Comments on: How much are “The Rich” really paying in taxes

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:33:29 +0000

Snowy you’ve got an idea there and I agree. Since Liberals apparently LOVE income taxes so much, and are always blathering about how “we” should pay more, I say there should be a box on the 1040 form for them to check identifying themselves as Liberals. Then a formula will be applied that will raise their tax liability by some appropriate amount, say 20%.

By: FrmrArtyOffcr

FrmrArtyOffcr — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:46:01 +0000

Michael the problem with all of this is the fact that REALLY wealthy people are WEALTHY, they aren’t necessarily EARNING much, they just have A LOT. We tax INCOME, not WEALTH. A person with a HUGE percentage of stock in a company that receives a lot of dividends may not have any “EARNED” income. Income taxes are primarily on wages earned, dividends and capital gains are an entirely different story. I would guess that Theresa Heinz Kerry doesn’t make a dime from work, but collects a fortune in capital gains from her late husband’s estate. That’s another thing people don’t seem to take into account is trust funds. Does Teddy Kennedy live like someone who only made $175,000 last year? No. WHY? Because his father put EVERYTHING he owned into a living trust so that his heirs would never have to pay a dime in estate taxes, or income taxes on the trust funds earnings. Who’s one of the biggest proponents of a 50%+ estate tax on estates worth over $1 million? Why Teddy Kennedy of course. It doesn’t matter that his father’s estate is worth over $100 million, he’s not going to have to pay a dime because it’s all tied up in a living trust that he’ll make absolutely certain never has to pay an estate tax.

By: snowy egret

snowy egret — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:30:34 +0000

We should make wealthy liberal demacrats pay 70% taxes look at the many wealthy demacrats THE KENNEDYS,AL GORE,JOHN EDWARDS and many others they should pay a tax as well

By: Michael Eaton

Michael Eaton — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:11:24 +0000

Hi Lisa,

First of all, I’m a conservative who believes in a flat tax of 10%. But it drives me nuts how conservatives constantly use the percentage of all federal income taxes paid by the wealthy to argue that they pay too much. It is a nonsensical argument because it doesn’t account for the percentage of their VERY LARGE incomes that they pay in taxes. To use your examples above:
The top 5% – or those making more than $153,000 – pay 60% of all federal income taxes.
The top 1% – or those making more than $333,000 – pay 40% of all federal income taxes.
But if the top 1% is making so much money that 40% of all federal income taxes represents only 11% of their incomes (as was reported of Theresa Heinz Kerry in 2004), then someone like me who barely makes it into the top 5% of income earners is paying a GREATER PERCENTAGE OF MY INCOME THAN SOME WEALTHY PEOPLE LIKE THERESA HEINZ KERRY.

Now, I know that on average the wealthy are paying a higher percentage of their income in taxes than Kerry paid in 2003, but using the percentage of all federal income taxes that they pay, without accounting for the percentage of their income that they pay, is a bogus argument. I can’t believe how often I see conservatives using it.

By: FrmrArtyOffcr

FrmrArtyOffcr — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:46:27 +0000

Jobama are liberal democrats. The only thing they have in common with Republicans is that they both want to give the Republican’s money to charity.

Here’s a way to put the holier than thou big government welfare programs types in their place. Ask them if they realized that class envy is immoral. How else would you describe an action that violates the commandment about not coveting your neighbor’s possessions?