Comments on Advance Indiana™: Who Pays What Share Of Our Federal Taxes

Obama defined rich as those making over $250,000 a...

2008-08-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

Obama defined rich as those making over $250,000 a year.

McCain defined rich as those making over $5 million a year. (Saddleback Church Forum).

Two hundred fifty thousand? I was in California a few weeks ago, and to own a home out there, one that would go for $150K here, you need to be making well over $250K just to break even. Unless you want to rent space to all the "non-documented" workers living in CA.

Let the market decide who is rich, not some government pin head who is engaging in class envy/warfare.

"If We Kept The Payroll Tax Rate Exactly The Same But Applied It To
All Earnings And Not Just The First $97,500, We Could Virtually Eliminate The Entire Social Security Shortfall." (Sen. Barack Obama, Op-Ed, "Fixed-Income
Seniors Can Expect A Tax Cut," Quad City Times [IA], 9/21/07)

"I Think That Lifting The Cap Is Probably Going To Be The Best Option."(Sen. Barack Obama, Democrat Presidential Candidates Debate, Hanover, NH, 9/26/07)

Obama's Chief Economic Advisor Austan Goolsbee: "An Increase In The
Payroll Tax Of 6 Percentage Points Phased In Over Many Years Or Decades
Doesn't Strike Me As A Dramatic Move." (James Pethokoukis, "Goolsbee
Speaks!," U.S. News & World Report, 4/11/08)

“There is only one way to kill capitalism – by taxes, taxes, and more taxes.” Karl Marx (1818-1883)

I was galled to discover recently that my wife &am...

2008-08-20T06:26:00.000-05:00

I was galled to discover recently that my wife & I are "rich". Certainly, I don't feel rich. My wife is a nurse, and I am a contractor for the telephone company- not CEOs, not jet-setters. Yet, our incomes put us in the category of being "wealthy" such that our "fair share" of taxes are higher than others, in a case where we use fewer services than others.

I've been struggling to find out what we did to deserve a greater confiscation of our income- who we harmed, who we upset, and why we aren't afforded the opportunity to keep some reward for having played it straight. We went to school, got our degrees, carry no debt, and yet, we don't feel rich by any stretch of the imagination. We live an feel very middle class.

Under an Obama Administration, our tax burden stands to increase by up to 10 percentage points. I really don't want to hear from him that he is booster of the middle class, unless he revises what he means by that term.

I love how rather than click twice, people would r...

2008-08-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

I love how rather than click twice, people would rather flame somebody...and then look like an idiot. Ah well, maybe it makes them think twice next time.

Taxfederation.org did something along these lines last year with 2005 data. Showed exactly the same thing, just not in as accesible of a format. It's exactly like that "barstool economics" email that makes the rounds periodically. Everybody hates the rich (well, knee-jerk acolytes do anyways) but if they weren't giving 35% every year, the country would grind to a halt.

One other important fact that the poor, downtrodde...

2008-08-19T12:08:00.000-05:00

One other important fact that the poor, downtrodden, hand-wringing, bleeding-heart liberals don't remember to tell you is that only about 50% of the citizens pay any taxes at all.

Many of them are below the poverty level for paying taxes. And even some of them receive TAX REFUNDS on taxes they DIDN'T pay. And of course, there are the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who pay no taxes.

Melyssa, Credit is due to Zach Wendling at In The ...

2008-08-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

Melyssa, Credit is due to Zach Wendling at In The Agora. As I note, he posted the tables.

Gary, mind if I copy these over at HFFT? You thin...

2008-08-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

Gary, mind if I copy these over at HFFT?

You think Obama has seen this yet?

Sorry if the Congressional Budget Office doesn't c...

2008-08-18T17:56:00.002-05:00

Sorry if the Congressional Budget Office doesn't cut it for you, tanah. You can crawl back under your rock now.

It is customary to provide citation information wh...

2008-08-18T17:49:00.000-05:00

It is customary to provide citation information when one provides "statistics." If you want your readers to TRUST those statistics, it's even customary to describe the methodology used to arrive at said "statistics."

These "statistics" don't prove anything -- other than that you can cut-and-paste from someone else's blog/source.