The rich should stop whining and pay their damn taxes.

[Joanne98]

Why is it that Republican’s hate this country so much that they feel that paying their fair share is an obscenity. Their tax burden has been lowered considerably since Reagan was in office, yet there is still the incessant whining about having to pay ANYTHING. (As a counter-balance, my family makes a little over $200,000 and the change with Obama’s policies will not “destroy” me in any measure. The only thing that will is the economy going down the tubes because no one can buy anything or get loans).

First of all, the argument from Brit Hume, that the rich are the only one’s paying taxes, is bunk. Here is a study from 2001 (even before the continuation of tax cuts over the last 8 years) that shines a little light on this myth:

The CBO study, due to be released today, found that the wealthiest 20 percent, whose incomes averaged $182,700 in 2001, saw their share of federal taxes drop from 64.4 percent of total tax payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year. The top 1 percent, earning $1.1 million, saw their share fall to 20.1 percent of the total, from 22.2 percent. Over that same period, taxpayers with incomes from around $51,500 to around $75,600 saw their share of federal tax payments increase. Households earning around $75,600 saw their tax burden jump the most, from 18.7 percent of all taxes to 19.5 percent.

So, as you can see, the rich are not overburdened as liars like Brit Hume will begrudgingly try to tell you.

Real Americans who are successful don’t complain about that extra 4% they will have to pay under Obama. And lets face it - if they economy completely tanks, their investments will go south as well. It is in their own best interest to bet on the country and not stock their money away in Bermuda or a Swiss account.

And for those who say the rich are all in agreement on this, listen to what one Warren Buffett had to say recently:

Buffett says he pays 18 percent of his salary to the IRS while the rest of his staff pays nearly twice that — 33 percent, a lopsided equation that put Buffett in a Robin Hood frame of mind.

“Frankly, an economy where my receptionist pays a lot higher tax rate than, than I do does not strike me as a just economy,” he told lawmakers.

Buffet has challenged the elite members of the Forbes 400 list to do their own calculations and compare their tax rate with their receptionists, and then consider his challenge that the rich should pay more. “I see nothing wrong with those who have been blessed by this society to give a larger portion of their income to the society than somebody that’s working very, very hard to make ends meet,” Buffett said.

Sadly, his offer had no takers. Typical. But for those who claim they will lay off people if they have to pay another 4% in taxes I say fuck you you self-centered, selfish asshole. You can’t take it with you, people, remember that - and if there is a God who judges us on how we treated our fellow human beings, some of you won’t be able to win his favor by offering him a portion of your stock options.

http://www.verbalpaintball.com/2009/03/03/the-rich-should-stop-whining-and-pay-their-damn-taxes/

[snappyturtle]

1. K&R nt

[baldguy]

2. RWers say cut taxes & give "entrepreneurs" incentive to start new companies & hire more people.

They got those tax cuts 8 yrs ago. It was a gift from the Bush Regime.

WHAT THE FUCK HAVE THEY BEEN DOING WITH THEM?

If the idle rich doesn't want to invest in this economy, then they're not really entrepreneurs - they're parasites.

[Joanne98]

3. They're not entrepreneurs. They don't invent or create anything.

They just put their money into AAA bonds that own mostly debt and sit there not doing a thing.

[baldguy]

10. Real entrepreneurs work for a living.

Buying & selling - or paying a broker to buy & sell - stocks or corporate bonds doesn't make an you an entrepreneur.

[The Wizard]

18. They put their money

in off shore tax havens where it never circulates into the economy.
What happened to all that job creation the Bush tax cuts were supposed foster? He never said he was creating jobs in China.

[corpseratemedia]

4. I really don't understand why my working class dittohead neighbors don't get this:

"..Buffett says he pays 18 percent of his salary to the IRS while the rest of his staff pays nearly twice that — 33 percent..."

[ejpoeta]

7. i think many of these people don't realize which side ofthe divide they are on.

they think somehow THEY are part of the upper crust. i often want to ask my family when the middle class is gone, which side of the divide do they think they are going to end up on???

[Sal316]

5. Even Adam Smith agrees

It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."
~Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776

[ejpoeta]

6. i wonder how many of these republicans are the ones offshoring their money

to avoid paying taxes. I mean, they have loopholes on top of loopholes to avoid paying taxes. some rich folks don't mind paying the taxes. that still leaves them with a crapload of money. but unless they want to start buying everything to keep this country going, then they are going to have to realize that regular folks, when they don't have money, don't SPEND it. period.

