and I'm far from rich, but being a self employed MT, you do know how much taxes I pay I am assuming? 40 percent. 40 PERCENT. 40 PERCENT OF MY INCOME THAT I WORK MY ASS OF FOR GOES TO TAXES!!! You think that should be raised? I make under 50K a year ... please give me a break, you're using the same talking points of the liberal party "only tax breaks for the rich" PLEASE. when my 600.00 stimulus check came for the first time in 10 years i got money back and i was jumping for joy! You can't tell me something like this post and expect me to believe it, cause i've lived it...
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They certainly must for so many MTs to be all atwitter over this plan. Fred Thompson said it perfectly last PM.
So those "moneybags" need to stop griping about MQ and how crappy it pays. You think you have less in your pockets now? You think this crap he's promising is free? How ignorant!
Bad news for Democrats: Top 5% of taxpayers paid 53.8% of all indiv. income taxes...
Okay, this is the one area Democratics leaders always try to mislead the American public on:
The rich get major tax breaks. The rich get all of the Bush tax cuts. The rich pay no taxes.
Of course they never want to explain what an unproportional percentage the wealthy in this country pay to taxes. Now to the FACTS from the Department of the Treasury:
The latest data is from the 2002 taxes. The following incomes split levels from the IRS are (% of total individual income tax in parenthesis):
Top 1%: above $ 285,424 (33.71%) Top 5%: above $ 126,525 (53.80%) Top 10%: above $ 92,663 (65.73%) Top 25%: above $ 56,401 (83.90%) Top 50%: above $ 28,654 (96.50%) Bottom 50%: below $ 28,654 (4.50%)
The President's Tax cuts actually increase the burden on the wealthy while providing greater relief to the bottom 50 (who are not contributing proportionally to the federal coffers). DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Public Affairs March 2, 2005 FACT SHEET: Who Pays the Most Individual Income Taxes?
The individual income tax is highly progressive – a small group of higher-income taxpayers pay most of the individual income taxes each year.
• In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income.
• The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 33.7 percent of all individual income taxes in 2002. This group of taxpayers has paid more than 30 percent of individual income taxes since 1995. Moreover, since 1990 this group’s tax share has grown faster than their income share.
• Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes. In all years since 1990, taxpayers in this group have paid over 94 percent of all individual income taxes. In 2000, 2001, and 2002, this group paid over 96 percent of the total.
The President’s tax cuts have shifted a larger share of the individual income taxes paid to higher income taxpayers. In 2005, when most of the tax cut provisions are fully in effect (e.g., lower tax rates, the $1,000 child credit, marriage penalty relief), the projected tax share for lower-income taxpayers will fall, while the tax share for higher-income taxpayers will rise.
• The share of taxes paid by the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers will fall from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent.
• The share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent of taxpayers will rise from 32.3 percent to 33.7 percent.
• The average tax rate for the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers falls by 27 percent as compared to a 13 percent decline for taxpayers in the top 1 percent.
Also, with Obama's tax plan, even if you add the 3% he is talking about, that's what? Another 7500 - after you figure in your deductions, that ain't gonna be nothing.
And as far as their paying higher sales tax, that is a state tax - not a federal tax. And they choose to buy those more expensive items so that tax is their choice - they don't have to pay it.
MQ still pays more for ASR than other
companies. There was one company out there advertising 3 cpl for ASR. Their add said they need MTs who can "hit the ground running." It was on MTdaily a few days ago. There should be "ASR control" where they can't continue to lower our pay. Remember years ago when people voted for "rent control" and won? Time to sign those petitions for "ASR control."
That may be true about the rape kits, but I don't see any other mayor or former mayor saying that they are a maverick and running for VP.
The government pays for nothing....
...we have hired them to handle certain management tasks with OUR money.
We have grown too large to defend the country with just a militia. We have high-rise buildings and can no longer get by with volunteer fire departments. We need street crews because we have too much roadway, highways and freeways, and no longer can simply neaten up the road that runs past our property. We produce far too much trash to simply take it out back and burn it (if that were even still legal in some areas.) Some elements of modern life have grown just to large and complicated to handle on our own.
We have a system of compulsory schooling now that is doing SUCH a great job educating our children. Kids were far more literate and better educated when the bulk of their learning occurred in the home. Read anything written by John Taylor Gatto - Weapons of Mass Instruction is his most recent book - about the origins of public education.
