Expect the "agreeing to disagree" meme...after all, everyone except the rest of us are going to get paid lots of money in time and we're getting crumbs, as usual. There simply are not going to be enough jobs to go around, and the private sector, who created this fine mess, will just keep on cutting them.
Hi Dad. Very interesting. However, see below for some more interesting data: (PS...we need to keep in mind that most of us retired folks with money in the stock market need capital gains to survive)
Excerpt from the WSJ 7/21/08:
"The data shows that the 2003 Bush tax cuts caused what may be the biggest increase in tax payments by the rich in American history. The top 1% of taxpayers, those who earn above $388,806, paid 40% of all income taxes in 2006, the highest share in at least 40 years. The top 10% in income, those earning more than $108,904, paid 71%. Barack Obama says he's going to cut taxes for those at the bottom, but that's also going to be a challenge because Americans with an income below the median paid a record low 2.9% of all income taxes, while the top 50% paid 97.1%. Perhaps he thinks half the country should pay all the taxes to support the other half."
lynchie
· 9 months ago
The ones at the top need to pay more. They make more. Someone making minimum wage making $10K a year needs to have some spendable income so they can survive. Someone making $388K a year as a little cushion. The rich also drive on the roads, use the hospitals and government services. The same old GOP argument let the poor starve and live in boxes I want my comfort. To you I say bullshit. It wasn't long ago before Regan changed the tax code that the rich paid a lot more. Somehow I don't remember any of them doing without.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 9 months ago
yeah just look at the $20 bn in bonuses to the bailed out failed executives. the top rate is 35% so the potential federal tax is $7 bn. that's a big chunk of revenue that should be coming from the middle class, except the kleptocracy stole it (and are probably able to shelter it from tax anyway).
stymie
· 9 months ago
Steve in CNJ Are you serious or being sarcastic? I really cannot tell.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 9 months ago
what sounded sarcastic? this country will not survive without a middle class. we started going down that road before the labor movement and the New Deal put things right. if the country fails, even the rich will eventually succumb. getting most our tax revenue from the extremely wealthy is unsustainable because it means there is no one out there to do the work or buy the stuff.
CDS2
· 9 months ago
Also, they have the money to move away, and they are doing just that.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 9 months ago
the rich are moving away? you mean the italian villa becomes their main home and the mansion in the hamptons becomes their villa?
CDS2
· 9 months ago
Exactly !
CDS2
· 9 months ago
PS...many are now RENTING in the USA and owning out of country. That way they don't even pay property taxes. One sure way to keep this trend going is to raise taxes on the rich and business's
Steve_in_CNJ
· 9 months ago
i'm scared to death that John Thain might move to Italy because their taxes are lower.
CDS2
· 9 months ago
Someone making $10K a year dosen't pay any taxes.
lynchie
· 9 months ago
They have deductions at source and have to wait until they file income tax. they also have deductions for State taxes. So where is the relevance to having to live on $10k. If you believe minimum wage earners pay no taxes you are as i said above a fat cat Republican with no empathy for anyone.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 9 months ago
"Americans with an income below the median paid a record low 2.9% of all income taxes"
another way of saying the middle class is evaporating before our eyes. how should we respond? tax cuts for the rich!
would this be a good time to mention the definition of insanity?
Fireblazes(CheetohsandCatfood)
· 9 months ago
But how does this figure as a total of their income. Do they pay as much as me? I made 48,000. I paid a total of 7,200! 15%. And I probably owe the feds and the state more.
CDS2
· 9 months ago
Click on Dad's link above for that answer. $7200 on $48000 seems kind of high. You probably need to buy a house or find some other way to reduce your taxes.
This week, David Brancaccio sits down with financial reporter Bethany McLean —who broke the Enron story —to look at options on the table for stabilizing the country's financial system. Is nationalizing our banks a viable solution?
It's so weird that the Republicans keep repeating that this or that project is not a stimulus for the economy. Any spending, no matter what it is, may- or may not- help stimulate the economy. It's unknowable.
maudgonne
· 9 months ago
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications. The dozen banks receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households. The figures are significant because they show that the bailed-out banks, being kept afloat with U.S. taxpayer money, actively sought to hire foreign workers instead of American workers. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/01/us/A...
