On Sep 9, 2008, at 12:09 AM, Kevin Callahan wrote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html
What I was trying to say before is that when you look at this chart is
cut off the chart at 37,576 down.
it's meaningless below this point on either side since by and large
those people don't pay much if any federal taxes.
In 2004, one out of every three Americans who filed a tax return
(42.5 million) had no tax liability after they took advantage of their
credits and deductions, while millions more paid next to nothing. As a
result, the top 20 percent of taxpayers – those earning more than
roughly $71,000 in 2004 – now pay over 80 percent of all the income
taxes.
<http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/1410.html>
Obama's tax cuts in the middle are more evenly distributed. The red/
blue argument boils down to who is creating jobs and wealth. If you
believe the red argument then increasing taxes at the top will slow
capital investments, slow hiring and reduce growth. If you believe
the blue argument, the top will not "notice" the change enough to
matter and the middle will be better off with more money to spend,
driving growth with demand.
I'm on the red side. I think that Obama doesn't take into account
the small business owners and farmers in the 200k range that get
trapped into looking well off on paper (thus being hurt by his tax
increases) but don't actually have a lot of disposable income. You
increase the taxes on a small business owner, they are NOT going to
eat it. They are going to raise their prices to make of the
difference. The next thing you know, the blue side is arguing for an
increase in minimum wage (since prices have gone up..) and we start
the circle over again.
No one is *actually* ever better off this way, but it does get you
elected.
I also don't believe that his tax increases can be limited to the
ranges he says and still manage to implement the social programs he is
in favor of so I suspect he will "discover" different circumstances if
he gets elected.
=c=
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