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Surprise, surprise! Administration not accurate on the Buffett Rule . . .

According to Factcheck.org:

In their zeal to pass the “Buffett Rule,” President Obama and Vice President Biden leave the false impression that many, if not most, millionaires (people who earn $1 million or more a year) are paying a lower tax rate than the middle class. The fact is that even without the Buffett Rule “more than 99 percent of millionaires will pay” a higher tax rate than those in the very middle of the income range in fiscal year 2015, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

So, gee, now that we know that, of course everyone will stop grandstanding about the stupidest plan since Hermann Cain's 9-9-9 now-I-cheat-on-my-wife economic plan, right?

Yeah.  Sure.

Oh, and the Annenberg Foundation also discovered that they've been distorting how much money it would shave off the deficit, too.

Who'd a thunk it?

Comments

Dana Garrett said…
I know someone who lives entirely off capital gains from inherited income. And guess what. He doesn't create a single job. His tax rate is 15%, and although he makes much more money than me, I have a higher tax rate.

As far as I am concerned, the Buffet Rule doesn't go far enough in taxing wealth, but it's a start.
Anonymous said…
Dana,

Your friends mother or father already paid the 30% payroll tax on that money. He is not "getting away" with anything, that tax was already paid.

Instead of blowing the money your friend decided to invest. Most likely in stocks, which companies use that money to expand product lines and create new jobs.

Finally, I detect some envy on your part towards your friend. It seems as if you feel you are somehow entitled to some of his money (property). Have you asked him directly if you can have some? Or you just prefer the goverment take it for you?


JG
Dana Garrett said…
Really, JG, you really ought to understand these things before you pontificate on them. He is taxed 15% not on what he inherited but on his capital GAINS: what he has earned as a result of investing the money he inherited.

Also, your knee jerk touting of the "envy" retort is as ludicrous as it is predictable.

So I put it out there again: why should someone who EARNS more money than me pay half the tax rate I pay on the money I EARN through labor?
Anonymous said…
Dana,

Let me try and explain this again. I'll go a little slower this time.

Lets say your friend inherited 1 million dollars. What his father actually earned was 1.3 million.
His father paid Federal Payroll taxes on those dollars. Your are paying your payroll taxes NOW.

Your friend in now paying 15% tax on the profit off his investmens. You are now just paying your 30% payroll taxes.

I don't see why you think you should pay less? If you take your money and invest it, you will be taxed at 15%. Not rocket science.

As in my first post I'm talking about payroll and capital gains taxes. I never mentioned inheritance taxes. I have no clue how you got that confused.

John Galt
Dana Garrett said…
Dear John, you are one of the fascinating types who doesn't notice when you trip over the only point that is relevant because you are benighted by irrelevant gunk. The only thing you said that was germane is this: "Your friend in now paying 15% tax on the profit off his investmens." That's the point, John. He is earning INCOME on his investments and is not paying taxes on the investments themselves. That his parents paid taxes on the money they bequeathed to him is IRRELEVANT to the fact that that money generates INCOME which is ALL that is being taxed and at a meager 15%.

Now I see no essential difference between him earning INCOME and my earning INCOME, and it's incidental that he earns it through capital gains and I earn mine through labor. It's still--now these are important words, John--EARNED INCOME.

Oh, but there is another important difference. His EARNED INCOME is taxed at 15% and mine is taxed at 30%.

Now unless you can convince me that my friend is not EARNING INCOME (and explain to me how he is paying his bills if he isn't), then I really don't see a point in you attempting your sophistical contortions again.
Anonymous said…
Dana is free to lobby his fellow travelers who imposed 30% tax rates on working people to lower them to 15% sp he doesn't feel so screwed over. Don't hold your breath waiting for it though.

The class warfare waging envious who want infinite control over the population simply can't be happy unless they're grabbing more and more from others.

The very concept for which Dana could easily lobby: that he and people like him keep more of their hard earned wages, is utterly alien to any hard left ideologue or demagogue, as the case may be.

But limitless tax slavery isn't just the price to be paid (by others) for all the fuzzy good intentions and utopian schemes of these demagogues. At the heart of it they yearn for control over all and subjugation of all those they envy.

You'll never hear the argument that "working people" like Dana should be taxed less. It's always that someone else (not them) should be put upon more.

Calling envy for what it is does not make it any less a valid response. If it isn't envy then it is just irrational emotion.

Either way, it's just a temper tantrum based on their subjective and always self-serving definitions of 'fairness'.
Dana Garrett said…
"Fellow Travelers!" ROTFLMAO!! Your Tailgunner Joe rhetoric was discredited in the 1950s. You are a fossil.

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