Huntsman proposes new tax on seniors and vets to pay for tax cuts for the rich

[Maraya1969]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/31/309249/huntsman-taxes-rich/

2012 GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is releasing an economic plan today that is as bad for the middle-class — and as nutty — as any proposed by his rivals. It would pay for a half-million-dollar tax break for the richest 0.1 percent of Americans with tax increases on the middle-class and new taxes on seniors, veterans, and poor families.

In an apparent attempt to eclipse all previous Republican giveaways, including the disastrous Bush tax cuts, Huntsman would drop the marginal rate paid by the richest Americans by more than a third to 23 percent — a lower rate than rich people paid during the Coolidge and Hoover Administrations or any time since. He would also eliminate all taxes on all capital gains and dividend income — the primary forms of income for the wealthiest Americans.

---------------------------------

All Social Security benefits would become taxable. Senior citizens that currently receive the average Social Security benefit as their primary income source (as is the case for most seniors) currently pay no income taxes on those benefits, but would under Huntsman’s plan.

– Many middle-class parents would lose child tax credits and tax benefits for education and child care that are more valuable to them than a tax rate cut.

– Huntsman’s tax plan would also eliminate the employer health insurance exclusion, which helps enable some 160 million Americans get coverage through their jobs.

– One of the most successful pro-work, anti-poverty initiatives, the Earned Income Tax Credit, would be abolished.

– Veterans pensions and disability benefits would become subject to tax, as would all military combat pay, military housing allowances and meals, workers compensation payments, public assistance benefits, and state foster care payments.

[Sherman A1]

1. The best response to a failed method is

more of the same failed method....


"We must cut taxes for the wealthy............ :nopity: They are the job creators after all...... "

"The rest of you must participate in the shared sacrifice."


Pardon me .................. :banghead:

[begin_within]

2. Is this a sick joke?

It should be the other way around... tax the rich at a higher rate to pay for desperately needed services to veterans and seniors.

[MrScorpio]

3. Of course, he did...

He's still a republican, right?


Thought so.

[cali]

4. so much for the "he's the sane republican" meme. fuckwad.

[DavidDvorkin]

31. He IS the sane Republican!

Relative to the others, at any rate. That's the really shocking part.

[Firebrand Gary]

5. This is GREAT NEWS!

Go figure.

[MADem]

7. I agree--the nuttier he sounds, the less of a threat he is.

He's slicing his own throat!!

[eShirl]

6. OMG, it's not The Onion!

:rofl:
Is he, to use a boxing term, taking a dive?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. what a dumbass. kiss it good-bye, moran.

[liberal N proud]

9. The GOP Presidential candidates are a lesson in how to make the rich, richer.

It is like we are watching some sick, twisted movie with all this surreal bullshit that each one of them comes up with day in and day out.

[TheKentuckian]

10. Good old Mister Moderation/"Sane TeaPubliKlan"

[polmaven]

11. So thinkprogress has evidently

merged with The Onion, right.....RIGHT??? Please tell me that's what happened!!!

I had been talking with a good friend the other day, and we agreed that, if we HAD to have a Republican president, Huntsman may be the sanest. There goes THAT theory! It's really pretty scary to actually be confronted with the fact that Mittens is the sanest Republican in the race....Eeewww! :scared:

[Ilsa]

12. They really are showing how stupid they are on economics. nt

[highplainsdem]

16. +1,000

[nc4bo]

13. He's sick in the head, got that GOP disease.

How can anyone in their right mind take any of these jackasses seriously is just beyond comprehension.

:wtf:

[WinkyDink]

14. 23%? I'm shocked he didn't suggest ZERO %!

[hfojvt]

25. but he did

the tax rate for capital gains = 0%
the tax rate for dividends = 0%

that's pretty huge cutting there, and in the last round of dividend tax rate cuts, 75% of the benefits went to people making over $500,000 a year.

[Ganja Ninja]

15. "new taxes on seniors, veterans, and poor families"

What about orphans, the blind and the crippled? Those slackers have been getting a free ride for far too long! In fact why don't we just go out and find the one most unfortunate individual in America and stick him or her with the bill for the whole damned deficit.


Just in case it's needed :sarcasm:

[durablend]

17. Teabaggers of course, love it!

Being they're working for the benefit of the rich

[dgibby]

18. He's pandering to the Teahadists.

He's not even a blip on their radar screens, couldn't even shine Perry's boots if he offered to pay Perry to let him do it. If he's going to have any chance in the primary, he has to out crazy the crazies.

[TwilightGardener]

19. He's just as much an asshole as the rest of them.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. Disability benfits are currently taxed.

And it is also not correct that 'most seniors' have only Social Security income. It is the case for something close to half, but not for most. From SSA:"
Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 22% of married couples and about 43% of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income."

Huntsman's idea is awful, but many seem to think disabled people do not pay taxes, and that is incorrect and leads to nasty attitudes.

[Generic Other]

24. So nearly half of widowed elderly (mostly women) rely solely on ss payments

is what your stats seem to suggest. Those are the ones our country's leaders are targeting.

Nice to know who the ENEMY is. And it aint the blue-haired old grannies!!

[tinymontgomery]

33. Veterans Disability is not taxed

at the national or state level.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. His 'jobs plan' is every corporate executive's wet dream. The wealthy will now pour money on him.

[Overseas]

26. I guess that's the plan. How sad for us in America.

The "reasonable" guy has to stomp on the poor to get enough funding to run for office.

[hifiguy]

22. I wish the 'pukes would just come out and admit

that their long term plan is to cull the population by somewhere between 25 and 40%. That this is their ultimate intention could not be more clear. The baggers would love them anyway because they never could imagine that they would also be turned into Soylent Green.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Well this is to be expected, how else are you going to pay

for the taxes for the likes of Bill Gates?

:sarcasm:

[sudopod]

27. For serious? nt

[Historic NY]

28. Shared sacrifice...........we pay and the rich sacrifice.

[Marr]

29. It's weird-- this is exactly the response to failure that the Chicago School showed throughout Latin

America.They'd institute their upside-down economic policies, and when they failed to work, the response was always to repeat it in a bigger way. The assumption was always that some unperceived socialist impurity in the system had mucked things up-- never that their whole approach might be flawed.

[leftstreet]

30. It's a good GOP strategy

Obama and the Dems aren't proposing anything that will bring out the voters who put them in office, so the field is open for GOPers to maximize voter wrath from those angry they can't get 'welfare' but their neighbor can.

This guy's plan would never have flown when Obama was campaigning on 'universal healthcare' and 'jobs programs' back in 2008.

[Broderick]

32. who is he?

shrug.

[GeorgeGist]

34. Does being rich make you stupid?

I think so.

[MichiganVote]

35. Where are the jobs republicans?????

[spanone]

36. and he's the rational one?????? holy shit.