Mother of all Tax Bombs

[A K]

Great. Subsidize lower corporate taxes by hitting me with higher income taxes. Add this to Hillary's plan for socialized health care, and I can kiss the salary that I've yet to receive but is so soon coming goodbye.



I may not like Bush, but I would not hesitate to vote Republican. And I'm reg'd democrat.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Repealing the AMT is a good thing, IMHO.

 

[Tom Schindler]

From what I am reading, this will make those in lower income tax brackets no longer having to pay this tax.



Someone has got to help pay off this $9 trillion dollar debt our friendly neighborhood Republicans gave us.





Tom

 

[Gavin Allan]

How about we take Iraq and use the oil to pay off the debt (that we have spent trillions of $$ to blow up their country and to rebuild it again, better than ever)?

 

[EddieS'04]

Gavin, I agree with you. The oil belongs to us and the allies that stuck it out. What is the rest of the world gonna do. They hate us anyway....:lol:

 

[Gavin Allan]

Nine trillion dollars would have paid for several nice updates in our country. I wish we could have new schools, highways, bridges, etc.

 

[Johnny O]

The plan is to remove the AMT but have a 4% extra surcharge on people over $150k, so basically here comes the marriage penalty again.

 

[Richard L]

Why do politicians have to make income taxes so complicated??



Keep it simple, Everybody pays 10% of all taxable income. No exemptions and no exceptions. It's that simple and the governement would have more money than they know what to do with....but they would still manage to spend it all !!



That would give the governement enough money to elimiate private donations and fund raising for political candidates. That would do wonders to eliminating the special interest groups that control our governement now.



The problem with the Corporate tax breaks is that to be competive globally our companies have to get a foothold in foriegn countries and it's there governements that need to give US companies a tax break. If we just say give corporations a tax break, the first companies in line will be the foreign owned companies!



...Rich

 

[Frank screwyourednecks]

You people are making me crazy. We are all being taxed at an ALL TIME high. Only the top 1 percent have the tax breaks. ATTENTION: THERE IS A REPUBLICAN IN OFFICE.



AdamCKach even states he would vote for a republican. My goodess people. Do you not live in reality?



In my state, which has a Republican Governor, just came an announced that "sorry, the people must be burdened with this tax increase. The property taxes in Indiana here are expected to grow drastically. REPUBLICANS!



Dont get me wrong, I live right, take care of my family, but anyone who works for a living, (and thats 99% of us) and votes Republican is an imbicile.



Richard L has the best idea. A flat tax on income. if an outfit makes 30 million they pay the same rate as someone who makes 30 thousand.



Unfair tax breaks for the wealthy and big business hurts everyone. The playing field is not level. It makes it HARDER for the average joe to realize the American Dream. This is supposed to be the land of opportunity. How come

a family has to have TWO good incomes to survive? How bout those poor saps who work at the Wall Mart for minimum wages and NO health care or benefits?? DUDE?



The value of the dollar has DECREASED by over 40% under George W. Bush. Simply stated, you have to spend a dollar 40 to get a 99 cent bag of chips. WAKE UP YOU SHEEP. There is more to life than fake Bin Laden tapes. We CANNOT take over the world without having everything straight at home.

 

[Richard L]

I don't think taxes are an Republican or Democrate issue. Both parties spend too much and if there is a tax break, it's so small it's almost a joke. Every time there is an election coming up, the politicians promise all kinds of programs, or tax cuts. Once they get elected...nothing changes. I think they keep it that way since if they ever actually did what they said they would do, they would have no new issues to justify their reelection.



If you just have everyone pay a flat 10% of taxable income, no exemptions and no exceptions, you could eliminate the entire IRS...That would be enough savings to off set any reduction in tax revenue. You would not need all the accountants pouring over the tax returns every year. The employer deduct the 10% for taxes and it's a done deal.



If you want to have 10 kids, then you pay for them. If you want to consider your dog as a dependent, who cares since you are not going to get any individual exemptions. That includes killing the Mortgage interest deductions, charitable donations, etc.



This would also eliminate all the tax shelters that the rich folks have been using to get out of paying their fair share of taxes. Those who did not use tax shelters will probably end up paying less taxes.



The alternative to a flat Income tax would be a VAT tax on all items sold. There you pay an additional 10^ VAT tax on everything that you buy. If you don't like paying taxes, then save your money and don't buy anything except the necessities.



In either case you eliminate the IRS and that itself has got to worth $ billions each year.



...Rich

 

[Kevin Lang]

Ok, to the comment about people who work at walmart as a job to make a living off of, that's irrelevant.



Anyone who has dropped out of life and works at a low-end job like walmart to SURVIVE is in their own hole, and for us to dig them out is stupid. That would be welfare, and I am stalwartly against giving welfare to people whose problems are of their own doing. I sincerely hope you are also against wasted welfare. The rich escape taxes, but the so-called "destitute" pull the same tricks with welfare...both ends of the spectrum abuse the middle.



