tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post1197430294998405263..comments2024-03-26T22:42:06.412-07:00Comments on TAG Blog: 40% Flat Tax?Steve Huletthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05537689111433326847noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-17270516322220971502011-09-15T08:29:33.627-07:002011-09-15T08:29:33.627-07:00Taxes should just keep going up until everything i...Taxes should just keep going up until everything is fixed! It's all so simple! What's the problem?! The government is brilliant at spending money, but those fatcat business owners just aren't paying their fair share. If only the government had more money to distribute among the people, everything would be fine. It's totally simple: Higher taxes means everything's great! The government has proven time and time again that they are not corrupt and perfectly capable of taking our money and redistributing it fairly! Come ON! What's wrong with everyone?! The only reason we don't live in a utopia is because we haven't effectively funded our poor government to make everything wonderful! Rich people don't deserve so much money. It's not fair. Everyone in America deserves a free house, car, cable TV, and anything else they want. THAT'S WHAT AMERICA IS ABOUT! Rich people got that way by dumb luck and by raping the environment. They deserve to have their money taken. JUST RAISE TAXES ALREADY AND EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-35769671671827453552011-09-12T08:50:46.633-07:002011-09-12T08:50:46.633-07:00I agree with the last poster that this article tri...I agree with the last poster that this article tries very hard to redefine marginal tax to be something it is not, and is fundamentally deceptive. Whether that deception is self deception (i.e., the writer is naive) or manipulative (i.e., the writer has a hidden agenda) is something I'm not going to bother with, since from my own experience I know that ALL my combined taxes do not come close to 40%, and I know people who make much more than I do who pay an even smaller percentage of total taxes.<br /><br />That said, an unbiased look at the range of total tax burdens (combining federal, state, employment, self-employment, SS, Medicare, sales, property, car registration, etc., etc.) would be interesting. I suspect it would show that our actual tax system is not only NOT progressive, but that it's REGRESSIVE (the poorer among us paying a higher percentage of their income into various taxes than the wealthier among us).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-6955954339483812602011-09-11T22:53:16.465-07:002011-09-11T22:53:16.465-07:00"Everything is slanted one way or another. Ba..."Everything is slanted one way or another. Basically, you can't trust anyone."<br /><br />Hogwash. There is bias, and there is propaganda. Trying to lump them into the same category to disregard criticism is exactly the kind of tactic that prompted John Stauber to found the Center for Media and Democracy which publishes SourceWatch.<br /><br />The article referenced above is trying to redefine marginal tax rate, which properly is "the rate that applies to the last dollar of the tax base". The article is trying to imply that it is something else - a combination of several very different taxes. Certainly they have no problem shifting payroll taxes to "benefits" taxes. It's this kind of language manipulation that muddles the understanding of the issue, and are tactics that unions have seen up close and personal in their own negotiations.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-39849759023967866972011-09-11T15:49:19.280-07:002011-09-11T15:49:19.280-07:00Capitalism has worked around the globe the way it ...Capitalism has worked around the globe the way it was meant to, and the owners of society 'won' when they threw all their losses back onto the people and their governments. Now, they're sitting on top of piles of capital - but with nowhere to put it and no way to spend it. They are panicking b/c they don't trust anyone with their 'capital.' They are afraid all of their rigged wealth was all for nothing after all. They are right about that.<br /><br />The owners of society were the ones who undermined the trust of government by deftly sending us all to bankruptcy. Now all they do is spin fear about how the global economy is going to collapse. Like corporations, they are sociopaths.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-16964722432957197302011-09-11T13:46:08.177-07:002011-09-11T13:46:08.177-07:00"The important part when quoting experts, is ..."The important part when quoting experts, is to find out who they are and who funds them, regardless of how impressive or official their name sounds:"<br /><br />Maybe you should do a background check on who Sourcewatch is run by.<br /><br />Everything is slanted one way or another. Basically, you can't trust anyone.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-51614140938325046312011-09-11T11:49:24.244-07:002011-09-11T11:49:24.244-07:00September 11, 2011, 8:41 AM
The Years of Shame
Pa...September 11, 2011, 8:41 AM<br />The Years of Shame<br /><br />Paul Krugman<br /><br />Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?<br /><br />Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.<br /><br />What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. Te atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.<br /><br />A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?<br /><br />The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-2995340364543940172011-09-11T11:41:03.104-07:002011-09-11T11:41:03.104-07:00Absolutely. Eliminating competition by the "...Absolutely. Eliminating competition by the "perceived" leveling out of the playing field is a major goal of corporate communists of the far right wing. We currently have the lowest tax rates in 50 years overall. While the wealthiest forge more and more tax loopholes and breaks to pay less and less taxes and send more jobs overseas. <br /><br />The Progressive Tax system is still the best. Now let's close those loopholes and tax breaks for any person or business making over $600,000 a year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-5973599075344629532011-09-11T11:27:14.259-07:002011-09-11T11:27:14.259-07:00The important part when quoting experts, is to fin...The important part when quoting experts, is to find out who they are and who funds them, regardless of how impressive or official their name sounds:<br /><br />http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Bureau_of_Economic_ResearchAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com