I need to cool off after my last rant. Talk about what I failed to post!
UPDATE:Rangel Tax Plan’s Centerpiece Is 30.5% Top Corp Rate
Memo: McCrery on “Mother of All Tax Hikes”
My Friends,
At a bipartisan Ways and Means caucus last night, Chairman Rangel outlined his long-awaited “Mother of All Tax Hikes” legislation. The basics of the package are simple: This is the largest individual income tax increase in history.
The bill will add a 4% surtax on Americans earning more than $150,000 a year ($200,000 for couples). That is on top of the scheduled expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. So, under Democrats’ plan, over the next few years, the individual income top tax rate in the United States will rise from 35% to 44%. By way of comparison, the other 29 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries – basically other developed nations – have an average top marginal tax rate of 35.7%. In fact, only five OECD countries would have higher top marginal tax rates in 2011 than the United States if the Democrats’ bill is enacted.
This crushingly high tax rate will affect approximately 10 million taxpayers directly – including those who report business income, like small business owners and farmers – but the damage will ripple throughout our economy. Because small businesses and family farms often pay their income taxes as individuals, this is a massive tax hike on the engine that drives job growth in this country.
In addition, the surtax is on adjusted gross income, not taxable income. This sounds like a technical issue, but it means that Rangel’s bill will erode the value of a series of tax deductions – including for mortgage interest, charitable giving, medical expenses, state and local taxes, and the standard deduction. And, because the surtax kicks in at $150,000 for individuals and $200,000 for couples, the bill creates a monster of a marriage penalty.
Chairman Rangel will claim that these tax increases go to provide tax cuts to 90 million Americans, but he is selling pure snake-oil. Many if not most of those taxpayers are getting a purely imaginary “tax cut.” Some of them are the roughly 20 million people that Republicans shielded with the Alternative Minimum Tax patch. Millions more are people who have benefited from the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and only get “tax cuts” if you assume that the 10% bracket, marriage penalty, and $1,000 per child tax credit will expire. Others, like single people who will now be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, are getting a tax refund from the government even though they don’t actually pay income taxes.
It will take time to analyze this bill and sort through the data, but we know from the start that the 90 million figure is pure hokum. In fact, before you know it more taxpayers may wind up paying higher taxes – and fewer paying less – under Rangel’s plan than they did last year.
Which brings us to the larger fallacy of the Democrats’ “paygo” system. There is no need to “pay for” protecting taxpayers from a massive AMT tax hike. The government never meant for the AMT to affect middle-class Americans, and we have a responsibility to make sure it doesn’t. By arguing that preventing this tax increase requires us to raise taxes elsewhere, Democrats are trying to lock Congress into a system where we are guaranteed to raise taxes by $3.5 trillion over ten years.
That’s right. $3.5 trillion. The baseline that the Democrats are using for “paygo” includes revenue from an “un-patched” AMT and from the tax increases that occur when the 2001 and 2003 tax laws expire after 2010. Together they total $3.5 trillion over ten years. If we play by the Democrats “paygo” rules, that is the size of the tax increase we are imposing on the American people. That will hurt our nation’s competitiveness and cost us American jobs. The Rangel bill is the first step down a road none of us want to follow, and I urge you to oppose it strongly.
Fox News can’t stop specious claim: Did Qaeda burn California?
Olbermann: ‘I hear al Qaeda causes night to fall’
LOL…you people are so fucking scared its really unbecoming.
Was that before or after he made race-baiting remarks about Michelle?
Nobody but idiots like Olbermann has made that “claim”, SFL.
Pam it’s okay because Olbermann is an official MSM propagandist for the Left. So he gets a pass…
SFL, you are a F’ing loser who listens to F’ing losers like Olbermann.
I just got a reply from Lying Tom Harkin on his signing of the smear letter. He stands by it and thinks he is supporting the troops.
GO TO HELL TOM HARKIN! YOU LYING SON OF A B*TCH!!!!
Leave it to a liberal demacrat to call for another tax hike theiir nothing but a whole bunch of tax and spend liberals:|
The really sad part about this Tax hike is that far too many of the voting public are stupid enough to actually fall for it. An educated 12 yr old with an allowance understands the concept that they can only spend as much as they have. If the people with the money to invest, lose that money to taxation, how are they going to be able to invest it? Without investment capital, how are businesses supposed to expand their facilities and increase capacity, thereby being able to hire more employees? Or even give pay increases to the employees that they currently have? That’s why tax rate reductions lead to tax revenue increases. When the public have the ability to invest, they do so thereby not only increasing production, but tax revenues as well. Capital Gains taxes penalize those who invest by preventing them from rolling over their investments as quickly as possible. This again restricts the public’s ability to increase production and tax revenues.
JFK knew this. He lowered tax rates and revenues went up because more people were working and were thus able to pay taxes. If the Dems so idolize JFK, why don’t they imitate his actions?
Well FAO, you have a press with an agenda that is pushing this. They aren’t presenting the fact that the revenues are at the highest levels ever and the deficit is dropping faster than planned.
We have the media polling about recession. “Do you think we are headed to a recession?” and they question 600 people, with the majority saying yes. Never mind that all economic indicators show that we averted that 2 weeks ago and that the feds are monitoring it, Wall Streets watching it, banks are watching it, and everyone is working together to make sure it does not happen! So ask 600 people that, probably the majority have no knowledge of economics, and report it as fact.
Well Pam, I’ll make a little prediction and hope I’m wrong. It does have a few prequalifiers but here goes. IF this tax hike goes through, AND Hillary becomes President, by the time of the 2012 Election, the economy will be so far into the crapper that Jimmy Carter’s Administration will look like the good old days. Gas prices will be outrageous, the market will lose 10% to 20% of its value (of course the media will call it a “correction”) Unemployment will be over 10% and probably closer to 15%, Interest rates will be through the roof because, with the unemployment rate, people will be defaulting on mortgages and credit cards at an exponential rate. The new Clinton administration will authorize the sell off of even more of our national infrastructure to the Communist Chinese (following a large and mysterious donation to Bubba’s offshore accounts) and instead of having 15% of the Mexican population in the US, we’ll have closer to 30%. Crime rates will reach all time highs and gun ownership will be reported as being unamerican. I believe that under that scenario, complete with the blatant voter fraud that would result in her being reelected, things might get really ugly in this country.
For those who haven’t heard, I have heard that, the Association for pediatricians have begun polling children about whether their parents have firearms, what kind the have and where they keep them. They’re doing it while quizzing the kids to find out if they are being molested or abused and some of them HAVE been turning the information over to the police. What ever happened to doctor patient priviledge? I guess that only applies to info the doctor doesn’t want to turn over. Despite what the patient wants.
Hey folks, I’ve opened a cafepress.com store with some items you might find interesting. It’s called Points 2 Ponder. They have some observations I’ve made here and elsewhere on them. :d
I’ll link it for you FAO.:)