Jobs like walmart are for people who need to make some extra cash...NOT for earning a living. Raising the minimum wage actually reduces the number of jobs available for people who just want to earn some extra spending money, specifically students. Working full time with school just isn't possible, but people who blindly want to save everyone, even if they don't want saving (proved by the fact that they dropped out of life to subsist), make it near impossible for someone to work and be academically engaged.



On taxes, income tax was only supposed to be temporary, and is not technically required to be paid. Our nation survived before it, we should eliminate it. If we can't do that, as I sadly know we will be the truth, then we should have a flat rate. VAT is stupid. Just look to canada. While we're there, let's see that National healthcare is stupid. It ties into the "saving everyone" (coughcough) idea, and there are many statistics against it, but the main fact is that in Toronto the Most Prevalent ads were messages to repeal Ontario's national healthcare plan, as it "almost killed me".



Hmm...wouldn't the majority of accountants be against changing income tax policy to a logical one?

 

[Tom Schindler]

Forget a VAT or a Flat Tax. Go with a fair tax and be done with it. You are illegal, you pay tax's. No sweat off my back. You want to work under the table, great. You will still pay tax's to pay for fire and police protection.



Eliminate corporate tax's so we can actually compete in other coutries in other industries.



A fair tax is fair for everyone.





Tom

 

[P M]

The current tax code is an abomination! Too many loopholes, if-thens, etc. It seems to have become a tool for social engineering and generating votes. The millions (billions?) spent executing the tax code by individuals and corporations is all wasted time and money. That time and effort serves no productive purpose to the nation. The purpose of all this is simply to generate revenue for the nation. If that can be done without organizations such as the IRS, without countless tax accountants and tax lawyers then the nation would be better served to get rid of it. The Fair Tax is the best alternative I've seen so far. It was the result of studies to find a better alternative, not just an idea being pushed for some individual's or group's benefit. In the next year I think this has the potential to become one of the key issues to the election. The proposal put forward by Mr. Rangel will serve to renew the debate. The more this issue becomes a focus, the better chance something like the Fair Tax has to succeed (or fail if it cannot stand up to the challenges).

 

[Kevin Lang]

I'm not sure this fair tax plan is the best idea. The "charged only for goods and services that you choose to purchase" part seems like a huge open ended statement, and would open the door for health nazis to put a "fat tax" out there by jacking up the price of "fatty" foods, and environmental wackos to levy heavy fees on non-hybrid cars....



You know that even if the bill does not have open-ended definition for what "goods" will be taxed, and what the tax rate will be, the lobbyists for powerful groups will pressure congress into adultering the bill until it does have that sort of clause.



The flat 10% is the way to go. If that isn't enough to "fund" the government, then too bad, as federal income tax should NOT be used as a reliable means to stock the treasury anyhow, as it was supposed to be Temporary, and is NOT mandatory to be paid. The government should, can, and did survive without the bs income tax system, and we need to go back to those days.



The federal government is already doing too much of what the states should logically do, and it can't keep up already. No Child Left Behind is retarded--states are better suited to control their own education, yet both bush presidents (sadly) pushed for such legislation



If the federal government controls everything, as it seems to, then we are no longer individual States, United together, but rather provinces under socialist rule...a socialist oligarchy.

 

[Frank screwyourednecks]

Kevin L. Wrote: Anyone who has dropped out of life and works at a low-end job like walmart to SURVIVE is in their own hole, and for us to dig them out is stupid. That would be welfare.



Kevin you are just another case of a preson (probably older Republican) who is out of touch with reality. Wal Mart is in a lot of cases the only employer in an area. I bet you dont shop there either.



Wal Mart I believe is the largest employer in the U S. And you just said that 1.4 Million people have "dropped out of life" and are figuratively "losers"



That statement by you makes you a huge jerk. Wake up dude you are certainly not against the American dream? How can someone make it on a Wal Mart pay check?

 

[Kevin Lang]

That is what I said--How can some one make it on a Wal Mart paycheck. The answer is, as you confirm, that you can't.



Am I an older republican? What defines older? I know I'm not the former, unless you have an askew definition of age, and I wouldn't go so far as to call myself the latter.



Wal-Mart is staffed largely by people who have dropped out of life. I have personal experience with many an employee who qualifies as failing the school of life.



Sure, there are the people still enrolled in the figurative School of Life that work at walmart, those who want to make extra money, like students, retirees, and spouses who are NOT the primary earners of the household.



I Do shop at walmart, and that's because I'm not rich.





Let me tell you something: Thanks to socialists such as yourself who blindly think that we have to jack up the minimum wage to "help" people, with no insight or idea as to the situation of these "helpless" people, high school student/college student jobs are a dying market. Thanks to socialist endeavours, community colleges no longer wish to hire students to work at them, but rather the "disenfranchised members of the community". Other than food jobs, there isn't much out there. Due to these socialistic endeavors, I myself am forced to work for a Man who dwarfs walmart, as that is the only job really available



I thank you kindly for blindly pushing your socialist agenda.

