George W. Bush: The Good Things (Page 4)

 This system is already in place.  As of 2003, the top 50% of income earners paid 96.54% of the taxes in the U.S. and the top 1% in income earners paid an absurd 31.27% of all taxes in the U.S.  That is nothing but baldfaced stealing from one group to give to another.  How's that working out for us?? 

LMAO!

For arguments sake, here's a distillation of an argument I once heard in favor of progressive taxation in the form of a national sales tax:

- most of our taxes are paid for the national defense.
- the things being defended are life, liberty, and property.
- each persons life and liberty are equal in value (legally).
- the higher ones income, the greater ones assets (property)

Ergo, the more stuff you have, the more you're getting in government services.

Using this reasoning, it's perfectly appropriate for the richest 1% to pay the lions share of the taxes, because they have the most stuff being defended by the military.

Discuss. Civilly. First person to use a derogatory term is a no good commie. 

Anyone paying 40% of their income deserves to pay 40% of their income.

If you are earning 20,000 or less - you are more than likely not paying any taxes at all, though you drive on the roads, have a stop light coming out of your neighborhood and are entitled to police, fire and EMS. I've always found it funny to listen to someone who is not paying money into the tax system getting pissed about the rich and wanting to tax them further - these are all talking points put forth by political parties and have very little real validity - I don't want to hear someone who makes 60k complain about their tax bracket if their reported taxable income is 37k or someone who is making 25 k and is paying 1k after earned income credits. Neaither side has any validity.

Anyone in that tax bracket is taking some heavy deductions to the point that 40% has no meaning - If someone makes 500k a year, after deductions their paying much less than 40% of their actual income, but will still complain about paying that much....

If you're clearing 500 large a year I would invest in a CPA and not use just TurboTax

bts 

While there are federal grants that provide some funding for police, fire, EMS and local streets, the bulk of these operations are paid for through your local property taxes which are NOT based on income, but the VALUE of your property (House).  (Yeah, I know some localities have a local income tax).

Prior to the Economic Recovery Tax Act -1981 and the Tax Reform Act-1986 (Thank you Mr. Reagan) individuals top tax rate was 70% !!!!   There is an Alternative Minimum Tax in place designed to prevent high-income taxpayers from escaping their "fair"-share of the tax burden.  

Our Federal Tax system is obviously a very complicated system that is (too) tightly interwoven with our economic system (In simple terms,  much of our economy depends on our tax structure - maybe "depends" is too strong a word; but I'm talking about things like investments). MORE complicated are the EFFECTS of changes to our tax structure on our economic viability, which makes it difficult to make changes - just ask the lobbyists.

You deserve, and have an obligation, to pay what your properly prepared Income Tax form says ya owe under the existing tax code. 

I don't know anyone that has ever said "let me pay MORE tax", but I think/hope that most of us are willing to pay our taxes to live in this great country. 

You obviously haven't ever listened to any Democrat politician...oh, wait...you're right...they don't say "let ME pay more tax", it's always "YOU pay more tax."  Key word here being more...the typical Democrat never met a tax they didn't like.

Hey Stan could you post something just to get rid of the 666 thing.

btw who is this George Bush you speak of in this thread?

You're right, I've voted 4 times to raise property taxes for school referendums locally.

Oh, but that raises my own taxes to, so there goes your argument.

Thanks for not resorting to hyperbolic stereotypes. 

-Chris 

 I hope that your races this year have nothing but left hand turns cause I don't think you'd  know what to do otherwise.

You GET to vote on your property taxes.  Local education issues are an easy (relatively speaking) one that MOST would vote for.   Good schools help property values which benefit the homeowner, ie - the taxpayer. Not to mention, if you have kids or planning to have kids, what the value of a good education is.

You don't get to vote on Federal income taxes (not directly) so there's NO choice. 

Edit:  OH yeah - your property taxes are deductible on your Federal return - another direct benefit.

Bottom line - you're comparing apples (local property taxes) to oranges (Federal income tax).

I'm sorry maybe I'm not altruistic enough, but I am NOT willing to "do whatever it takes" to help them. 

The original poster didn't specify what taxes us commie pinko liberal democrats are supposed to love.

 If the tax is paid locally or federally, it's still a tax, and you still paid it.  Only difference is the "Payable To:" line on the check.

You are correct that we don't directly determine our Fed taxes.  If they went somewhere useful, to education or other programs that help, instead of pork/special interests, I'd have less of an issue with Fed taxes.  I *can* make sure that more of my tax money goes to education by raising my local taxes, and I do.

Thanks for trimming my quote, but I'll bet if I'd made a sterotypical attack against republicans you'd have not had any problems leaving it intact though. 

 -Chris