I quote here what was in an earlier post: *If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until the government gives it to you for free.* What the government dispenses, the government rations. Do you really want a government bureaucrat in control of whether you get surgery or some diagnostic test your doctor says you need? Bad enough you have to fight about it with your insurance company now. You really want to turn this over to the government? Really?
Even he see the unfairness here. Some conservatives are fond of saying that Democrats want to tax the wealthy unfairly, but what I would like to see is the wealthy taxed equally. "Mr. Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent." Here is the entire article. It's a great read. Trust me.
June 28, 2007
Buffett blasts system that lets him pay less tax than secretary
Warren Buffett, the third-richest man in the world, has criticised the US tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary and his cleaner.
Speaking at a $4,600-a-seat fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52 billion (£26 billion), said: “The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”
Mr Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent. Mr Buffett told his audience, which included John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley, and Alan Patricof, the founder of the US branch of Apax Partners, that US government policy had accentuated a disparity of wealth that hurt the economy by stifling opportunity and motivation.
The comments are among the most signficant yet in a debate raging on both sides of the Atlantic about growing income inequality and how the super-wealthy are taxed.
They echo those made this month by Nicholas Ferguson, one of the leading figures in Britain’s private equity industry, when he criticised tax rates that left its multimillionaire venture capitalists “paying less tax than a cleaning lady”.
Last week senior members of the US Senate proposed to increase the rate of tax that private equity and hedge fund staff pay on their share of the profits, known as carried interest, from the 15 per cent capital gains rate to about 35 per cent.
Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, acknowledged in an interview yesterday that there were justified concerns about the huge profits generated by private equity firms and that he worried that income inequality was “poisoning democracy”. He also said that he would be voting for the Democrat candidate at the next election. Mr Blankfein is the highest-paid executive on Wall Street, earning $54 million last year.
Mr Buffett, who runs the investment group Berkshire Hathaway and is widely regarded as the world’s most successful investor, said that he was a Democrat because Republicans are more likely to think: “I’m making $80 million a year – God must have intended me to have a lower tax rate.”
Mr Buffett said that a Republican proposal to eliminate elements of inheritance tax, which raises about $30 billion a year from the assets of about 12,000 rich families, would broaden the disparity between rich and poor. He added that the Republicans would seek to recover lost revenue by increasing taxes for the less prosperous.
He said: “You could take that $30 billion and give $1,000 to 30 million poor families. Or should you favour the 12,000 estates and make 30 million families pay an extra $1,000?”
I know I just took an inhouse job that pays me half what I make at home -
I am getting desperate to ensure that I have at least some income. My home-based job line counts are so low lately and I know it is because people are staying home. I am the only money maker in the family and I have to do something.
I am in college to get a degree to get out of this education, but have at least 3 quarters more before I am employable, and then who knows if I will be able to find a job then or not; with the way things are looking, more than likely NOT...
I wonder how it is going to help/hurt the economy and the illegal alien problem - I mean, will it make them go home or will they just draw more benefits off our government? If they go home, does that hurt or or help us?
WASHINGTON - The Republican Party says it still has a zero-tolerance policy for tampering with voters even as it pays the legal bills for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring to thwart Democrats from voting in New Hampshire.
James Tobin, the president's 2004 campaign chairman for New England, is charged in New Hampshire federal court with four felonies accusing him of conspiring with a state GOP official and a GOP consultant in Virginia to jam Democratic and labor union get-out-the-vote phone banks in November 2002.
The Republican National Committee already has spent more than $722,000 to provide Tobin, who has pleaded innocent, a team of lawyers from the high-powered Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly. The firm's other clients have included former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Republican Party officials said they don't ordinarily discuss specifics of their legal work, but confirmed to The Associated Press they had agreed to underwrite Tobin's defense because he was a longtime supporter and that he assured them he had committed no crimes.
"Jim is a longtime friend who has served as both an employee and an independent contractor for the RNC," a spokeswoman for the RNC, Tracey Schmitt, said Wednesday. "This support is based on his assurance and our belief that Jim has not engaged in any wrongdoing."
A telephone firm was paid to make repeated hang-up phone calls to overwhelm the phone banks in New Hampshire and prevent them from getting Democratic voters to the polls on Election Day 2002, prosecutors allege. Republican John Sununu won a close race that day to be New Hampshire's newest senator.
At the time, Tobin was the RNC's New England regional director, before moving to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.
A top New Hampshire Party official and a GOP consultant already have pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors. Tobin's indictment accuses him of specifically calling the GOP consultant to get a telephone firm to help in the scheme.
"The object of the conspiracy was to deprive inhabitants of New Hampshire and more particularly qualified voters ... of their federally secured right to vote," states the latest indictment issued by a federal grand jury on May 18.