 

[P M]

Kevin, two things. One, the FairTax is completely independent of the state taxes. It replaces federal income taxes including personal, estate, gift, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes. So that takes care of the Federal Govt trying to control states argument. Second, the 23% and 30% are not an either/or. The answer is 23% The story was about how it is computed to come to that number. You obviously did not read that part. And given that you responded in 39 minutes from my posting you obviously did not do much research in developing your conclusion. You, and your jumping to conclusions without actually researching something are sadly an example of the uninformed voter that politicians target with sound bites. You are unable, or unwilling, to look beyond the sound bite to generate an informed decision.

 

[Johnny O]

I think that either a flat income tax (everybody pays 10% or whatever) or a national sales tax (Fair Tax) is better than the convoluted abomination we have now.



Russia has a 13% flat tax. America has a progressive Federal income tax. Therefore, Russia has Steve Forbes' tax and America has Karl Marx's tax.



Three of the top six states in both job and population growth have no state income tax and rely on a sales tax on everything.

 

[Ryan Schaecher]

Dont get me wrong, I live right, take care of my family, but anyone who works for a living, (and thats 99% of us) and votes Republican is an imbicile.

That's why EVERY Democrat runing has proposed a TAX INCREASE. Who's the imbicile now?



Carter: Tax Hike

Reagan: Tax Cut

Bush Sr.: Tax Hike

Clinton: Tax Hike

Bush Jr: Tax Cut



2 of 3 Repubs cut taxes

2 of 2 Democrats RAISED taxes



Guliani: Cut Taxes

Romney: Cut Taxes

Thompson: Cut Taxes

Huckabee: Cut Taxes

McCain: Leave Taxes Alone

Paul: Cut Taxes



Clinton: Raise Taxes

Obama: Raise Taxes

Edwards: Raise Taxes

Dodd: Raise Taxes

Kucinich: Raise Taxes



Yep, voting DEMOCRAT sounds good to me.



So let's see. under Hillary, the "rich" (everyone with a joint household income of $200,000 or more) now pays about 58% tax based on the different programs she's already proposed, that includes eliminating the tax cuts that the Republicans put in place on the "rich" three different times. That means that for every $1 earned, you are allowed to keep $.42 of it. Boy, gives me an incentive to work and earn and excel. Inspires the bat crap out of me.



Huckabee left Arkansas a $200 MILLION SURPLUS when he left office. We have less than 1/2 of that left after a Democrat took office. It's been 2 years. Whooo Hooooo!



You want to argue taxes and economics, bring it on. I've got the books and the college education in Econmics. I'll tell you whatever you want. I will tell you this to start with:



SOCIALISM IS BAD

TAXES ARE BAD

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IS BAD

DEFICEIT SPENDING IS NOT ALWAYS BAD

HIGH WAGES ARE NOT BAD



Where I live Wal-Mart pays more than minimum wage. Mc Donalds pay around $8.00.

Wal-Mart is staffed largely by people who have dropped out of life

Not where I live.

A fair tax is fair for everyone.

Absolutely. I made a proposal several years ago that read something like as follows:



23% total tax (state, federal, local) on EVERYTHING Except:

6% tax on FOOD the qualifies for WIC (eggs, milk, bread, butter, etc)

10% tax on Groceries (meat, vegitables, ice cream, etc. that is not a pre-packaged food that just takes heating)



No exemptions, no pre-bates, no rebates, etc. You buy a luxury boat, 23%. You buy a car from a dealer... 23%. You buy a car from a friend... 23% (due when you register).



Make it a Constiutional amendment or change the 16th amendment. Lock it in place.



Then, force CONGRESS (the president does not authorize spending.... President Bush or President Clinton did not have the power to spend money) to BALANCE THE BUDGET (except during a time of war, then it would take a 2/3's vote to spend MORE than INCOME).



You want to pay down the $9 TRILLION owed? Start by asking Hillary why she needs $1 Million for a Woodstock museum. Then ask Bill why he signed the congressional bills that authorized the issuance of TRILLIONS in Treasury Bonds that more than 1/2 are owned by foreign nations. To be fair, Bush did the same, only to a lesser extent.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Frank said:

You people are making me crazy. We are all being taxed at an ALL TIME high. Only the top 1 percent have the tax breaks. ATTENTION: THERE IS A REPUBLICAN IN OFFICE.

"You people?" "REPUBLICAN" in all caps.



Nope, the problem isn't Republicans, or Democrats. The problem is the people that allow themselves to believe there is really a difference in the two parties, and allow themselves to be programmed and brainwashed so that they SNAP to one pole, and then throw jabs at the other side.



"You people" is all of us...yes, the whole damned country that has allowed ourselves to be programmed; programmed so that the popular votes in each election pretty much go down with only a few percentage points margin...programmed to the point that there can't ever really be a third-party...programmed to the point that it doesn't really matter which side gets the chair.



Way to go people...you have been programmed to hate, blame and take no responsibility.



TJR