an across the board tax cut - all brackets get 5% off. Bush didn't do it, dems don't do it, and bush won't do it in round 2. Last time, bush EXPANDED the list of non-payors (lackeys who actually earn decent income but get services for free) and gave people in higher brackets a greater cut than lower brackets, giving some brackets ZERO cut. Dems do this for child care, that for education yada yada yada. This time we already heard the social engineer George Allen, another right winger who believes we should live our lives according to his rules, tell us that single people will be financing others' children even more than they are now, this group get some, the other gets some. How about just a even percentage off for everyone. The rich should pay more because they get more services. They use the courts more, they use the roads more and they get those lucrative government contracts, which are nothing more than massive wealth transfers to campaign contributors. Not to mention 20% tax on someone who makes 100K a year is a lot tougher to pay and hurts a lot more than a 20% tax on someone who makes 10,000,000 a year. We have a progressive system and we need a progressive system. Everyone who earns above the poverty line SHOULD pay taxes (despite what Bush says). Equal percentage cut for everyone.
I don't have a specific definition but just for argument, over 500K a year. Come on - do you seriously suggest that businesses and people with means travel the interstate highways less than people in the 9th ward? Which reminds me of another thing - the quality of life would be a lot better if we would rebuild our rail system and get cargoe off of the trucks and back onto the trains where it belongs.
Well, I would be glad to pay 5% less taxes. I like the idea of a flat tax, but I can live with a progressive tax - within limits. I am far from rich. But I don't think that anyone - no matter how rich they are - should have to pay 40% or more. I think if we could close some of the loopholes that allow many to dodge taxes then we would have plenty to run the government. Taxing the rich ever-more sounds all warm and fuzzy, but you reach a break-even point where your returns will deminish because the rich are the ones who start businesses - and create jobs for others. Without the ability to start new businesses there is no new job creation. I am not rich, and I cannot give anyone a job. The owner of my business is rich - and he has given many of us a job. (And I'm not saying he is any better for being rich. Actually he started poor and through 40 years of hard work built his company from his garage into what it is now emplying 100 people. Should he be punished for this by being taxed back into poverty? Or should he serve as an example of how hard work and determination should be REWARDED so others might do the same? And don't reply with anything about CEO's or ENRON. You KNOW that is not what I'm talking about.)
Also I would prosecute all tax evaders. If I am going to pay my taxes, I want everyone else who is able to to do so as well. I CERTAINLY would not pardon one of the IRS's biggest fugitives on my last day in office before I walked away - no matter how much he was paying me off. Where is the outrage from the dems? Here was one super-rich guy who dodged paying taxes. But he is forgiven because he paid off (er, donated) to the democrats?
Nobody is soaking the rich. Their top bracket is 33% per the bush plan; the bracket for the 50K earner is 25%. That 25% on 50K is a lot of money - and it cuts into close to necessities compared to the extra 8% on the million dollar earner. Add to that FICA, which is capped at around 82K and i will repeat - it is the people int he 30K-100K range that finance this country. The taxes they pay HURT - the taxes others pay don't. There is no rich soaking going on.
That guy shouldn't have been pardoned (was he in for tax evasion, though?). I wouldn't pardon mass murderers to get the cubn vote either, however. I wouldn't dole out multi-million dollar contracts based on campaign contributions either, (and I certainly wouldn't call the recipients of this government largesse great "producers") but they do.
I hear you there. My wife and I make just under 100K PUT TOGETHER, and sometimes I feel like I am bankrolling the government MYSELF! Personally I don't think EITHER party is concerned enough about the middle class. Both take the middle for granted. We may pay less taxes than the rich per person, but when you add all of us up together, we are the ones paying the biggest chunk.