The Republican Party has repeatedly and pointedly disavowed any tactics aimed at keeping citizens from voting since allegations of voter suppression surfaced during the Florida recount in 2000 that tipped the presidential race to Bush.
Earlier this week, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, the former White House political director, reiterated a "zero-tolerance policy" for any GOP official caught trying to block legitimate votes.
"The position of the Republican National Committee is simple: We will not tolerate fraud; we will not tolerate intimidation; we will not tolerate suppression. No employee, associate or any person representing the Republican Party who engages in these kinds of acts will remain in that position," Mehlman wrote Monday to a group that studied voter suppression tactics.
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Thursday questioned Mehlman's commitment to the policy. "This is just another example of his say one thing, do another strategy. Ken Mehlman tells crowds his party is against voter fraud and intimidation, while in the backrooms he supports Republican officials who engage in these dirty tricks," Dean said.
Dennis Black and Dane Butswinkas, two Williams & Connolly lawyers for Tobin, did not return calls seeking comment. Brian Tucker, a New Hampshire lawyer on the team, declined comment.
Tobin's lawyers have attacked the prosecution, suggesting evidence was improperly introduced to the grand jury, that their client originally had been promised he wouldn't be indicted and that he was improperly charged under one of the statutes.
Tobin stepped down from his Bush-Cheney post a couple of weeks before the November 2004 election after Democrats suggested he was involved in the phone bank scheme. He was charged a month after the election.
Paul Twomey, a volunteer lawyer for New Hampshire Democrats who are pursuing a separate lawsuit involving the phone scheme, said he was surprised the RNC was willing to pay Tobin's legal bills and that it suggested more people may be involved.
The new development "really raises the questions of who are they protecting, how high does this go and who was in on this," Twomey said.
Federal prosecutors have secured testimony from the two convicted conspirators in the scheme directly implicating Tobin.
Charles McGee, the New Hampshire GOP official who pleaded guilty, told prosecutors he informed Tobin of the plan and asked for Tobin's help in finding a vendor who could make the calls that would flood the phone banks.
Allen Raymond, a former colleague of Tobin who operated a Virginia-based telephone services firm, told prosecutors Tobin called him in October 2002, explained the telephone plan and asked Raymond's company to help McGee implement it.
Raymond's lawyer told the court that Tobin made the request for help in his official capacity as the top RNC official for New England and his client believed the RNC had sanctioned the activity.
LOL, this is rich! sm
Patrick Buchanan who the liberals labeled "certifiable" during his last presidential bid but not that he is saying what you want to hear, he's a great guy! That's okay, because Zell Miller said just the opposite of Patrick. Up is down and down is up!
This is rich.
Since when is it UnAmerican to want to know the TRUTH? Why are you people so ANTI-TRUTH? Wouldn't surprise me if this administration goes down in history as much more corrupt than Nixon.
In the middle of a "war"??!! Bush should be protected because we're stuck in HIS war that HE started based on HIS LIES? At the very least, it would show the entire world that not ALL Americans condone lying, attacking and occupying sovereign nations for no reason. I personally hope they FRY him and hold him and all those involved in his administration accountable for every single EVIL thing they have done.
Your theory that we shouldn't do this while we're in the middle of a war is like the guy who killed both his parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court because he's an ORPHAN.
Whatever happened to "The truth will set you free"? Why are you people HATE the truth so much?
that 5% rich...
he is among them. wonder how much comes out of his pocket and how much o his own wealth he has been redistributing??
If you were rich, would you be saying that?
I know I wouldn't, especially after I had worked so hard to get the money I earned. Unfortunately, I'm not rich by any standards, but I'm infuriated and insulted by Obama's thinking that I need a hand out from those with more money! If we take money from those who have it and give it to those who don't, where's the motivation for those that don't have it to get it for themselves? Why would they want to go to school to get a better paying job or go for that promotion at work if they know that first of all, they can sit back and get it for free and second of all, if they do start making more money, they'll just have to turn around and give it to someone that doesn't have it! How is it that the American Dream has turned into the American Entitlement?
who hates the rich?
Just another broad generalization of how **we people** believe/feel/think..Rich people? I dont hate people I dont know..be them rich, poor or in between. I have loved and cared for the best and the worst..I could write a book (smile). To say we dont like or hate the rich..another broad generalization and bigoted statement by a neocon. I dont judge a person by their riches, I judge them by what they are giving back to this earth and when they pass, will the earth be a little bit better off for them being here..
