I'm all for it.

/While we're at it, the Worker's Coalition for the Proper Use of the Possessive Case wants to talk to you.

submitter: Democrat's call for increased taxes on the wealthy


There, FTFY...

Really. The wealthy only contribute 98% of the income taxes paid in this country. It is high god damned time they pay their fair share.

class warfare w00t!

This headline made me laugh.

EatHam: Really. The wealthy only contribute 98% of the income taxes paid in this country. It is high god damned time they pay their fair share.

When they make 98% of the income, that makes sense.

/Tax the poor on what they don't make!
//Freeloading poor. Working for the rich man and expecting something in return.

Screw that, I like my money.

Raise taxes on the middle class instead, there's plenty of them and at least 26 percent are so f*cking retarded they'll just pay and pay while people who make 3 times what they do get off easy.

EatHam: The wealthy only contribute 98% of the income taxes paid in this country.


Prove it. When you find out that you're wrong, come back in and apologize and we'll forgive you and let you play with the adults...

Tax the rich?

I feel good about this...

If poor people can be expected to fight this "war," then rich people ought to be OK with financing it. It's not like they are actually sending their sons and daughters to the front lines.

Tax the fkn rich, indeed....the definition of "no brainer"

Moderates call for correct use of punctuation marks.

The tax rates right now are already so farking ridiculously high that maybe they should think about cutting back on spending.

Just a crazy thought.

parkedr: The tax rates right now are already so farking ridiculously high that maybe they should think about cutting back on spending.

This goddamnit. Farking out of control spending. Instead of reigning in the government's ridiculous spending, let's just tax the rich people more! Let's force them to give us more money and redistribute it as we see fit. Who cares that they most likely worked their asses off to get their money. Fark 'em. They're lucky we don't take 90% of it.

parkedr: The tax rates right now are already so farking ridiculously high that maybe they should think about cutting back on spending.


The rates may be high, but the rich don't tend to actually pay those rates. They have lawyers, accountants, and legal write offs (Plus the ever popular off-shore accounts.) in order to not pay that rate.

I'm with ya on that spending though...

EatHam: Really. The wealthy only contribute 98% of the income taxes paid in this country. It is high god damned time they pay their fair share.

I think you forgot to wipe completely after pulling that figure from your ass. In 1999 (before the Bush tax cuts) People in the 95th percentile (those people with an adjusted gross income of greater than $120,000 a year) made up 55% of the income tax revenue. People in the 99th percentile made up 19% of the income tax revenue.

so when do these spending cuts actually happen ?

too bad crickets can't be sold for cash.

Code_Archeologist: EatHam: Really. The wealthy only contribute 98% of the income taxes paid in this country. It is high god damned time they pay their fair share.

I think you forgot to wipe completely after pulling that figure from your ass. In 1999 (before the Bush tax cuts) People in the 95th percentile (those people with an adjusted gross income of greater than $120,000 a year) made up 55% of the income tax revenue. People in the 99th percentile made up 19% of the income tax revenue.

The top 40% of households pays over 96% of total income taxes collected. That's households with more than about $85K/yr. The top 20% (>$200K/yr) pay 82.5% of federal income tax receipts.

Please, people - we HAVE to raise taxes or else there won't be enough money to subsidize TV converters for the poor.

filth: The top 40% of households pays over 96% of total income taxes collected. That's households with more than about $85K/yr.

A household that makes $85K a year is far from wealthy, that is more like middle class. So when you combine the middle class with the wealthy, the obviously your figure is going to show that they pay 96% of collected income tax. When you look at it from the aspect of actually wealthy households (those that make up the top 5% and top 1%) of house holds you see that they pay 55% and 19% respectively.

Also by choosing a cut off point for your figure of 85,000 you are including the millions of upper middle-class households being hit by the AMT... which skews the figure even further.

not only are the rich the only ones who pay all the taxes, but the poor are the only ones to benefit from them.

The world is a cruel, hard place for the successful.

Honestly I am not sure why I am caring any longer. If we do not raise taxes and pay down our deficit then the value of the dollar is going to continue its decline... and with my investment portfolio ever time the dollar goes down a tenth of a percent against the euro or the yen I make a couple thousand dollars.

So sure, cut the taxes further... push the debt to our grand kids... who gives a shiat for tomorrow, I will will happily reap the rewards of your foolishness in my retirement.

Totalitaryan: Come the singularity and the end of scarcity, this won't be a problem. So perhaps the best idea would be to pass the buck to our grandchildren.

*snicker*
*snort*
LOL

Oh my sweet jeebus on a pogostick... please don't tell me you actually believe in that silly Utopian hogwash.

Code_Archeologist: filth: The top 40% of households pays over 96% of total income taxes collected. That's households with more than about $85K/yr.

A household that makes $85K a year is far from wealthy, that is more like middle class. So when you combine the middle class with the wealthy, the obviously your figure is going to show that they pay 96% of collected income tax. When you look at it from the aspect of actually wealthy households (those that make up the top 5% and top 1%) of house holds you see that they pay 55% and 19% respectively.

