Posted on 07/26/2014 8:52:45 AM PDT by Rusty0604
Here is President Obama in a chat yesterday with CNBC’s Steve Liesman:
STEVE LIESMAN: Mr. President, ... You’ve said a bunch of times that getting the wealthy to pay a little bit more, and you’ve succeeded in raising that top tax rate to 39% or rolling back the tax cuts. Is there a limit there? Is there a limit to how much you believe the government should take from an individual in terms of a top tax rate?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I don’t have a particular number in mind, but if you look at our history we are still well below what, you know, the marginal tax rates were under Dwight Eisenhower or, you know, all the way up even through Ronald Reagan. Tax rates are still lower on average for most folks. And what that means is that we probably can make some more headway in closing loopholes that folks take advantage of. As opposed to necessarily raising marginal rates.
The president’s answer certainly suggests,... that he believes the US is nowhere close to the danger zone. If so, he is merely in sync with top left-leaning economists — such as Peter Diamond, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez — who argue for top rates in the 70% to 80% range, if not higher. Oh, and at the same time the high-tax crowd would close tax loopholes and increase tax enforcement to limit avoidance.
Interestingly, Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope that the real problem with the 70% tax rate that existed when Ronald Reagan was president was not that it “curbed incentives to work or invest” but that it led “to a wasteful industry of setting up tax shelters.” So maybe Obama thinks a 70% rate with little to avoid it would be just fine.
(Excerpt) Read more at aei-ideas.org ...
In leftist theory, the tax rate is always 100%.
It’s just that the government spends some on “tax expenditures,” which is essentially how they define any money you have that they don’t take from you at any given moment.
“How about 100%, Zero?
Or would a little higher be better?”
He would love that. Then he and his cronies could take their cut and redistribute the rest.
Raising minimum wage to $15 per hour will help Social Security for a little while.
He has admitted he doesn’t care if it raises less revenue, because it is more “fair”.
That is why they hate 401(k)s, all that “lost revenue”.
In essence, take from the productive members of society who tend not to vote for dems, and give to the parasitic members of society who will eagerly vote for dems in order to receive more handouts.
I think Congress and the White Hut will go for the 401(k)s and IRAs before Jug Ears leaves office.
Both the Dems and Pubbies want that money to play with and they have taken so much of our freedoms and liberties I think they know the time is ripe to go all the way, and that will include starting a VAT tax as well as keeping the terrible system we have now.
By the time Obambi leaves there will be nothing left and white people will literally be enslaved by the Government, blacks, and Latinos, even though they are the minorities.
There are too many white people who are too lazy or scared to stand up for freedom and liberty. We may just be toast within two years.
I fear the same thing. Now that the Fed is tapering QE, they have to get the money for their big spending programs from somewhere.
Actually, in some cases the consumer pays the entire tax anyway, depending on the elasticity of demand. The more ineleastic the demand, the greater the percent of the tax that is paid by the consumer. For example, if the feds tacked a $50 tax on each heart operation, there would probably be no change in the number of people who have heart operations and the consumer would have the entire tax passed onto them.
People have to get away from the idea that the gov't "makes" money through taxes. No, the gov't takes money away from someone and gives it to someone else...often themselves. The valid reasons for gov't spending are 1) the policing of property rights (e.g., a legal system, a standing military) and 2) provision of social overhead capital (e.g., public roads). Now you tell me where free cell phones comes in, other than to get yourself reelected.
The tax is ALWAYS paid by the consumer.
That's where the money comes from.
Actually, I'm all for zero taxes on corporations. It's double-taxation.
Thieves, however, just see "gibsmedat" whenever they see piles of other peoples' money.
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