Who is Hillary really Fighting For?

[orleans]

Run time: 02:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7pw0cFRTLE   Posted on YouTube: November 19, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 24, 2008 By DU Member: orleans Views on DU: 397

 
from a link in a post by hfojvt:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5650317&mesg_id=5650653

on the thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5650317

[Jed Dilligan]

1. K/R

Excellent netroots campaign video!

[cascadiance]

2. I'm always just "barely" in that 6% all of the time...

My salary basically "tracks" the cap so I always pay as much as Bill Gates does. I live in California, so I'm not sure that where I am is quite up in the "upper class" as some might define it with our cost of living here.

Now if we have a "window" where I pay the same as someone making $250k isn't that still unfair to me? Why should I have to pay the same tax as they do if they have that "window" so that they can stay with their commitment not to raise taxes on those under $250k.

A better solution would be to remove the cap altogether AND lower the percentage that is paid so that those making $250k today pay the exact same amount as they pay today, and everyone below $250k gets a corresponding payroll tax cut, and everyone above pays more. And EVERYONE pays the same percentage!

That way, social security is solvent, the middle class gets a tax cut and EVERYONE pays the same percentage of their income! Fair?!!! And we could also tell Stephanopolis and Gibson to suck it for their "logic trap" question!

[hfojvt]

3. the really ironic part is

the part Obama got wrong. Warren Buffet probably pays zero social security tax on his income, same as the hedge fund manager who made 1.6 billion last year. Because social security and medicare are only charged on WAGES and those people are making their money, the bulk of it, from dividends, rent, interest, and capital gains.

So, given the composition of many higher incomes removing the cap might not raise as much revenue as expected.

I'd like to see the payroll tax scrapped altogether and have social security funded out of a more progressive income tax with fewer loopholes, but that's not gonna be on the table either.

[cascadiance]

4. It all is a big shell game now...

What we need is people in the government that won't *aid* the shell game, but find ways to uncover and disentangle it and come up with a fairer system that doesn't reward "cronies".

The capital gains tax needs reform as well, and AMT needs reindexing to adjust for inflation which is why it is causing trouble now, and not just be "thrown away".

We could reintroduce tax deductions for sales tax, non-home mortgage interest payments, and renters' credits in California State Tax too like we used to have not that long ago. Also, perhaps not have all of the itemized deductions have to be above the 2% threshold to qualify too as well. A lot of these deductions were deductions the middle class could take. Now the only ones left are home mortgages (if the middle class can still afford houses), car registration fees, donations, state income tax *OR* sales tax and a few others that don't add up to much any more over the "standard" deduction.