
--They should hike the alcohol tax as well.
--I'm also in favor of reducing or eliminating the mortgage interest deduction for future home purchases (ok to grandfather in existing homeowners). I think it ends up being a subsidy for the banks more than anyone. It isn't really a productive tax break for our economy in the long run, as housing is not a productive asset in the way machines and other capital expenditures are.
I think we're going to need to do ALL of the above things....plus some serious brainstorming about how to innovate to grow our economy more, if we want to seriously cut our deficit.
Simply keeping taxes low and getting rid of things like welfare and extended unemployment benefits are not going to even come close to getting the deficit down. And for liberals...neither is ending the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. The spending cuts will have to go much deeper...to programs that people actually hold near & dear to their hearts (and their wallets). We've exhausted all other possibilities.
Republicans are the party of borrow and spend. Democrats are the party of borrow and spend even more. It's not working.
America is going to learn what sacrifice looks like sooner or later. The longer we wait, the worse it will be.
I can see very well that with your thinking we will never manage to establish the Fair Tax in this country. Of course, few Congress critters understand what the Fair Tax is just as very few of the rest of our citizens really understand it either. With the Fair Tax all the other taxes are cut completely out.
Would it interest you to know that the only welfare queens I have ever met up close and personal are socially conservative white women?
No it wouldn't, given your evidently limited experience and interaction with the outside world. Poverty cuts across all demographic groups, but more specific info can be seen here:
Compare that to U.S. demographics by race:
Comparing the two and doing the math, you will find that some groups are overrepresented in the poverty statistics (those living in poverty are more likely to receive public assistance) compared to their percentage of the population, while other groups are underrepresented.
the top 1% of americans own 50.9% of the stock and bond markets. the bottom 50% of americans own 0.5% of the stock and bond markets. HALF of ONE PERCENT. (or if you want... consider it this way... the bottom 90% of Americans own only 9.8% of stock and bond markets... the top 10% own 90.2% of the stock and bond markets.)
Where are you getting those stats? And in which group are you including all of Joe America's pension/401k fund holdings?
Indeed. And the 20 miles of loopholes burned in a tea party bonfire?
No, the same legal deductions anyone can take. In fact, the two bottom quintiles have an advantage there. Witness their negative effective federal income tax rates (bottom of page 1):
http://www.cbo.gov/publications/collections/tax/2009/effective_rates.pdf (broken link)
from the link you posted, which you obviously did not read:
Quote:
(3) The only tax analyzed here is the federal individual income tax, which is responsible for about 25 percent of the nation's taxes paid (at all levels of government). Federal income taxes are much more progressive than payroll taxes, which are responsible for about 20 percent of all taxes paid (at all levels of government), and are more progressive than most state and local taxes (depending upon the economic assumption made about property taxes and corporate income taxes).
Hmmm... Aren't you Dems/libs always complaining that the rich don't pay enough payroll tax because of the cap? How is that possible if just one little percent of the tax-filing population is paying 27.5% of the payroll tax revenue?
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