Older_Wiser
· 9 months ago
Interesting. Perhaps now some people will understand why working class Americans were, and still are, incensed when they have to stand in line behind people here in the country illegally to apply for jobs that don't pay even a quarter as much as those.
Fireblazes(CheetohsandCatfood)
· 9 months ago
Pope promotes pastor who said hurricane was God's punishment New Catholic bishop called Katrina 'divine retribution' for New Orleans' permissive sexual attitudes http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/01/ger...
"In 2005, the 54-year-old was quoted in a parish newsletter as saying he was convinced that the death and destruction caused by Katrina that year was "divine retribution" for New Orleans' permissive sexual attitudes and tolerance of homosexuality."
Welcome to the DARK AGES.
grandma
· 9 months ago
Frank Rich:
“It’s up to me to hijack the Obama honeymoon,” Limbaugh soon gloated, “and I’ve done it.” In his dreams. He has hijacked what’s left of the Republican Party; the Obama honeymoon remains intact. The nightmare is that we have so irrelevant, clownish and childish an opposition party at a moment when America is in an all-hands-on-deck emergency that’s as trying as war. To paraphrase a dictum that has been variously attributed to two of our most storied leaders in times of great challenge, Thomas Paine and George Patton, the Republicans should either lead, follow or get out of the grown-ups’ way.
This policy memo focuses on the privileged tax treatment given to hedge fund managers that results in a conservative estimate of over $6 billion in forgone tax revenue. Defending this tax break are highly paid lobbyists such as Douglas Lowenstein and Grover Norquist who loudly and repeatedly make the claim that taxing hedge fund managers like everyone else will harm the average working family. They claim that taxing hedge funds like normal income will harm pension fund returns. This is wrong on two levels. First, the tax change would apply to hedge fund managers and not investors (many pension funds invest in hedge funds). Second, pension funds do not pay taxes. These lobbyists also claim that it would increase the cost of consumer goods and services because so many stores and chain restaurants are owned by private equity firms and hedge funds. This, too, is preposterous because, again, the tax does not apply to the investors or owners of those businesses but only the investment advisors who manage the funds of those investors. Moreover, the businesses owned by private pools of capital will have to compete with other similar businesses providing consumer goods and services—only now on a level playing field—and they will not be able to arbitrarily raise their prices.
The second thing wrong with this exemption is that these super rich fund managers do not need and certainly do not deserve special tax breaks. Alpha Magazine reports the compensation for hedge fund managers each year. The top earner for 2006 received $1.7 billion, the second highest received $1.4 billion, and the third $1.3 billion. That adds to $4.4 billion for three people. The top 25 hedge managers received, on average, $570 million for a total of $14.25 billion.
Not only do these rich individuals have no need of tax breaks, the hedge fund and private equity industries have demonstrated time and again that they are not exemplary economic citizens who deserve privileged tax treatment. While most fund managers are probably law-abiding investment advisors, there are innumerable examples of wrong doing. The major types of failures and illegal activities include insider trading, IPO manipulation, embezzlement, and defrauding mutual fund investors.
So tell me again how the rich suffer. Any one who feels we at the bottom get off easy. Try living on $45K a year before deductions. Pay health care, try to save a little to send your kids to college, keep your car running, etc.
The disproportionate amount the rich pay is in line with the disproportionate income they have. Don't give me the "they take the risk" horseshit. That is out the window with the bailout for banks and wall street. The company I work for froze wages this year, no COLA, no nothing. We had a record year in sales, owner just went to the Superbowl with his family and we were told to "live within our means" . I am so pissed by the bailout and the bonuses paid to people who incompetently ran their companies to the edge of bankruptcy and get saved by us bottom feeders. And if i hear one more ass blanket tell be to get a second job, or move to where the jobs are, or you must live above in your income level I swear I will go water tower on their ass.
jeffg166
· 9 months ago
The network gas bags will only drive their ratings down with all Republicans all the time. There's only so much bullshit one can endure. After the Bush years that threshold has long past.
