"The Richest 1%"

[StoneColdTaxHater]

Is anyone else as sick of hearing about the "richest 1%" and their tax cuts as I am? Why shouldn't they get a tax cut, they pay most of the taxes. The richest 1% create jobs. I am so sick of the RATS class warfare I could puke. The sad thing is that many Americans fall for it every time.

[Axenolith]

That to me is giving up and II refuse to accept it. Giving up on getting spending under control is giving up on the country...because it is unsustainable to continually borrow in order to meet current consumption...you can get away with it for a while, but not forever.

Its been a Loooonnng time since government spending actually went down. We have somewhere between 45 and 55% of the potential voting populace beholden in some way financially to the government. Our monetary system is based upon debt. If you can tell me how we get lowered spending and axed programs under that regimen you are a serious guru-dude...

Don't get me wrong, I follow a "Captain Kirk" philosophy (no such thing as a no win situation), but for the life of me, I don't see a way out of our current situation anytime soon unless there's some type of financial meltdown...

[Axenolith]

Look up the term Alternative Minimum Tax and get back to us when you've invested in the 2 for one sale at the clue store...

[Axenolith]

the 5 inheritors of sam wal-mart will save almost $180,000,000 each, or collectively, nearly a billion dollars from the tax cuts.

whata work ethic!

Excellent, be happy for them, not jealous... Exactly why should they be required to pay a greater percentage than anyone else?

[MissAmericanPie]

I would hope that the sheep are waking up to just who the Democrats consider the evil rich. That would be any couple jointly making a hundred grand a year.

I wish I could remember the name of the thread today that stated that California drew 25% of it's revenues from the employee's of six major companies. That is astoundingly criminal, or should be.

Now that this resource as dried up and moved on, (little wonder), Cali is having a revenue short fall.

[dfwgator]

The top 27 wealthiest men in the 107th Congress were all Democrats. (Source: WSJ)

That's not an accident. The fact is the wealthy Rats don't want competition, they've already got theirs'. High taxes and stifling regulation protects THEIR wealth. GOP - I've got mine, get yours. 'Rats - I've got mine, and you can't have any.

[Age of Reason]

Could you elaborate?

Money gives you power.

Power can be used to achieve more power.

Were this not so, of what use is power?

Doesn't the richest player in monopoly dominate the board, eventually driving the other players to ruin?

Such is the tendency of unchecked wealth in real life.

A thousand and more years ago, land was wealth.

The more land someone acquired, the more power they had, and the more land they could take from the less powerful.

Unchecked, except by the few equally as powerful, the noble class and feudalism evolved.

If people today were allowed free reign to use their wealth to accumulate more wealth, we would have a return to feudalism, except that today's wealth is not symbolized by crenelated walls--so if you identify feudalism with castles, vast domains, and chain mail, you might miss the modern variety.

[Age of Reason]

However, I do support capitalism and the accumulation of great wealth.

Here's why:

There's too many people and not resources enough to ever hope that everyone might live a happy life.

So the only chance at true happiness anyone has, is to become one of the few mega-rich.

Without that chance--slim though it is--we are all doomed to a miserable existence.

(Though one of the great ironies of life, is that the majority of the mega-rich don't know how to use their wealth to achieve real happiness, becaues they've been too obsessed with making money for the sake of ego.)

[A CA Guy]

The education problem will never going away in our time. It is a problem with the parents bringing kids to school who are unprepared to learn.
It makes no difference if there are 60 kids in a class, as long as they are prepared to sit, read, behave and participate in their own future, they'll get a good education. Parents should check on their advancement at school at night at home as well.
The destruction of marriages and prioritizing careers have destroyed the kids.
The Teacher's Union is using the situation to grow their jobs and posers to what will be NO GOOD END!

Democrats love to play every slander card they can use to gain power back, because they have no solutions and must smear.

[A CA Guy]

You are right, but there isn't exactly a love of God's Commandments associated with liberal politics.

[dfwgator]

It's complete oversimplification, but the reasoning behind trickle-down Reagonomics is that when you reward a successful manufacturer (for example) with favorable tax structures, they will expand their businesses and create even more good, high-paying factory jobs. Many would benefit.

