Do you want Obama to let the Bush Tax Cuts expire?
This question is the response to many arguments made by Obama supporters saying the Bush Tax Cuts only helped "rich" American, but I really need to clear the air from this false assumption because I don't want to see our economy tumble anymore than it has.
Since Bush has been president (since 200):
Families making $10,000 = 30-35% tax decrease Families making $20,000 = 20-25% tax decrease Families making $60,000 = 20-25% tax decrease Families making $70,000 = 20-25% tax decrease
While families making $150,000+ = 10-15% tax decrease
Familes making $350,000 = 12.5% tax decrease
Remember federal income tax is not the only tax that will effect your income. You also have capital gains tax. For those of you that don't know what they are...if you make an investment in land, house, stock market, car and you sell it for a profit, you have to pay capital gains tax.
Obama will increase capital gains tax, which doesn't discriminate whether you make $1000 $1,000,000 a year!
2008-06-10T13:06:42Z
I'M NOT SAYING BUSH IS A GOOD PRESIDENT, I DON'T THINK HE IS...BUT THIS IS ONE OF HIS POLICY CHANGES THAT OBAMA WAS TO LET EXPIRE, SO STICK TO THE QUESTION AND DON'T GO OFF ON TANGENTS ABOUT THE WAR ETC.
2008-06-10T13:56:38Z
Angel: Do you mind posting a link to your claim that businesses will pay no capital gains. Also, people who earn under $8,025 pay 10% in federal income. You are probally thinking of your state tax.
Dan H2008-06-10T13:12:05Z
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No I completely agree with you... while Bush is not a good president Obama's inexperience shows here. He will cripple the economy because: 1) The rich will pull their money from the stock market and crash it because of capital gains tax increases 2) We will suffer enormously as a society because the tax increase will make our paychecks smaller 3) He is just going to spend that money on Welfare which enables the poor to stay poor and not go work (a very elitist thing to do. Keep the poor, poor) 4) He is going to destabilize the dollar severely as if Bush hasn't screwed it up enough.
I am going to have to vote for McCain unfortunately because I have no other choice. Obama is way way to radical with his views period.
I might vote for Bob Barr the libertarian but then my vote wont count for nothing.
Yes. Happens all the time. Increase taxes and people spend less. The Democrats don't seem to grasp that or simply want that guaranteed cash. They certainly don't care about how I feel when I can barely pay my taxes in NY State. BTW: the top 5% means anyone over 145K, not 250K. I wish the media would question this. They also pay most of the Federal budget NOW, but for some reason everyone is fine with "other" people paying the bill. Never mind how much effort goes into making 145K+. Don't forget he plans to increase capital gains taxes and payroll taxes (over 250K). Let's do the math on that one: Payroll tax for the self employed is 13.5% if you make $1 Million (I wish), you will have to pay an additional $101,250 in tax. Don't forget the $400,000K these folks already pay (Liberals love to ignore net income). That's half just for federal. State is 7%, so another35-50K, and property taxes are 30-40K for these folks. Nice living, but holy cow. There you have it. Socialism. Watch how these people move their money off shore. That should create jobs. Edit: of course Obama's plan will bring in more revenue on paper! These people pay all the taxes. The bottom 50% in this country pay 3% of the federal budget. Those analyses don't account for economic activity.
I don't want to sound like I'm calling you a liar, but I'd like to see where you got those figures. I am in one of those categories and I didn't see anything like a 20% tax decrease. Did you? I wonder how these figures are calculated. I think there is some 'creative accounting' involved.
The Bush tax cuts are very heavily skewed towards the rich. Even if they are a good idea, the way Republicans talk about them is bogus.
For instance, when talking about the inheritance tax cut, they are always talking about people who are middle class, own family farms or family businesses that have become worth 3 or 4 million dollars, and why should they have to pay tax just because Uncle Henry died and left it to them? So Democrats have said "Okay, let's raise the limit to $50 million." Republicans won't go for it.
I'm not even blaming the Republicans here, the Democrats have bad ideas too. EVERY idea to reform taxes is sold as something that will lower -everyone's- taxes but it should be scrutinized for who it helps and who it doesn't.
Bush's tax cuts have contributed to the biggest deficits in history, and that's not even counting the cost of the Iraq War. We are so far in debt that our currency is losing its value. If Bush's tax cuts were supposed to reduce the deficit, they have failed spectacularly. In fact the only reason they were made temporary to begin with was so the GAO could lie about their eventual cost.
Obama's tax increase won't cut in until families of 200k. He also has zero capital gains for small business and those making 50k or less (i think), so in that sense he goes further than Bush.
Your numbers are not right. Families making 10,000 don't pay federal income tax, which is the taxes we are talking about.
Yes, he should let them expire. But he won't - he has said he will only repeal the tax cuts on people making over 250K or so.
The reason he should is that we need fiscal discipline. High debt=weak dollar=high oil prices right now, and we are screwing over future generations. We had perfectly good growth in the 1990s with those higher tax rates - what do you know, maybe tax cuts are not the only source of economic growth after all?
But he won't because democrats can never run on the policies that would be best for the country. They always have to pander to the "middle-class" however that is defined with a tax cut, and draw distinctions with Republicans only on the issue of tax cuts for the very rich. So I honestly believe Obama will not do anything to increase taxes on people making less than 100K. Capital gains taxes will not affect the vast majority of those people. The top 10% (over 150K income) hold over 88% of the stock in this country.