[uberllama42]

8. Why do stupid people earn more money than I ever will?

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/03/03/wealthy-idiots-meet-idiot-reporter.aspx

[ShortnFiery]

9. They are not that bright because MANY inherited OLD money and are now in debt due

to their arrogance and insatiable greed. To not be able to buy that new BMW this year is TRAGEDY to the idle nouveau riche. :puke:

[Bonhomme Richard]

11. A typical entrepreneur, in my eyes, has a big idea and little money.

What they end up doing is gambling those small funds and, if they are smart and lucky, start the process of building a company.
From my personal experience there was no one out there willing to put any money into my enterprise, and I had existing government orders. Even local banks that advertise that they are committed to helping small business would not lend you a nickel without you first putting your assets (house) on the line and agreeing to a hefty interest payment. Fair enough but don't try to look like your the savior of entrepreneurship in this country. If I began to look like I might be successful then I might have been able to get some sort of investing (Venture, ie. vulture) IF I gave up control of the business that I started. Screw that. I am growing slowly but I am growing on my own dime. I have plenty of cash on hand so now I can start advertising my products to a larger market.
Fingers crossed, I will soon be able to start hiring people as my small manufacturing business grows.
That is what it is all about.
Oh, and about paying taxes. I will have to right a check to the government for about $55,000. Do I wince? Yes, but mainly because I don't even pay myself that much. At the end of the day I don't really mind because I am doing OK and I don't mind doing my part. I realize that, for now, I am one of the lucky ones and I could have worse problems.

[Moostache]

12. So sick of the talking points against taxes!

And it is only March!!!!

By May I could very well be homicidal at this rate...

The argument that higher taxes are a dis-incentive to small business is so ridiculous that it should be publicly ridiculed as often as possible. The basic premise is this - "Well, I see that IF I clear more than $250,000 my tax rate is going to rise a whopping 4% - or about $10,000 - therefore, I will simply do nothing and willingly forgo the other $240,000 because it is monstrously unfair for me to pay more taxes on higher income."

I say call people out on this as loudly as possible because it is preposterous to think ANYONE would actually do this! The only people who think like that are Republican hacks infected with the sickness of uncontrolled and unrestrained greed. Just like the filibuster issue, I want people to make them stand and say everything that they oppose in plain language as often as possible. The polls already show what is happening to Republican support (when compared to Obama's early numbers), but when an enemy is in a self-destructive circular firing squad mentality, it is time to accelerate the handing out of ammunition!!

[dtotire]

13. The Top 1% of Taxpayers get 20% of the total income

and the top 10% have 90% and the rest of us get 10% of the total income. It would not be too great a burden if the top 10% paid 100% of all income taxes. The rest of us would still have to pay FICA taxes, Medicare taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes, and (sometimes) State and local income taxes. This would only be fairness in the tax code.

[Verbal]

14. $250,000 is JUST INCOME, not business revenue

This is the little trick the republicans try to play on you with this one.

When we're talking $250,000, we're discussing on the record income. Now, when you're a small business owner (or any major shareholder in a corporation or s corp), you have your salary and dividends (profits) from the company that appear on your individual taxes.

What Obama is talking about is purely income - not dividends. If you make a SALARY of $250,000, your tax bracket will go up from 35% to 39%. Most people who are heads of businesses that are making that kind of income on the books have companies making well over a million dollars - and you can be sure their take home includes some of that dividend money of which they are taxed at a 15% tax bracket.

More likely, if they find themselves having to pay more taxes, they will pay themselves less in salary and take more in dividends - so it's a wash.

Lastly, anyone making $250,000 in SALARY can certainly afford another $10,000 in taxes. If they tell you otherwise, they're lying to you - or they're living beyond their means.

...and that post above was written by me. Thanks to Joanne98 for giving it another audience.

http://www.verbalpaintball.com

[Stinger2]

15. Tax Havens Bailout Recipients Citigroup, Morgan Stanley set up hundreds tax haven subsidiaries.

Tax Havens For Bailout Recipients Citigroup, Morgan Stanley
set up hundreds of tax haven subsidiaries.