Dave of the Jungle
· 9 months ago
Jim DeMint aptly demonstrated that all the Repugs have are slogans and keywords.
Obviously there has been some dire news on that front already. When Obama picked Tom Daschle to be the HHS Secretary, I nearly shit my pants. In Washington there are whores and there are whores, and then there is Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger. True, he is probably only the second-biggest whore for the health care industry in American politics — the biggest being doctor/cat-torturer Bill Frist, whose visit to South Dakota on behalf of John Thune in 2004 was one of the factors in ending Daschle's tenure in the Senate.
He is also a against gay marriage. However it was ok for him to divorce his wife and mother of 3 children and marry his current wife. he was 35 and she 23. Funny how all these hypcritical bastards live the double standard--Marriage is sacred and must be protected--but I can think with my dick and kick the wife who got me elected out the door for the young tongue licker I now adore.
"When they met, Tom was 35 and married, and Linda was 23 and single. They married once he divorced his first wife. It's amazing how many politicians love to self-righteously tout what a "sacred and traditional cultural bond" is the male-female martial union even as they parade around with their much-younger latest wife, whom they met while still enmeshed in a "scared and traditional bond" with their first wife.
Just another Washington insider who is dirty and now tied to Obama. Kick him aside like he did his wife. We need change not more politicians hell bent on fill their pockets now and in the future.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 9 months ago
2008: richest americans' income doubles under bushonomics
None of crap slung by any of the above mentioned know-nothings compared to Fareed Zacharia in Davos discussing the global ecomony problems and how the world needs to unite against a host of problems that are all inter related. You could easily have skipped Kerry/Hutchinson (yawn) and Fox had Steele(the new face of RNC)(big whoop). Your dog has more insight than most of those trough-feeders. You missed intelligence with real information........set your DVR, Joe. Have a good day.
All Comments
retired folks with money in the stock market need capital gains to survive)
Excerpt from the WSJ 7/21/08:
"The data shows that the 2003 Bush tax cuts caused what may be the biggest increase in tax payments by the rich in American history.
The top 1% of taxpayers, those who earn above $388,806, paid 40% of all income taxes in 2006, the highest share in at least 40 years. The top 10% in income, those earning more than $108,904, paid 71%. Barack Obama says he's going to cut taxes for those at the bottom, but that's also going to be a challenge because Americans with an income below the median paid a record low 2.9% of all income taxes, while the top 50% paid 97.1%. Perhaps he thinks half the country should pay all the taxes to support the other half."
Are you serious or being sarcastic? I really cannot tell.
another way of saying the middle class is evaporating before our eyes. how should we respond? tax cuts for the rich!
would this be a good time to mention the definition of insanity?
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/150832/14-...
This week, David Brancaccio sits down with financial reporter Bethany McLean —who broke the Enron story —to look at options on the table for stabilizing the country's financial system. Is nationalizing our banks a viable solution?
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/505/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/01/us/A...
New Catholic bishop called Katrina 'divine retribution' for New Orleans' permissive sexual attitudes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/01/ger...
"In 2005, the 54-year-old was quoted in a parish newsletter as saying he was convinced that the death and destruction caused by Katrina that year was "divine retribution" for New Orleans' permissive sexual attitudes and tolerance of homosexuality."
Welcome to the DARK AGES.
“It’s up to me to hijack the Obama honeymoon,” Limbaugh soon gloated, “and I’ve done it.” In his dreams. He has hijacked what’s left of the Republican Party; the Obama honeymoon remains intact. The nightmare is that we have so irrelevant, clownish and childish an opposition party at a moment when America is in an all-hands-on-deck emergency that’s as trying as war. To paraphrase a dictum that has been variously attributed to two of our most storied leaders in times of great challenge, Thomas Paine and George Patton, the Republicans should either lead, follow or get out of the grown-ups’ way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/opinion/01ric...
