Posted on 10/02/2011 2:16:05 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It's official: America is at class war, and President Barack Obama proudly leads the charge against this country's wealthy.
``If asking a millionaire to pay the same tax rate as a plumber makes me a class warrior ― a warrior for the working class ― I will accept that," Obama shouted Tuesday at Denver's Abraham Lincoln High School. ``I will wear that charge as a badge of honor."
``Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher tax rates than millionaires and billionaires. A teacher or a nurse or a construction worker making $50,000 a year shouldn't pay higher tax rates than somebody making $50 million."
Obama's assault on the affluent rests upon a sky-high stack of lies. Obama is too well staffed and too well informed not to know otherwise. So, maddeningly, he straight-out lies to the American people.
For days before Obama opened his mouth in Denver, multiple news accounts and opinion pieces annihilated the casus belli of his War on the Wealthy. Nonetheless, Obama keeps spouting falsehoods, perhaps hoping that his smooth voice will hypnotize Americans into believing his words.
``Fact check: The wealthy already pay more taxes," read the headline above a September 20 Associated Press. ``President Obama says he wants to make sure millionaires are taxed at higher rates than their secretaries," Stephen Ohlemacher wrote. ``The data say they already are."
Nationwide, Ohlemacher and others dismantled Obama's soak-the-rich thesis. The rich are soaked today.
In 2008, its latest data indicate, the Internal Revenue Service harvested $1.0315 trillion in income tax ― of which the top 10 percent of earners paid $721.4 billion. The top 5 percent shelled out another $605.7 billion, and the top 1 percent relinquished $392.15 billion. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent collectively paid just $27.9 billion. Thus, the top 1 percent of taxpayers furnished 14 times the income taxes that the bottom half of filers supplied.
In 2009, the IRS reports, those who made at least $1 million average 24.4 percent of adjusted gross income in federal income taxes. Those who scored $200,000 to $300,000 paid 17.5 percent. Between $100,000 and $125,000: 9.9 percent. From $50,000 to $60,000: 6.3 percent. Those who earned between $20,000 and $30,000 saw income taxes devour 2.5 percent of AGI.
Income, schmincome, Leftists chirp. What about payroll taxes that lower-income Americans pay? Counting other taxes still shows that higher earners pay more, Obama's dark fantasies notwithstanding.
The Tax Policy Center ― a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution ― reported August 24 that Americans who receive $1 million or more will average 29.1 percent of earnings in 2011 federal income, payroll, corporate, and death taxes. Those clearing between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15 percent, while those from $40,000 to $50,000 will average 12.5 percent. Those federal taxes will extract 5.7 percent from earners between $20,000 and $30,000.
Dry? Yes. But these figures demonstrate that Americans who earn more money pay more federal tax. Those who see less pay less. If Obama finds this unfair, he should define fairness.
True, the IRS notes, 1,470 households produced at least $1 million but paid no federal income tax in 2009. Still, this is just 0.62 percent of the 236,883 returns that millionaires filed. This reinforces the bipartisan idea of closing loopholes and lowering tax rates ― but not Obama's crusade against ``millionaires and billionaires" and his American Jobs Act's tax hikes on people earning as little as $200,000.
When Obama accepted the 2008 Democratic nomination in Denver, he espoused national unity. The USA would ``come together as one American family," he declared. The nearby Continental Divide might become this republic's only rift, if Barack Obama secured the presidency.
How disappointing that the eloquent man who millions hoped would heal this land now actively pits Americans against each other ― not by race or creed, but by income. As London's arson-scorched victims of mob rule learned last August, there is nothing cute about class war.
Actually, he's darn good at racial divisiveness too.
Somebody help me out here because I don’t understand. Obama spouts his class war rhetoric yet surrounds himself with smiling millionaires and billionaires. Are all those sycophantic sports stars, movie stars and network television anchors somehow exempt?
Exactly. By putting liberalism into practice, everyone is getting a little lesson in economics. I believe that Obama's problem is that people intinctively sense now that making their employers the declared enemy may in the end jeopardize their own livlihood.
The media, having sold us this bill of goods, isn't being listened to anymore either.
Obama is just making it worse for himself with more class warfare.
Actually, yes, they pretty much are exempt, because they’ll be able to get around any new taxes.
It’ll be the “bourgeoisie” middle class that gets to pay higher taxes, with the whole intent being to destroy their ability to amass wealth (and independence).
The differences between a Christian leadership where everyone is an American first not a political asset is night and day and quite apparent with our current regime.
Sad thing is they have the DBM behind them lying,covering up,misrepresenting, ignoring key stories, all the way.
Buddies with the wealthy, Obama and his New World Order pretend to favor the “little guy” over the very bed partners he’s sharing billions in money and political power with. What a whore!
Obama Lied, the Economy Died!
A warrior for the unions speaks.
Between class and no class? There's certainly no class in this administration.
I rented “The French Revolution” from Netflix last night. It’s really quite eery the parallels between modern American liberalism and the movement driving the mobs of the French Revolution.
Translation: "All types of income, including capital gains from investment, and dividends that have already been taxed, and interest from formerly tax-exempt municipals, should be taxed at ordinary income rates. In addition, Social Security taxes should apply to all income and not be capped for income level."
According to his analysis, that kind of confiscation will have no detrimental effects on the incentives to work and earn for the successful, and provide huge funds for his projects.
P.S., Next comes the wealth tax proposal. “Those who have accumulated—rather, make it ‘come into’—great wealth should share it for the common good. We are not asking much... just a few percent a year...” It’s coming.
“Frankly, I don’t care if millionaires receive a tax increase or not so long as I don’t. “
Well, how very socialist of you.
So when Obozo rants about "the rich" not paying their "fair share," what he really means is that the conservative rich who aren't his lapdogs need to be punished for their non-conformity, while the rich who are his lapdogs, like Buffett and Immelt, will be rewarded.
America will send this community agitator packing in Nov. 2012, along with the party that gave him his marxist platform.
NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Legislators in Washington may be torn about whether to raise taxes on the wealthiest households to boost government revenues and lower the deficit, but the American public seems largely decided on the issue.
Nearly three quarters of those surveyed in a new poll by The New York Times and CBS News said they would approve of increasing taxes on households earning $250,000 or more a year to bring down the deficit, while just 24% said they disapprove of this step.
Likewise, some 72% of those surveyed by The Washington Post and ABC in a poll also released this month said they supported taxing the wealthiest households, while 27% were said to be against it.
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/moneyinvesting/taxes/most-americans-want-higher-taxes-rich
It’s like everybody has forgotten the historical reasons for common social roles. Not all these reasons are based on nonsense, even though some are (e.g. nonsensical biases based on race rather than character). Without some firm philosophical basis to separate wheat from chaff in ideas, we get a nihilistic relativism rather than fairness.
Excellent post here. I have no love for Immelt but its my understanding that GE simply had tax loses from previous years they held over. Something even a small earner like me has done over the years.Hard to hold that against them.
yes, handing over 40-50% of my income to the government is very socialist of me.
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