Comments on: McCain Tax Cuts Favor Taxpayers (aka, ‘Wealthy’)

By: Triumph

Triumph — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:38:48 +0000

White pols don't get their wives tagged as "baby mama."

That's because in the case of McCain, his wife isn't the baby mama of their child of color. McCain "adopted" the girl from the real baby mama with whom he allegedly had an affair.

By: carsick

carsick — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:14:38 +0000

From today's USA Today: "New IRS statistics show 7,389 federal tax returns with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income reported no federal income taxes in 2005. That's a 161% jump from the 2,833 comparable returns filed in 2004. Additionally, 4,224 of the over-$200,000 earners reported no worldwide income tax liability on their 2005 returns, the IRS data show. That represents a 75% increase from the 2,420 comparable returns filed in 2004. The data are the most recent available from the IRS. It shows a rising number of high-income earners have avoided the alternative minimum tax, which was intended to ensure that tax shelters, deductions and loopholes wouldn't exempt wealthy Americans from paying at least some federal income tax. "It's an interesting case study on how people find ways to avoid paying taxes," said Howard Gleckman, a senior research associate and tax blog editor at The Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. "

By: M1EK

M1EK — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:27:14 +0000

James, the dishonesty here is conflating income taxes with "all taxes paid". As noted, payroll taxes are a big burden on wage-earners, and are regressive. And, no, it's not a retirement system; it is and always has been a welfare system for the elderly.

By: carsick

carsick — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:26:13 +0000

In 2005, the wealthiest 1 percent of the country earned 21.2 percent of all income, according to IRS data, while the bottom 50 percent of all Americans earned just 12.8 percent of all income, down from 13.4 percent, a year earlier. Together, these two figures define a new postwar record for American economic inequality, which is believed by many economists to be greater today than at any other time since the 1920s.

By: Rick DeMent

Rick DeMent — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:06:17 +0000

In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income.

but what they fail to mention, and what changes the equation dramatically is that individual income taxes only account for 50% of federal revenue. so once you add in payroll taxes which are tilted to lower income earners and excises which are even more tilted to lower income earners you get a less biased picture then this distorted to the point of meaninglessness factiod.

The bigger question is why are we talking about tax cuts while the dollar value destroying national debt is going only in one direction and making us beholden to international lenders.

By: bdevereaux

bdevereaux — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:42:03 +0000

A video I saw at Pollclash couldn't have picked a better caption. Obama: We Can't Afford to Keep Doing What We've Been Doing vs. McCain: America's Economy is Fundamentally Strong McCain is naive to think that. What we need is a clean slate, what we need is a revolution, not an evolution of a government that has grown too many potholes over the years. I admit that I have some bias against the war in the mid east because I have a deceased (and decorated) brother who died there. Let them come home.