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/pm120/
This policy memo focuses on the privileged tax treatment given to hedge fund managers that results in a conservative estimate of over $6 billion in forgone tax revenue.
Defending this tax break are highly paid lobbyists such as Douglas Lowenstein and Grover Norquist who loudly and repeatedly make the claim that taxing hedge fund managers like everyone else will harm the average working family. They claim that taxing hedge funds like normal income will harm pension fund returns. This is wrong on two levels. First, the tax change would apply to hedge fund managers and not investors (many pension funds invest in hedge funds). Second, pension funds do not pay taxes. These lobbyists also claim that it would increase the cost of consumer goods and services because so many stores and chain restaurants are owned by private equity firms and hedge funds. This, too, is preposterous because, again, the tax does not apply to the investors or owners of those businesses but only the investment advisors who manage the funds of those investors. Moreover, the businesses owned by private pools of capital will have to compete with other similar businesses providing consumer goods and services—only now on a level playing field—and they will not be able to arbitrarily raise their prices.
The second thing wrong with this exemption is that these super rich fund managers do not need and certainly do not deserve special tax breaks. Alpha Magazine reports the compensation for hedge fund managers each year. The top earner for 2006 received $1.7 billion, the second highest received $1.4 billion, and the third $1.3 billion. That adds to $4.4 billion for three people. The top 25 hedge managers received, on average, $570 million for a total of $14.25 billion.
Not only do these rich individuals have no need of tax breaks, the hedge fund and private equity industries have demonstrated time and again that they are not exemplary economic citizens who deserve privileged tax treatment. While most fund managers are probably law-abiding investment advisors, there are innumerable examples of wrong doing. The major types of failures and illegal activities include insider trading, IPO manipulation, embezzlement, and defrauding mutual fund investors.
So tell me again how the rich suffer. Any one who feels we at the bottom get off easy. Try living on $45K a year before deductions. Pay health care, try to save a little to send your kids to college, keep your car running, etc.
The disproportionate amount the rich pay is in line with the disproportionate income they have. Don't give me the "they take the risk" horseshit. That is out the window with the bailout for banks and wall street. The company I work for froze wages this year, no COLA, no nothing. We had a record year in sales, owner just went to the Superbowl with his family and we were told to "live within our means" . I am so pissed by the bailout and the bonuses paid to people who incompetently ran their companies to the edge of bankruptcy and get saved by us bottom feeders. And if i hear one more ass blanket tell be to get a second job, or move to where the jobs are, or you must live above in your income level I swear I will go water tower on their ass.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/...
Obviously there has been some dire news on that front already. When Obama picked Tom Daschle to be the HHS Secretary, I nearly shit my pants. In Washington there are whores and there are whores, and then there is Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger. True, he is probably only the second-biggest whore for the health care industry in American politics — the biggest being doctor/cat-torturer Bill Frist, whose visit to South Dakota on behalf of John Thune in 2004 was one of the factors in ending Daschle's tenure in the Senate.
He is also a against gay marriage. However it was ok for him to divorce his wife and mother of 3 children and marry his current wife. he was 35 and she 23. Funny how all these hypcritical bastards live the double standard--Marriage is sacred and must be protected--but I can think with my dick and kick the wife who got me elected out the door for the young tongue licker I now adore.
"When they met, Tom was 35 and married, and Linda was 23 and single. They married once he divorced his first wife. It's amazing how many politicians love to self-righteously tout what a "sacred and traditional cultural bond" is the male-female martial union even as they parade around with their much-younger latest wife, whom they met while still enmeshed in a "scared and traditional bond" with their first wife.
Just another Washington insider who is dirty and now tied to Obama. Kick him aside like he did his wife. We need change not more politicians hell bent on fill their pockets now and in the future.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103...
2009: american economy collapses.
that went pretty well, didn't it?
http://www.scribemedia.org/2009/02/01/blagojevi...
You could easily have skipped Kerry/Hutchinson (yawn) and Fox had Steele(the new face of RNC)(big whoop). Your dog has more insight than most of those trough-feeders.
You missed intelligence with real information........set your DVR, Joe.
Have a good day.