How many of those jobs would just end up going to foreign workers in China and India?? Where jobs are created in this country is in small businesses, and as much if not more than taxes, it is stifling over regulation that is killing the expansion of small business in this country.

[freeper12]

>>If you can tell me how we get lowered spending and axed programs under that regimen you are a serious guru-dude...


well since we now control the president, house and senate, there are no more excuses why it can't be done...except for the fact that most republicans are spine-less.

There are no more valid reasons why it can't be done...just excuses. If republicans can't do it now, than they never will and never really wanted to. Lets see if they can do anything other than talk a good game.

[conservativemusician]

If I'm not mistaken, and please let me know if I am as I do not have the data handy, there are more millionaires per capita in the US today than at any other time. Entrepreneurship is alive and well.

A fear of a return to feudalism may have been well founded circa 1900 during the era of the robber-barons, before Teddy Roosevelt.

I believe the current tax structure punishes achievement, making it more difficult to accumulate wealth. There are no taxes on existing wealth. The lawmakers in Washington that have inherited or married wealth(see Ted Kennedy and John Kerry) seem intent on making it difficult, through taxes, for the rest of us to attain that wealth.

[conservativemusician]

"So the only chance at true happiness anyone has, is to become one of the few mega-rich.

Without that chance--slim though it is--we are all doomed to a miserable existence. "

I'm not so sure money is the only source of happiness. I don't need a 10,000 square foot home, 6 cars, and a butler to be happy. Hell, I'm far from rich AND far from miserable.

I have a great wife and I do what I love for a living. I just want the gov't to rein in it's spending and get out of my pocket.

"the mega-rich don't know how to use their wealth to achieve real happiness..."

Couldn't agree more. Earning money for the sake of earning money seems fairly miserable to me.

[A. Pole]

The richest 1% create jobs.

The rich always created jobs - in every epoch, in every country and in every culture. This is how they spend their wealth - on the goods or services provided by the others. Otherwise their wealth would be worthless.

The question is what kind of jobs do they provide - for maids and servants, bodyguards and mercenaries, corrupt politicans and judges? Or do they invest in the manufacturing to sell goods to the afluent middle class? Or do they put money in speculation, usury loans etc? Or do they invest in foreign countries?

This question need to be answered first, and the answer might influence what is the right tax policy and how it can be tailored to benefit the COMMON good.

[Publius6961]

Next time I go to my local store to return merchandise, I will refuse to leave until I get a share of the refund for that expensive item that other guy is returning.
Wait. Do I have to become a Democrat first?

[A. Pole]

Just keep these facts handy:

The data you provided are very selective - federal tax is a small part of tax paid by the poorer. You forgot about social security tax (on both sides of employment), about sales tax, about state tax about property tax inluded in the rent etc ...

The truth is that you cannot squeeze out of the stone, taxes have to be paid by those who have a lot of money or the state will decay. Shifting the burden of taxation into the lower income people will not pay for your beloved war toys and lucrative pork contracts.

[A. Pole]

My youngest son has four kids, pays no income tax and gets about $4,000 per year back from the earned income credit! That's welfare in my book.

Raising children is expensive. Businesses are not being taxed on their costs, they are taxed on on what is left after. Children penalty tax is not fair - children are human beings no less than grown-up and they should be counted toward FULL personal exemptions.

Child penalty tax leads to the import of young people from Third World countries (Mexicans at best and Muslims at worst). People like your son by raising four American children are doing a great service to the country, much greater than Wall Street speculators.

[leprechaun9]

Easy numbers to remember:

The top 5% of Federal Income Tax payers pay over 50% of the total, while

the bottom 50% of the Federal Income Tax payers pay less than 5%!

[A. Pole]

If tax cuts are good, why are we borrowing money to finance the government???

Because the money saved on the taxes will be lent to the government on interest. Sound business strategy!

[LandofLincoln]

I hate paying so much in taxes, but what bugs me more is that the debate between the rich and poor is preventing us from getting on to the road of reform in taxation. The reason that we cannot get on the road to tax reform is because poor people who do not even pay taxes are blocking the entrance ramp.