Not me. I'm voting for Romney because I'm in one of the 54% of households that owed federal income taxes in 2011.
First they came for the "1%" and I said nothing because I'm not in the 1%. Then they came ...
Already, "millionaires and billionaires" are households making $250K per year. It's a slippery slope!
A fair tax system would be a broader base and fewer deductions. Simplify. That way, everyone would be able to guess pretty closely what percent of his income Romney had paid in taxes - and what percent their neighbors and colleagues had paid. When everyone chips in, there are more eyes on where the money goes and it's spent more carefully. Right now, it's taken from people who have too much anyway and given to people who can't get enough. How do we ever go back when the takers outnumber the givers?
1. The only real deduction left to grab from the middles is the home interest one. That should be popular. (There's a reason Paul Ryan's budget doesn't have any numbers in it.)
ReplyDelete2. Social Security taxes top out, and people earning less than $110k pay them in higher proportion. (But the benefits are concentrated there too. Makes you wonder why is this program always in the gunsights.)
3. Conservatives have all but eliminated the inheritance tax. They've drastically cut the capital gains tax (compared to what people pay when they work for it), which is how lots of the really wealthy keep themselves rich, and calling that income "income" would be a great way to simplify. They also keep cutting the top income (in the strange way it's currently defined) rate, and yet, the economy has not magically improved in the last 35 years.
4. They also pay less fraction of their income buying shit. Less sales tax. (Property tax, I suppose they've got.) Y'know, there's a reason that arguments like this get limited to income taxes.
5. If you really want, I can pull some data on income and wealth distribution. We're both smarter than arguing with factoids.
"How do we ever go back when the takers outnumber the givers?" Pretty much what they said about feudalism too. Oh, piss boy!
6. Mitt's 13% is only paid on his taxable income, after he's claimed his losses, deductions, and dodges. Don't his offshore accounts bother you?
I couldn't agree with you more. We should nuke the tax code and start all over. That was a big topic of conversation during the Republican primary. Something like Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan or Rick Perry's goal of getting a tax return to fit on a postcard are very attractive compared to the mess we have now.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Mitt Romney, we pay close to 100,000 people to work at the IRS so that we don't have to worry about his tax rate or offshore accounts. A mechanism is in place to make sure that people follow the rules and to penalize them when they don't. I can't really blame anyone for legally minimizing their tax burden. If certain deduction or offshore accounts or unfair, then let's make rules against that - not attack someone operating within the system.
Rich Democratic pols are no more virtuous when it comes to taxes. In Mitt Romney's defense, look at his charitable contributions. He tithes to his church and probably has other causes he supports, too. My guess is that he's been tithing since before he was rich, but I don't know that. All in all, it sounds like he gives about as much to non-profits as he gives to Uncle Sam. He doesn't seem like such a selfish guy to me.
If there's a problem, it's the tax code, not Mitt Romney and I'm not seeing any compelling tax reform coming out of Obama. He has lots of ideas on how to make life easier for a slew of special interest groups, but economic issues are not exactly in his wheelhouse.
So you agree that inheritance and capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as any other income. And that the social security tax should have no cap. Well, good for you. You might want to avoid voting Republican of course. Or Democrat, but especially Republican.
ReplyDeleteAs for Mitt Pilgrim vs. the World... How the hell is it when a guy like that games the system within an inch of its legal life for millions, it's laudatory, but when some guy in the gutter does the same thing with food stamps, then it's the root of all righteous contempt? I mean, they're both acting on the same impulse, to weasel what they can from the cracks and flaws in the system. And the differences don't paint Romney all that well: the evasions of Mitt and people like him are a shit-ton more expensive to society; he's in a position to affect the rules themselves while the poor man is not (and hint: there's one reason why the poor are subject to more criminal prosecution); and when the destitute guy wrangles a break, it makes a tremendous difference in his life, but when Mitt gets a hit just a little more, well, he's still filthy rich.
At what point in time does "before he was rich" apply to Mitt Romney, by the way?
Some guy in the gutter? I'm not contemptuous of everyone on food stamps or welfare, just the frauds and the illegals. I realize this contempt sets me apart from many of the Massachusetts Democrats. It's a growing component of their base, after all.
ReplyDeleteAs for the difference between Mitt Romney and someone gaming the welfare system: You can have two students that get the same A. Only the one that studied for and earned the A deserves any credit, though. The one that cheated and got the A off the effort of others is obviously not worthy of the same respect.
Good god man, someone who cheats food stamps gets food. Someone who cheats my 401k gets a million dollar bonus. Someone who gets caught cheating food stamps gets the cops kicking him around and likely jail time. Someone who gets caught cheating the entire financial system gets a nice sucking-off from congress as well as his million dollar bonus. With differences like that, I simply don't get the direction of the outrage.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mitt is the kid who's dad endowed the school. Whatever grades he got was preceded with "gentlemen's".
Hey Keifus - I get outraged, too, at the Wall St. frauds that are cut loose. I'm not going to camp out in the mud with the freebie Occupy Wall St crowd, but on the topic of Wall St frauds, I'm in complete agreement with them. Now if there were any food stamp frauds actually defrauding the system of *food* and suffering jail time for that, then I think you'd have a point. Since that's not the reality, however, let's get Obama out of office and turn off the spigot.
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