AP Report: Just $31B from Buffett rule tax on rich

$31 billion here and $31 billion there and eventually you have real money.
Hopefully you aren't saying don't do it.

We need to raise some more tax money. If we return to the tax rates before 1980 and the Reagan-Bush transfer to the wealthy the deficit will go down quickly.

Of course we should stop needless war spending. Between the two we could resolve the budget crisis, but conservatives and libertarians would rather use it as an excuse to end spending on mental health, health c are in general, public colleges, social security all the things that benefit the middle and lower classes.

 

That's $31 billion over a decade. It's $3.1 billion a year. That will really cut into our ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLAR deficit.

 

This flaw of the Buffett tax has been known for a long time. Sad but true, increasing the tax rate a few percent on $40k per year income generates tax revenue orders of magnitude higher than raising it 10% on the highest income earners.

This Buffett rule crap has just been a smokescreen to pander to the middle class. It stands in the way of a) true tax code reform and b) taxation that will actually touch the deficit.

 

It's good for the dialogue to look at the data.

Indeed, if you look at reported income (earned income only?) of the top, say, 400 Americans, it's just not that much. And you can tax that at 30% and yep, you don't even get near 1 trillion (or even 100 billion) in a decade.

Of course, the top 400 (according to 2010 data from Forbes) are sitting on a combined net worth of $1.37 trillion, and yes, absurdly, that's more than the net worth of the bottom 60% combined (checked by politifact.com), but two points for progressives: (1) there's no legitimate way to address or redress people's net worth, so it's useless to keep talking about it, and (2) even if you robbed, outright, the $1.37 trillion from the richest 400 Americans, you would still have a huge budget problem.

That's disturbing food for thought but it can inform a sane tax conversation (if one of those could exist, LOL.)

 

]$31 billion here and $31 billion there and eventually you have real money.
Hopefully you aren't saying don't do it.

We need to raise some more tax money. If we return to the tax rates before 1980 and the Reagan-Bush transfer to the wealthy the deficit will go down quickly.

Of course we should stop needless war spending. Between the two we could resolve the budget crisis, but conservatives and libertarians would rather use it as an excuse to end spending on mental health, health c are in general, public colleges, social security all the things that benefit the middle and lower classes.

Never forget Reagans' own budget director has admitted that their strategy of always reducing taxes under the guise of "supply side economics" was largely a ploy to bankrupt government as a way to create a crisis to ham string Dem ability to help folks through government spenidng.

 

For the rule to truly work the 30% tax rate has to be on ALL sources of wealth increases including capital gains, etc.

Most of the highly affluent, i.e. Mitt Romney, are not affected by raising the income rate because most of their wealth increases or not directly due to job related payment.

However, imagine Obama actually trying to raising the Capital Gains tax, and others, to even say 20%, and see how crazy Congress and the spin doctors would react.

 

People just don't want to pay taxes.
Lower class calls the upper class greedy hoarders.
Upper class calls the lower class leeches.

Bush tax cuts have ruined this country.

 

LAUGH OUT LOUD

I thought this was the liberals' SOLUTION!!!

*snort*

 

I think that'd be a great way to go about things. Focusing on the income tax, while good up to a point, isn't going to effectively ease our national problems unless it also closed up all the loopholes.. and the Capital Gains tax should definitely take these sorts of things into account (and then get raised accordingly).

 

$31 billion not enough? this will do it:

House GOP Budget: Paul Ryan Plan Adds Food Stamps, Welfare Cuts To Medicare-Slashing Plan

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/house-gop-budget-plan_n_1366455.html

 

We only save about $101 million dollars cutting off 130,000 low-income seniors from food for a year, just for example.

pro-life! pro-life! or at least, pro-life without food!

The big money is on converting them into Soylent Green though, that might knock off a billion dollars from the deficit. Good on the Republicans for manning up and doing what must be done; spending cuts for the most vulnerable that save about 0.00001% of anything and are completely irrelevant when they are isolated individually.

WAIT HOLY CRAP, a budget is composed of multiple items? whodathunk it.

 

The solution(s)---

Tobin tax on financial transactions
Pigovian taxes on carbon emissions and gasoline
Buffett tax
Cutting the military budget
Cutting prison budgets
Cutting ethanol and oil subsidies
Cutting foreign aid to the biggest recipients (looking at you Israel)
Reduce tax loopholes
Restore capital gains tax to Clinton-era levels
Increased estate tax
National sales/consumption tax (make it progressive a la Scandinavian)
Reduce mortgage deductions
Legalize mar1juana
Allow expiration of Bush tax cuts
Reduce nuclear arsenal

pick and choose

 

All of the above.

 

I forgot the kicker actually---legalize gay marriage.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4389932...-profit-legalizing-gay-marriage/#.T2k37NXLuDc

That's only in New York State. Imagine the potential around the country. America could save a hell of a lot more than basically leaving 130,000 vulnerable, low-income elderly to quasi-starve on their own for a year ever could.

As good old Georgie W. said about the subprime mortgages; "it's not only good for the soul of the country, it's good for the pocketbook as well!".

(of course that might not be the best quote ever considering the context, but i'll let it stand on ironic power)

 

Wealth Gap Tax


http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2010/12/re-creating-gap-that-gave-us-great.html

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

 

Imagine if a Republican actually proposed that we tax capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income. We've come a long way from Reagan.

 

Yeah, why even try, right?



DD