Yesterday President elect Barack Obama unveiled his “dream team” of economic policy makers. He indicated he will be working to put a two year stimulus plan together in order to “jump start” the economy. When asked how he was going to pay for this stimulus he referred to his campaign and said that he would provide a net tax cut for 95% of Americans and would only raise taxes on those “who can afford to pay more.” It’s only fair that those who can pay more should pay more. Two problems with his tax policy: 1) Nothing is fair about making 1% of Americans pay over 40% of all income taxes. Do these people get 40% of the benefit of their taxes? Why does it make sense that as you make more money you should pay a larger proportion to the government? How is that fair? 2) Many of the people Mr. Obama indicates would be getting a tax cut are people who pay no taxes at all. You can’t cut something below $0. What he is actually referring to is welfare not a tax cut. I am a middle class American in the 25% tax bracket. Mr. Obama’s plan does nothing good or bad for me. If he wants a true middle class tax cut, forget the income redistribution and cut the 25% rate to 15%. That would be a middle class tax cut. If you pay no income taxes, you are not in the middle class.
Last 3 posts by Jason
- You Can't Make This Stuff Up - February 19th, 2010
- Washington Gridlock - February 11th, 2010
- I Guess I'm Not the Only One Who Thought This - January 28th, 2010
Sometimes the best solution is for government not to do anything. Unfortunately, politicians want to appear like they are fixing something. It is a vicious cycle where each politician creates a problem for the next politician to come in and “fix” by promising a stimulus or a tax cut.
Also, when they do “tax rebates”, the very people that paid in most of the taxes are quickly phased out so they get $0 back. It’s a complete redistribution of wealth.
Economic Fail!
Thanks for forcing us to help out the poor. Too bad there are plenty of non-profit’s that are more efficient at helping the poor than the government. Let’s give our money to them.
Perhaps even worse than Obama’s tax pledges is the AMT. More and more people are subject to the AMT every year and Congress won’t do anything about it because they can’t stand the thought of losing all that future revenue. It was infuriating to hear about it in Fed Tax today. If it continues it could eventually replace the regular tax schedule completely.
Again, if you view taxes as payment for goods/services rendered by the government, it is a clear argument to say that the wealthy receive the least benefit for what they pay.
Taxes are screwed up unless we go with a flat tax.
And if Obama really wanted to help the poorer classes, don’t you think he’d look at eliminating a sales tax on things like milk and bread - basic food staples? Who pays a higher percentage of their income in sales tax? Generally the poor since they’re spending a higher percentage of what they make! That’s a tax that could actually benefit the poor… Otherwise it’s all semantics.
AMEN!!
PS Reading this reminded me of when Maria Bartoromo was going off on the fact how people not paying taxes were getting the “cut” and would yell at anyone anytime they called it a tax cux, telling them it was a gift, not a cut.
I love Maria. She’s my hero.