taxes

Newt Gingrich's tax plan does give almost everyone a tax break, but some more than others. Can you guess which ones?

People earning more than $1 million a year would receive an average tax cut of $613,689 in 2015, compared with what they pay now. That change would boost their after-tax income by 28.7 percent and put their average tax rate at 11.9 percent.

Gingrich’s plan would cut taxes for people in all income groups and raise them for no one. For households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year, 91.3 percent would receive tax cuts averaging $1,847, boosting their after-tax income by 3.1 percent.

So those who have flourished by what America offers get a savings of almost 10 times that over the families that are barely living in a comfortable margin? That really doesn't seem all that fair - does it?

And the millionaires aren't the only big winners here:

He would drop the corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent from 35 percent, allow businesses to write off capital expenses and eliminate taxes on capital gains and estates, according to his website.

How can our country survive by such a huge decrease in income? The answer is simple - it can't!

The economic plan proposed by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich would add $1.3 trillion to the U.S. budget deficit in 2015 alone, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

$1.3 trillion added to the deficit in one year alone? What happened to all these budget hawks on the right?

I have been tied up the last several days helping my sister get her new house ready so I am a little behind the news. Today I find out the wingnuts have decided to launch their own response to Occupy Wall Street, a movement called the 53%. These are Republicans against the 47% of Americans that make too little to actually have to pay income tax. Today Steve Benen brought up the most interesting point about this group:

There are all kinds of problems with the right’s approach here, including the fact that they seem to want to increase working-class taxes and also seem entirely unaware of the fact that it was Republican tax cuts that pushed so many out of income-tax eligibility in the first place.

In a rapidly growing "movement" on the right we now see Republicans going against their own policies and beliefs. First off they want to raise taxes in the middle of a recession, but only on those that will stimulate demand. We already know that Republicans fail big time in basic economics. They have no comprehension that increased demand means a need for more supply. When you need more supply you need people to make that product and that boils down to hiring. Nope, Republicans believe that if business owners have more money they will just hire and put out product regardless if they are moving inventory or not.

But the biggest thing Benen points out is that the right is now against the Bush tax cuts. That's exactly what created the 47%. So why is the right now so against the tax cuts they championed just months ago? It sounds like another case of partisanship before country or even logic if you ask me. It also sounds like the minions of the right are following the cult leaders out there. Drink thy Kool Aid little tools and don't whine if you win and your taxes go up - that's what you are now fighting for!

E.J. Dionne has a great piece today talking about the Buffett tax plan. Conservatives have been on a constant attack against Warren Buffett over his claims that his tax rate is to low. Of course all the focus has been on Buffet, but there are other’s in Buffett’s tax bracket that feel the same:

Advocates of higher taxes on the wealthy do not want to “punish” the successful. Buffett and Doug Edwards, a millionaire who asked Obama at a recent town hall event in California to raise his taxes, are saying that none of us succeeds solely because of personal effort. We are all lucky to have been born in — or, for immigrants, admitted to — a country where the rule of law is strong, where property is safe, where a vast infrastructure has been built over generations, where our colleges and universities are the envy of the world, and where government protects our liberties.

That is what I have been talking about. The rich got that way because of America, so paying taxes and contributing to help get America moving forward again is the least they can do for the country that made them. The problem is the right wing noise machine. I’ve got many Republican friends who make less than $100,000 a year and yet feel taxes should continue to be cut on the rich. Most of them listen to people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Of course these talking heads will rally against raising taxes on the rich. Just look at their 2010 salaries: