Artest is being taxed so hard, that he has given up. He just wants to live on welfare for a $200-300 a month.
Notice I said due to the inflation the last 15 years. What a dollar is in value today is is far less than a dollar in 1994. Our currency was a lot stronger then. I think the tax issue is just one of the pieces of the crappy economic climate the federal government has created. What is the climate like as a small business owner with all the uncertainty revolving around taxes/health care ect? I mean ya, we're not talking about a lot of money just with taxes that would deter a true entrepreneur from going out and doing what he wants to do but honestly as a small business owner do you feel like the federal government is on your side and wants to see you do the best you possibly can do?
On Artest... I do think the taxes on professional athletes are somewhat unfair and ridiculously complicated. He probably has to pay taxes in each city he plays in.
Yes we need to tax you to death. My dad makes way more money than me, but some how he manages to pay less taxes than me cause he has more exemptions and he spends a bunch of money on an accountant do his taxes. I bet most people who make in the upper bracket do the same ****. So if you were smart you would still find ways to not pay it. Its time for the rich to pay more.
do you realize how ridiculous you sound?? We need to tax the rich more but the rich dont pay any taxes at all since they are all shady.. Well how is raising taxes on the rich if they can find ways to get out of it going to solve anything? That is exactly the problem. Our tax system is broken and way too complicated. Then you go argue how I should be dishonest and be smarter and find ways to get out of paying my taxes but yet I should get taxed more? HUH?? Well if you read my posts earlier I don't mind paying my fair share of taxes and unlike your dad I am honest with my taxes. I keep all my receipts and I only deduct what I am allowed to deduct and I do not take advantage of the system.
This is such bs. "Taxes are stealing " is a cultish code phrasefrom this phoney religion of selfishness called "objectivism", "libertarianism"/ conservative economics. The use of "taxes are stealing" shows the kool-aid has been consumed on a serious basis. This type of stupid cult language implies some sort of morality based opinion from the religion of objecitivism or "libertarianism". The "Virture of Selfihness" as their atheist priestess Ayn Rand of this religion styled it in her book is essentially against all real religions or conventional theories of morality of mankind. Selfishness is-- well-- selfishness. Once you get beyond the phoney religious aspect of the movement than you can try to be rational and discuss society and economics in a more "rational" manner-- though they try to coopt rational as a word they alone understand--neat. Despite their libertarian novels' visions and their tracts and study groups in which they theorize models that have never existed to date--models which in their cultishness sort of remind me of L Ron Hubbard's scientology-- taxes are needed in a modern society and are not theft. Most of us believe in political democracy and in the real world and in human history as it exists, the best societies have been based on a progressive income tax that allows for a more equal distribution of the wealth generated from a pretty highly regulated market capitalism. Real world history has shown that without such economic regulations, and such a progressive redistributon of wealth, capitalism results in a small group of rich folks and a massive group of very poor folks. Once we in the US started moving toward approximately to the the more conservative "libertarian" economic model we have found the upper 1% moving from appropriating 8 to 9% of the national income to a approximately 25% and growing share. Obama's deal will accelerate the process. In a democracy this mass of poor folks is not tolerated indefinitely, though in the current US we seem to be engaged in an experiment of whether through propaganda and indoctrination in such religons/philosophies as libertarianism/conservative economics we can't get a large group of the non-rich to voluntarily accept their lot as natural. A well funded attempt is made to try to convince the non-wealthy that like the law of gravity has its equations, the libertarian/conservative economs is based on similar equations or graphs. Their models are essentially devoid of the real world of political economy. Regardless the increased relative poverty of the vast majority will not hold if we can remain democratic.
glynch, you claim to be quite rational in your arguments, but for the most part, you seem quite emotionally invested. I'm sure I'm guilty of it as well. People tend to use strong rhetoric to get their point across because they truly believe in their statements as do you. "Stealing" as he put it and "redistribution of wealth" as you put it, from a Robin Hood methodology, are quite similar, but differ dramatically depending on what side of the fence you live on. I think people in this argument need to realize that most people aren't against taxes per say, they're just curious as to when/where the rich began defrauding the poor to fund their incomes. Ultimately, if the rich have their tax cuts expired while everyone else does not, doesn't that begin the mindset that in times of trials and tribulations, it's ok to lean on the rich, not on the country as a whole. Also, I'm generally good about doing my own research, but haven't had the chance, I wonder how much tax revenue would be created if the major loopholes were dealt with, instead of focusing on this one super polarized issue in regards to taxes.
It would raise more revenue if we went back to pre-Reagan rates (inflation adjusted numbers). This would reduce the deficit and perhaps give us enough to begin paying down the debt. Cutting spending is also a part of the equation, but we aren't going to eliminate the deficit, much less pay down the debt, unless we raise taxes, too.
You LABELED him a "dud," but that doesn't mean anything, it just dribbled from the Fox mouthpieces through you to your keyboard. We got someone who passed the biggest healthcare reform bill in decades, the biggest financial reform package since the Great Depression, and it looks like he will get a START renewal and DADT repeal as well. He has passed nearly everything he campaigned on. The legislation he passed doesn't go as far as I would like, but it doesn't change the fact that he got all this passed in his first term even though the GOP did everything they possibly could have done to try and stop him. The "hopey-changey" stuff is far better than the alternative.
Sorry, but this guy just needs to reincorporate if he wants to retain income from year to year. It is completely possible to construct a business that will be highly taxed, but one simple step could allow this guy's comp-any to retain income if he wants to reinvest it in the business. Better yet, if he actually spent that money on business expenses, it wouldn't be taxed in the first place, so if he were ACTUALLY investing in the business (and spending money to stimulate the economy), he would save those tax dollars. Instead, he is taking the profits as personal income, putting it in his personal bank account, and being taxed on it. any decent tax attorney or accountant would be able to show him how to avoid a $50K increase in taxes. For these and many more reasons, anecdotal evidence is weak sauce, try again.
Since the income tax was created, the rich have seen their tax bills drop dramatically while the rest of us have seen no net tax decrease at all. Since the only people who have had their taxes reduced in a meaningful way over the last 80 years are the high wage earners, it is simply logical that those are the people on whom we must lean when raising taxes.
Your choice. So did I and so do the vast majority of people in this country, especially those who are poor and forced to work more than one job to make ends meet. Because you enjoy the life that our society has provided. You have the rule of law, if someone violates your rights you have the court system, you have an educated workforce from which to draw employees, you have all of the advantages that being an American gives. Taxes are the price you must pay to live in that kind of society. 3% higher taxes are not going to eliminate your ability to travel and enjoy what life has to offer. The number of people who are paid to sit on their butts doing nothing is minuscule. FWIW, I agree that we shouldn't, as a rule, pay people to do nothing, but nothing I have seen shows that this is an epidemic in our country. I understand why you believe that as it is a near constant meme on Fox.
By the way: where is the tea party outrage with adding another trillion dollars to the deficit? Shouldn’t they be ready to storm the white house over this deal?
Oh come now. The "non-partisan" tea party (lol thumbs) is only mad about the deficit when blame can be place squarely on a democrat.
The better answer is not to raise rates, but to lower rates while eliminating deductions as was recommended by the debt panel. People (especially republicans) think of Reagan as lowering taxes, but in many ways he raised taxes. He lowered the rates, but closed loopholes.