From the Washington Post:

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/01/tax-havens-for-bailout-recipients.html


Foreign tax havens targeted in U.S. bills
3/3/09

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29476774/


Year-by-Year Analysis of the Bush Tax Cuts Shows Growing Tilt
to the Very Rich
June 12, 2002

A new study released today by Citizens for Tax Justice and the
Children’s Defense Fund reveals for the first time who stands
to benefit from the 2001-enacted Bush tax cuts in each year
from 2001 through 2010. Among the key findings:
Over the ten-year period, the richest Americans—the best-off
one percent—are slated to receive tax cuts totaling almost
half a trillion dollars. 
The $477 billion in tax breaks the Bush administration has
targeted to this elite group will average $342,000 each over
the decade. By 2010, when (and if) the Bush tax reductions are
fully in place, an astonishing 52 percent of the total tax
cuts will go to the richest one percent—whose average 2010
income will be $1.5 million. Their tax-cut windfall in that
year alone will average $85,000 each. Put another way, of the
estimated $234 billion in tax cuts scheduled for the year
2010, $121 billion will go just 1.4 million taxpayers.
Although the rich have already received a hefty down payment
on their Bush tax cuts—averaging just under $12,000 each this
year—80 percent of their windfall is scheduled to come from
tax changes that won’t take effect until after this year,
mostly from items that phase in after 2005.

http://www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm

$80 Billion Dollar Walton Family Lobbies for Personal Tax Cuts

Ounce called Inheritance Tax/Changed to Death Tax by the Bush
Boys

DONATIONS: Walton Family Gave $2.6 Million to Fund
Conservative Progress for America. The
USA Today reported, between August and October 2004, Alice
Walton personally poured at least $2.6
million into the right-wing, pro-Bush 527 group Progress for
America. The donation was Progress for
America’s “sixth-biggest gift.” Larry Noble, head of the
Center for Responsive Politics, said Walton’s
gift makes her “a political force to be reckoned with.”
Progress For America was behind the 527
committee Swift Vets and POWs for Truth attacked Sen. John
Kerry during the 2004 Presidential
election. [USA Today, 4/6/05;
http://www.publicintegrity.org/527/search.aspx?act=com&orgid=714

http://walmartwatch.com/img/documents/WMT_Estate_Tax.pdf

The regular middle class people pay taxes on every penny
earned, but the rich feel paying taxes is below them, what a
deal.

[treestar]

16. It just makes me feel so bad for them

That they after tax income is not enough to make them happy!

:sarcasm:

Really, if that is their greatest problem :nopity: and why do they expect the rest of us to feel sorry for them and feel life is treating them unfairly?

[CJPR]

17. Today's New Tea Parties

Now, America's Wealthiest are organizing new "Boston Tea Parties" to protest the modest tax increases the Obama administration is enacting on people in the top brackets. How patriotic they are. Talk about Class Warfare. They have enjoyed substantial tax decreases during the past eight Bush years while young men from poorer families signed up in our "Volunteer Army" two fight in two distant wars on our country's behalf. What sacrifices these Tea Party Protesters are being called upon to make. It's as though Confederate slave owners during the Civil War had organized "Tea Parties" to protest the Emancipation Proclamation and the freeing of their slaves. Of course, some of those Southern ex-slave owners did end up in destitution and poverty as a result of losing their slaves. However, it's highly unlikely that the modest tax increases Obama is implementing will inflict that level of pain on today's privileged elite.

Please visit my Blog: "Conservatives Are America's Real Terrorists"
http://conservativesarecommunistss.blogspot.com/

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Republicanites rely on public ignorance

Unless told otherwise, most people who have never run a business believe (to the extent that they've thought about it at all) that businesses are taxed on all their earnings minus a tiny deduction, just like individuals.

That's why they believe it when Republicanites claim that high corporate income taxes cripple businesses or cause businesses to raise prices.

In fact, businesses are taxed on their earnings minus all costs of doing business. When I started my translation business, I was delighted at all the things I could deduct that I was never able to deduct before, and if I had a business large enough to need employees, I'd be able to pay their wages and benefits with pre-tax income. I would not have to pay taxes on anything that went toward wages and benefits for my employees.

It's not that high taxes prevent businesses from hiring employees. Hiring employees reduces a company's taxes. It's that the shareholders or the owner feel entitled to a high return, no matter what.