Also by choosing a cut off point for your figure of 85,000 you are including the millions of upper middle-class households being hit by the AMT... which skews the figure even further.

I'm not advocating any position; I just noticed that your numbers were old. Just trying to help. Also, I didn't pick $85K. That's just an approximation of the current annual income for the bottom of the fourth quintile. The government uses quintiles to classify income levels.

But if you want to quibble over the definition of "wealthy," your use of the top 5% and top 1% is super misleading. Both of those groups would probably be best characterized as "obscenely wealthy" or "unimaginably wealthy." (you have to have well over $400K/yr to get to the top 5% and over $1.3mm/yr for the top 1%)

Gulper Eel: Moderates call for correct use of punctuation marks mark's.

/pet peeve

Meh. Let them eat cake.

Problem solved. Hand Medicaid/Medicare over to the states to do with it what they please, cut the rest entirely.

/Social Security will have to be phased out gradually

Tax the rich. They can afford it. The poor can't.

GAT_00: Tax the rich. They can afford it. The poor can't.


You'd have made Uncle Karl so proud!

BravadoGT:

Karl Marx had good ideas, but he never understood that humans are fundamentally greedy. Communism and socialism will never work, but they can be adapted with democratic principles.

Democrat's call for increased taxes on the wealthy, storming the Bastille, and seizing the means of production

Pft. I wish.

The US could definitely use a little of that "to the barricades" mentality.

Wealth is based primarily on picking the right parents. Tax the rich! TAX THEM UNTIL THEY farkING CHOKE!

parkedr: The tax rates right now are already so farking ridiculously high that maybe they should think about cutting back on spending.

Just a crazy thought.

Yeah that 15% tax on money that's made with money is a killer.

I feel more comfortable now that the parties are going back to where they were when I was growing up: Democrats want class warfare and weak foreign policy. Republicans want less government, by which they mean a slower rate of increase in the size of certain parts of government than Democrats want, and confrontational foreign policy. For a while I wasn't sure what anybody stood for.

Mordant: Screw that, I like my money.


You like money, too? We should hang out.

Rich people are a tiny minority.

Voting people are usually nothing but bad news for them.

Here's a fun challenge... divide the federal budget by the US population. the result should be YOUR fair share of the tax burden.

Somebody please look up the numbers!

I want to know if I paid my fair share on not!

While I'm not opposed to taxing the rich (although I'd far prefer a big, fat estate tax to an income tax), I'd advise them to take a serious look at stopping pissing hundreds of billions of dollars a year into the Iraqi desert as an immediate treatment for our budget woes. Then, if that's not enough, we can raise taxes.

twilson2: Rich people are a tiny minority.

Voting people are usually nothing but bad news for them.

Nothing that can't be cured by bringing out the threat of gay marriage or some other bugaboo-du-jour to trick them into voting against their plain economic interests.

Remember the rich had their republican lackies out there whining about how Clintons tax increase on them was gonna cause a recession.

Turned out we had one of the longest expansions on record if not the longest.

A high tax level on the rich is good for the economy.

It's no longer a theory.

It's historical fact.

>> Nothing that can't be cured by bringing out the threat of gay marriage or some other bugaboo-du-jour to trick them into voting against their plain economic interests.

Really ?

How'd that work out for cons in last years election.

All so called "cures" have their limits.

Just cut spending already. Jebus.

rhiner: divide the federal budget by the US population. the result should be YOUR fair share of the tax burden.

Fairness? The tax system couldn't be anything further from fair. It's just legalized class warfare.

twilson2: A high tax level on the rich is good for the economy.

It's no longer a theory.

It's historical fact.

Bah, we don't need to pay taxes. Just borrow more from China.

twilson2: A high tax level on the rich is good for the economy.

It's no longer a theory.

It's historical fact.

No more debate on fiscal policy, this guy on teh intarwebs has got it all figured out.

Funny how ignorant cons will often use Kennedys supposed tax decrease as a means of claiming that tax cuts work.

Of course it's a total lie.

All you have to do is go back and look at Kennedys own words in the debates with Nixon.

He specifically claimed his tax cut was an effective tax increase on the rich (by lowering the rates and abolishing the loopholes)

parkedr: The tax rates right now are already so farking ridiculously high that maybe they should think about cutting back on spending.

Just a crazy thought.

The tax rates are HIGH? Are YOU high? You got your farkin tax cuts in the 80's, again in the 90's, and then AGAIN with Bush! And those were mostly for the wealthy and very wealthy so chances are, you didnt see that big of a difference. Spending should most definately be cut, starting with the gross overspending this country engages in with regards to the military. Quit paying 2 dollars on the dollar to your campaign contributors' companies.

I have more, but my "n" key broke off and I have to press really hard on the rubber button sensor to get anything.

rhiner: Here's a fun challenge... divide the federal budget by the US population. the result should be YOUR fair share of the tax burden.

Rough numbers:

Federal budget, 2006: $2.7 trillion
Population: 300 million or so

Works out to about $9,000 per person, including ALL federal taxes -- income, SS, medicare, excise, everything.

/Based on that, hubby and I paid about three times our fair share.
//But that's perfectly fine and perfectly fair, because we can afford it.