Deficit reduction panel releases debt proposal plan

I, like everyone else, will start doing it when mandated. Nice straw man, though.

 

No it's not stupid. If you guys have such integrity on doing your part to help out then pay more taxes. Don't tell me you are not trying to get as big of a tax return as possible by taking deductions. You don't have to take your deductions and if all of you all pool together and want to pay more taxes it will make a difference.

It's like voting.. My one vote won't make a difference.. then why do you go out and vote? You just have to do your patriotic part and pay your share of taxes.

Also I'm not against paying my fair share. The problem is our tax system is broken. Raising taxes is not the answer till they fix the problem of someone not having to pay any taxes while someone else has to pay 50% of their income to the Government and then watch it get wasted.

 

Everyone pays taxes. Anyone who believes differently has bought the "50% of Americans don't pay taxes" BS from Fox and the rest of the right wing echo chamber. The thing is, you guys want to reduce taxes that mostly benefit the rich (income taxes), so you only focus there and ignore all the other taxes that are borne disproportionately by the lower and middle classes.

In other words, every time you make this claim, you are a liar.

 

It IS stupid and you continue lying. There is nobody in America who pays 50% of their income to the government. Warren Buffett recently showed that he paid 17% of his income in tax without trying to avoid additional taxation.

 

That right there is the problem. Not everyone will be required to pay higher taxes. Not all the people living off the government or the people that pay little to no taxes at all today. Not the people that keep voting the same people into office because they promise the Govt will take care of them. The tax system is broken and raising taxes on people who pay a large share of the tax burden already does not seem like a good idea or fair.

 

The largest bulk of people "living off the government" are Social Security recipients, whose incomes are paid out of payroll tax, not the income tax you are railing about.

The tax system is broken because Reagan and Bush cut taxes on the rich by borrowing money through deficits. It can easily be fixed by raising those same people's taxes to the levels we saw before the government started running yearly, large deficits.

 

Let Warren Buffett show me his tax returns and prove it to me. He's also a poor example since he probably receives most of his income from investments which are taxed at lower rates.

And 50% can happen. Between state income taxes, federal income taxes, sales tax, property tax, and FICA taxes it is quite possible.

 

Dude first off I'm not Warren Buffett with his crazy tax deductions and everyone has a different situation. Buffett must be doing something shady to get down to 17%.

First off calm down I am not lying and 50% is a made up number to make a point. But it's not so far fetched. Everyone is in different situations depending if you have capital gain, sold off stocks, property, etc you could very well pay 50% of income in any given year in taxes. It's not just the Federal income tax. Let's just say depending on the year I hover around the 32-35% Federal income tax bracket. That right there is 35% of my income. If you live in California throw on top of that another 10% state income taxes that puts you right at 45%. This is not accounting for all the other crazy taxes out there from Capital Gains to property taxes to sales taxes. That could easily add up to 50% getting paid in taxes of some form.

 

That's fine and all, but if Republicans and Democrats continue to increase spending, closing that deficit will never be a reality.

 

yes my point exactly.. thank you very much

 

Warren is not a good example to use. He only takes a salary of $100,000, while the rest of it is capital gains.

 

If you are at the 33% bracket, that rate doesn't even kick in until you get over $175,000. You deduct your state income tax from your federal return, so that lowers it more, and cap gains isn't taxed as income AND as cap gains, it is only taxed once. You only see substantial sales tax numbers if you spend just about all of your income, which someone making $175K probably doesn't, and if your property tax is a significant percentage of your income, you own too much house. SS tax is capped at $100,000 of income, so your contribution based on a $175K salary is less than 4%.

I am not saying that you are lying to people on purpose, I am saying that your are repeating a lie that simply isn't factual.

 

Yes, it will. Rescind the Reagan and Bush tax cuts and the budget just about balances itself.

 

But isn't that just your marginal tax rate?

Income tax owed is a flat amount depending on the bracket you fall into and then a marginal rate on the amount of income over that bracket... up to the threshold of the next bracket level.

 

That is some fuzzy math right there.

 

Lets say you make $3 million in earned income. Your income tax would still exceed 40%.

 

2 things you don't consider:

You are only looking at half of the FICA tax, if you are in business for yourself, you are paying both sides of it.

If you own a personal service corporation, your tax rate is 35%. Say you want to take a distribution of some of that money, that is an additional 15% tax. So capital gains tax is on top of income tax, just not on your personal return. They split it across two returns.

 

not sure how many people at the bottom can even afford to own and maintain a car. also tend to be clustered in metro areas.

Having lived in Houston as a young man without a car and having to bus 4 hours a day to get to work - it sucked majorally. but the buses were nearly 100% black.

That being said, it is somewhat of a regressive tax as it hits commuters the hardest.

But you know, taxes have to rise to pay off the deficit. Republicans have to compromise and I think the way to do it is for a 1 to 1 ratio. Add one dollar of tax for each one dollar cut. That way everyone gets a bit of what they want and we can make this happen.

If Republicans are just going to sit on their hands with their new power so they can get rid of Obama, I think that's a sad disservice to the people who elected them into office.