Who knows any rich people???? nm
nm
never said rich were evil
I never said the rich were evil. I said there are many who dont care about the working class and yet you defend them. As an example, I just read a news article earlier this week that Dr. Phil pays his transcriptionists $7.00 to $8.00 an hour!!!!!!!!! Have you ever seen Dr. Phil's house in LA? I have passed it a few times..OMG!!!! Let me tell ya, the guy can afford to pay his transcriptionists better than that. If it wasnt for Oprah, he would still be working in Texas and not a celebrity but does it even make him realize, hey, I got a stroke of good luck thanks to Oprah, maybe I should take care of my staff better. Obviously he is one of the rich who does not get it. Sure there are some who care and give back, as they realize how lucky they are and there but for the grace of God go I. I have seen personally some rich give back greatly, some volunteering at jobs every one else would be paid for, giving to charities and so much more. The good ones realize they must give back, cause that is just the way it should be in a moral caring upright society. The others, they cant get enough money. Their religion is money. The more millions they have, they are worrying about how to make millions more.
The rich ARE the democrats
Look back over time. Who benefitted from tax breaks Clintons 2% of the richest people. Everyone makes it sound as though only republicans are rich. The democrat party has some of the richest people and they aren't paying their fair share. With the Democrats I've always had to pay more taxes. With the republicans I received refunds every year.
Ain't that rich! - see link
Did George Bush serve his country??????? I'd say Obama served his country right on our shores by working with the impoverished in Chicago. GW wouldn't dirty his hands and neither would McSame.
McWayne looks like a corpse with too much makeup on. One heartbeat away from the presidency? JC...............It is God's will we are in Iraq? W?
I can guarantee you if you were rich, whatever number you consider that to be, you would be keeping your mouth shut because you would not appreciate some socialized nut job coming in and telling you to give more than half of what you make to some lazy bum on the street and pay for all their needs while yours go unmet.
Get a reality check!!
There's plain ol' rich, and then there's
Like yer Wall Street execs, bank CEO's, etc. Even worse our this nation's spoiled, mollycoddled pro athletes.
Does any of their wealth trickle down to us? Nope. The more tax breaks and loopholes they get, the more we have to take up the slack and fill in the gaps.
If they can pay a football player $38 million to play a stupid game, then I think those of us who actually work for a living should at least get a few more cents per line.
You seem to have struck it rich in a
x
Obama is rich, and
The Kennedys and plenty of philanthropists are rich. Look, it shouldn't be trickle down economics. It should be trickle up for a change. Let's not wait for the crumbs and I'm sorry but anyone who is an MT is probably not rich.
Why don't the mega rich..........
toss down some billions to help their country out? It's a tax write off......wait until their houses get robbed, their cars get keyed and their yachts get pisd on. Don't think for a minute their hired help won't be getting even in some nasty, discreet way......I think I want to be a CHEF!
That's rich, JTBB....lol...nm would you have a problem with being rich?
nm
'Rob from the rich,
give to the poor' is unamerican. 'From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need' is unamerican. 'You poor fellow, lemme give you some of that guy's money' is also unamerican. 'Give me liberty or give me death' is American.
Oh, this is rich. You accuse me of drinking and then cry when it happens to you. SM
Typical liberal double standards. stop defending the rich
Either you are rich or a fool..Do you actually think the rich are defending us the way you are defending them? We need to take care of the people who carry America on their backs, the middle class. The rich could not care less about us. They dont even know the workings of every day life. I have an extremely well off friend..he does not use credit cards..pays with cash..told me I should just pay with cash for my new Jeep that I bought a few years ago instead of monthly payments..yeah, right, LOL..thanks for the advice...moon beam..he never even used an ATM..thinks being rich is justified cause they can show us Renoir paintings (as when Bellagio had Steve Wynns paintings on show), they can show the little people the beauty of life..Oh geez..the rich do not even realize that the middle class exists..other than to work at their companies and factories, so they can stay rich.
who trashed rich republicans?
My post referred to rich people, not rich democrats or rich republicans, there can be nasty out of touch rich republicans and rich democrats. Where did you read that my post was putting down on rich republicans? Once again, you conservatives amaze me..you read things that arent there or you pump up the information you have to fit your own agenda and bias. Your post made no sense because no one from the posts I have read was trashing/putting down on republican rich.
Me..tear people apart...that's rich!
I did not use phrases like keep your butt in your chair and *defecate. That was your class act.
If Lurker does not mind being grouped with you, far be it from me to care. You can champion whoever you like.
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