Tax breaks for top 1% stimulates economy??? Pffffft.

You mean the past three years while the Bush era tax cuts have been making the rich ever richer, the economy has still steadily declined?

Say it ain't so!

Trickle down has been a punchline for a long time to anyone with sense. unfortunately, Keynesian principles are starting to show their limits as well. Looks like there is no unlimited free lunch.

 

a completely non-helpful thought...

The company I work for (BT) does Schneider's conference calls... OP you may have been on one that I facilitated

 

What's the deal with always hating on the richer among us when it comes to taxes. I figure it's a lot of resentment and jealousy.

FACT: 47% of American households pay NO federal taxes.
FACT: The weathiest 1% pays over 20% of all federal taxes.

HOW IS EITHER ONE OF THESE FAIR!!!

Why make the weathiest pay EVEN MORE of their fair share (when they are already getting raped), just because they can afford it. That is BULLSHIT.
It's like asking me what my income is before buying a movie ticket and making me pay twice the person behind me...and allowing the person behind him free admission because they make less than both of us. We are all getting the same product...except I have to sit in the back row...while the freeloaders get the front row seats. That is exactly what is happening in the tax game these days.

The rich are always the target when budgets don't get met. It's totally wrong to make the people who already carry all the lame asses, dig deeper to cove more of them every time the budget falls short. It's immaterial what they do with the money they don't pay in taxes. If they get richer, fine...it's already their money!!! If they choose to expand business and provide more jobs...great for everybody else. Instead of trying STEAL more from them, how about expanding the number of folks who pay taxes in the first place...and cutting life-long social program freeloaders!

BTW...I am not one of those rich. I am not a 6-figure earner houshold! But I am conservative and think that things should be FAIR. Always picking on a segment of our population just because you can, and making them out to be evil is NOT FAIR.

DAMN...It feels good to air some common sense!

 

I am not resentful nor jealous of the rich, heck for that matter, anyone. I'm fairly young and do live in a six figure household and tell you the truth I would say in the next ten years I will probably fall into the category that I think should pay more taxes. And I'm fine with that, because I hope to be helping out one of my fellow countrymen or to give a poor child healthcare or a meal to eat. I'm not greedy and was raised to help out your neighbor when they are in trouble. I think until people realize we are all in this together, we will continue such a divide of rich and poor.

The fact that you state about the 47% don't pay federal income tax is indeed not fair, but I'm not a fan of flat tax because it would raise taxes on the middle class while lowering it on the rich. Maybe, the lowest tax bracket of 10% should be for the absolute bottom income earners, to have to at least pay something.

 

You and I agree on so much...with one major difference. I too live in a six figure household, some years barely. I too believe in helping out the less fortunate. I just don't trust the government to do it for me. I like to give directly to charities like the Red Cross, my church, Be an Angel Foundation, MS Society, I give directly to a group home for mentally disabled that my brother runs. I do this because I know the vast majority of each dollar given is going to do some good.

It's not the governments responsibility to facilitate charity. Leave that to non-profit organizations which do a much better job. The government cannot do anything efficiently and effeciency is essential in the charity world...otherwise you end up with a lot of waste and corruption...two words that come to mind when I think of our government.

 

Man we even donate to some of the charities! But really the arguement, at least most of the time, is that Social Security is the problem and needs to severley cut or removed all together. Besides defense that is our biggest expenditure, so what is the answer? We can remove some minor programs and pork, but the SS is the big elephant in the room all the time. Do you feel that since the rich are so rich and it's our country that has helped them obtain such weatlh, and I'm not talking about the barely $250k crowd, but the $500k and above crowd that they should feel a little obligation to give back to the country that made them so wealthy, I would. I think this is were greed gets going, I mean come on, if you make a million bucks a year and at the current tax structure you would net (theoretically) $650,000 a year, but if those tax cuts expire that same household will net (theoretically) $604,000, that's still a nice monthly income of $50,333. That more than the medium income for a family of four in the US for a year. Which we both know that there is no way that they pay that much tax becasue of deductions.

Yes, there is waste in government, we need to fix that, but it will never be at 0% waste. There is waste in everyone's budget, mine, I'm sure yours and most everyones. Something we could have done better or got a better rate or bought or sold at a different time, leave the water running too long, leave a window open in the winter. All examples of waste, but government waste is compounded 100 times what a normal household might waste.

 

It's easier to waste someone else's money than your own. I agree with what you are saying that EVERYONE owes this country back for the opportunities it provides. But like one of the previous posters said, the rich get targeted just because they are rich. And they make an easy target because let's face, most of us do not fall into this category. I just wonder when is it enough? When you factor in all forms of taxes, there are some states where people are paying over 50%!!! To me, that is outrageous. Also, I think the "rich"...just like every category of human beings, get stereotyped as greedy. There are greedy people at all income levels and there are extremely generous people at all income levels.

To me it's again all about the size and scope of the government. I want them to take my fair share of taxes, and be fiscally responsible in how they utilize it. But the government just keeps growing and wasting...so if there is no line drawn, it will just continue that way with no end in sight.

 

It's been said before many times that the rich actually pay less percentage tax then most middle class filers. So when it comes to the pair share they indeed are not paying their fair share, just like the bottom income filers.