re: So the top 1% pay 24% of taxes but earn only 15% of income, they are overtaxed

Fair share?

quote:

---

Like Mittens, less than 15% on 23 million.

---

I guess it's no surprise that neither 15% nor $23M are correct, but we do know for sure that Romney's car elevator cost $55K

quote:

---

Bottom 50% pays nothing

---

Not true. They pay FICA, sales, excise, etc.

Of course not. And your link doesn't dispute that.

Clearly the class warfare game flows from both parties.

quote:

---

Of course not. And your link doesn't dispute that.

---

The link was to an earlier post that destroys your premise.

quote:

---

FICA tax paid goes to two guaranteed pots that if they live long enough, will give them benefits well in excess of what they have paid.

---

Just so I have this straight: the right-wing talking point is now that SS and Medicare are in great shape and will pay out just fine?

quote:

---

About the only tax I can think of that the bottom group pays to the general fund of the federal government is the federal excise tax on gasoline, and that's only if they drive (and most of the very poor do not have their own transportation, so they don't buy gas).

---

Oh, but this thread isn't about just the "very poor". And the middle class and lower middle class to whom a lot of this ranting applies is often forced to live in places that ONLY can be accessed by costly automobile transport.

quote:

---

I could go get hired as a waiter or dishwasher or any other number of low paying (but paying) jobs today. People that aren't working are doing so because they are "above" what jobs are available to them.

---

So we need to grant amnesty for 5-10 million illegals, problem solved, now tax the hell out of these new citizens so we can support the other US citizens that refuse to work, yeah pretty dumb aint it?

quote:

---

quote: The one percent can always work less, make less, and earn that lower rate; what is stopping them? disincentivizing production is good for the economy

---

If the only reason a person is producing is so they can pay more taxes they are an idiot. The benefits of earning as much as possible outweighs the burden of paying taxes. That is why Atlas ain't shrugging....because Atlas knows that as income increases so do choices, security, life expectancy, and yes, taxes. But Atlas is free to choose. He can decide to trade all of the benefits that hard work and smart choices bring and simply pay no taxes...he can, conceivably, sleep on a park bench and if he is willing to play the game and jump through enough hoops he will even be given enough benefits from the rest of us to survive at some level.

Yes. Taxes are a terrible burden, on that increases as wealth increases. Is that burden so great that one would forego being wealthy? Does anyone seriously think that a person who has scratched their way into the 1% would swap places willingly with someone in the top 2% in order to lower their tax bill? Would you? I know I wouldn't.

No one in this country pays enough in taxes compared to the amount of money we spend...if we did we wouldn't be in the amount of debt we are (some of that debt makes sense to carry just like a mortgage payment). Many of the top 1% reap the benefits of that spending....at the very least there security is assured at the national level by those who do not belong to their economic class and who have, for the most part, benefited from that spending. This is why there is no real movement to cut taxes and spending simultaneously....because the people it will effect the most are the very ones that so many of y'all are worried about being over burdened with taxes.

Of course there are those in that economic class who do clamor for tax cuts for themselves....and some who might even pay lip service to cutting spending....but the majority of that class who likes the idea of cutting taxes also likes the idea of shifting the burden to the middle class....they are, in essence, about pulling the ladder up behind them. They like the idea of you paying for their production costs in the form of welfare and food stamps for their employees....a well fed employee who has a subsidized home to go of an evening is much less likely to ask the boss for a raise. And they can depend on their lapdogs in the middle class to provide a barrier between them and the poor as long as they maintain the illusion that hard work and good choices will eventually lead that middle class person to the top1%.

All you gotta know about taxes in the United States is the answer to this question...


Would you rather owe nothing in taxes in January or $1 million? The choice is literally yours.

quote:

---

So the top 1% pay 24% of taxes but earn only 15% of income, they are overtaxed quote: There is a very small group in this country that "pay nothing" If you buy gasoline, you pay taxes. If you by any product that is not food, you pay taxes. If you rent an apartment, you pay taxes. If you have a utility bill, you pay taxes. If you have a telephone, you pay taxes. You've got to be trolling with this nonsense. No one is actually this stupid. Or are you just ignoring that the "income" these people are using to get "taxed" while purchasing these items is given to them?

---

So you are of the opinion that a E5 in the US Military is a welfare king? Or the deputy sheriff or the police officer who works in your community? Or the college kid or recent high school graduate learning a trade and working at Walmart? Maybe the retires who paid their entire lives? These are the 47% that Mitt Romney told y'all to talk about.