Soak the rich and the rest of us take a bath

You aren't wrong. The push to socialism requires a certain ignorance of history and economics. The cultivation of class hatred makes the implementation easier.

Oh, Paula, you've been on the Heritage Foundation web site again. They are notoriously right-wing conservative in their views. And I won't tell you that you're wrong. They're wrong. When Reagan and Clinton were in office the rich were paying a higher percentage in taxes and the nation was thriving. The rich have had the lowest tax rates in the history of this country under Bush and look at our economy.

This is basic economics. Reagan didnt overtax anyone...including the rich. I dont know why so many people have an issue with this.

If you tax the rich, they are not able to invest as much, decreasing the amount in the economy on a 1:1 ratio. They are the ones that give us the jobs. So, as an answer, they downsize. Easy enough to see that.

Take a business....lets say midsized. Average income for an owner of a privately held company is 268,000. Obama is talking about raising the taxes on anyone that is over 250,000. Look it up for yourself sometime and find out how much of the economy is driven by private companies...the figure would be higher than 80%. I believe the last number I saw was 87%. These people ARE the economy. Tax them more, they cant expand or reinvest in their business', causing them to stagnate, causing a stagnant economy.

FAIRTAX.ORG.... consumption tax is the only way to go. The IRS was a bad idea and has propagated to a monstrous and unmanageable size. Besides, consumption tax would bolster the Social Security fund as well as public programs that are being sucked dry by our immigration issues.

~M

Michael, under Reagan the percentage of income that people were paying was greater than under Bush. No, he didn't overtax. Neither did Clinton, but again, the percentage that the wealthy paid was higher than under Bush. But the country was thriving and the budget was balanced and there was a surplus.

As for the rich and the corporations who got big tax cuts and additional tax loopholes under Bush, they took their investment returns and put them into foreign banks and took their jobs overseas too. We gained nothing as a country from their getting all these tax breaks.

I do believe it is the smaller companies that will suffer. Guess we will see. Bush also made a new tax bracket that had poorer people paying less or nothing. When the Bush tax cuts end.....not only the rich will pay higher taxes but the rest of us will also.

Paula, you are right. Obama wants to tax the small business owners who make up the majority of our economy. It just doesnt make sense.

Fair tax...a consumption tax...is the only good answer.
~M

Actually, Michael, most small business owners earn less than $250,000 so they will be helped by the tax cuts.

And Paula, Bush did NOT look out for those in the lower tax brackets. You Republicans complain that Obama is redistributing wealth, but Bush did the same thing. He made sure that the poor and the middle class got poorer and the rich got richer. I don't know how much you two make, Michael and Paula, but were you really better off at the end of Bush's time in office? I know my husband and I weren't.

"It is a historical fact that reduced tax rates for everyone make the economy much better."

It's a historical fact Reaganomics Trickle Down doesn't work.

Tax the Billionaires more, for sure. They got filthy rich working our system, they can do some serious payback for it.

And I won't cry for them. After taxes they'll still be filthy rich.

Amen, Peter.

"2) The rich pay more when incentives to hide income are reduced."

Tax loop-holes become more and more prevalent as taxes are increased for the upper income people. Your article seems to validate that. Take a look at all those companies currently hiding their income in overseas banks. Obama is attacking that loop-hole, but they will surely find another one. And that is under Bush's reduced taxes!

So now let's compare apples and oranges and see how that plays out.

Carla, you are wrong about the salaries for small business:

"More than 99 percent of companies in the US have fewer than 500 employees, yet they’re at a disadvantage compared to larger companies when it comes to finding relevant compensation data," According to the survey, the national average salary for the CEO/Partner/Owner job function is $258,400;

Simple economics here people. We take money from the people that supply the jobs and they decrease the job availability to make the same margins....
~M

You're still spouting trickle down theory, Michael, and it has been proven not to work. Bush did a great job of providing us with the evidence.

Average small business owner salary is $233,600 according to salary.com.

Its 258,400 for CEO/partner/owner... as it continues in the survey. But nice try.
I am not spouting trickle down theory (although it works). I am spouting a consumption tax that would be FAIR to everyone and will boost our Social Security as well as public assistance programs you dems want so badly. It is an answer for the conservative and the liberal. It answers many of our problems and would generate a huge cash flow to pay off the excessive spending (sorry, had to throw that in). It puts us in a SURPLUS. Wow that would be something, huh?
~M

How in the world would a comsumption tax be fair to everyone?

it is based on purchasing items. If you make more money, you will inevitably buy more products. If the lower or middle class has a bad month, they decrease the purchasing and save more of their money. You keep your entire check...nothing is taken out of it. The real benefit is the solution of our public programs and social security that are being abused by illegal immigrants. This would fix that as they would pay the tax on things they buy. It would also accomplish tons more, but that one is important and on my mind a lot lately.

www.fairtax.org. There has been tens of millions of dollars used to study the viability of it and it works. You should read up on it ;)
~M

As an example, which i didnt include above, schools. It is federal law to educate children that are here in our public school systems. We put in towards that by our taxes that we pay. The illegals do not put in and get it for free as well as other public programs and medical care. Thousands of illegals come across the border to have their child at Ben Taub, in Houston... for FREE and then go back to Mexico. This is stupid. They spend over 100 MILLION a year on that. That money could go somewhere else.. like updating schools or helping pregnant teens or runaways or the homeless or the jobless etc etc etc.

Fairtax is the solution to this issue as well as simplifying a 68,000 page tax code that our own Treasury boy cant figure out and uses Turbo Tax... that should tell you something.
~M