Obama Took a Stand This Week

[Matt J]

Are you saying that people won't adjust their spending habits if their taxes go up? Will they just not put as much in savings? Will they borrow more to support their lifestyle?

Realistically a combination of the last two.

The ultimate issue is how most Americans vastly overestimate their own personal wealth. For instance you shiver when Obama talks about taxing the top 1% wealthiest, despite the fact that your net worth is probably less than that tax brackets primary homes value.

This results in people who are never (even including the possibility of winning the lottery) ever going to be affected by these tax increases.

I'm not advocating raping the rich, but when you are in an economic crisis why do the Republicans insist on heaping the burden on what's left of the middle class while lowering that 1% taxes?

Yes, spending is out of control, and cutting is the right thing to do. However at the same time it's pointless if you're just going to reduce your intake by more. Same problem slightly smaller size.

 

[TNJed]

Texas University Takes Cue From Kyle Bass to Hold $1 Billion in Gold Bars - Bloomberg

The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion as the metal reaches a record, according to the fund’s board.
The fund, whose $19.9 billion in assets ranked it behind Harvard University’s endowment as of August, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, last year added about $500 million in gold investments to an existing stake, said Bruce Zimmerman, the endowment’s chief executive officer. The holdings reached about $987 million yesterday, as Comex futures closed at $1,486 an ounce.
The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said yesterday at its annual meeting. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime- mortgage collapse.
“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said today in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”

 

[Edgy Grammy]

I worked very hard all my life...I saved my money, I worked sometimes two different jobs so my kids could go to college. I did without...I didn't expect the government to take care of my family...I also paid taxes on the money I made...and it always disturbed me how my taxes were being used, or rather wasted,....don't tell me to grow up, Sonny...I am grown up...I live on a limited budget, I get along on my savings and my SS, and I am still paying taxes on my money...and as long as I pay taxes...I should have the right to express how I wish my taxes to be used. I also have earned the right to complain about higher taxes. I don't think I should be tax poor because I worked hard and saved my money. Our president hasn't shown any sign of slowing down because of our economy, he is still cranking up that big plane of his and making numerous trips that use up fuel, and lots of my tax money...I've cut back, most Americans have cut back...when can we expect our President to cut back? I am waiting, in fact almost breathless in anticipation, to see how much taxes the Obamas paid this year.

 

[Edgy Grammy]

A Flat Tax would be great. No more tricks, loop holes, everyone, no matter what bracket you are in gets taxed and it is fair across the board.

 

[LuciferSam]

I have to ask, is a flat tax fair? If so, why? Show me the math. Convince a skeptic. Why should it be linear and not exponential or some polynomial function or whatever. Do you really think somebody making $10K a year should pay any taxes at all? I say no. How can you get the rent from them if they can't afford to pay you?

 

[AndrewG]

45% of households in the US didn't pay taxes. Tell me how you think that's fair?

 

[poppy]

45% of households in the US didn't pay taxes. Tell me how you think that's fair?

They paid taxes just not not federal income taxes and fair or not they are using the same tax code everyone else is using. Also nearly 5 million households in the group you are talking about make somewhere between $50,000 and more than $1 million.

Temporary tax policies, such as the Bush-era tax cuts and the tax breaks passed under President Obama, have also increased the ranks of the non-payers.
If most tax breaks were removed, the Tax Policy Center estimates, the percentage of households with no federal income tax liability woulddrop to 27% from 45%.

 

[30ashopper]

The president’s proposal isn’t perfect, by a long shot. My own view is that while the spending controls on Medicare he proposed are exactly the right way to go, he’s probably expecting too much payoff in the near term. And over the longer run, I believe that we’ll need modestly higher taxes on the middle class as well as the rich to pay for the kind of society we want. But the vision was right, and the numbers were far more credible than anything in the Ryan sales pitch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/opinion/15krugman.html

That's why they constantly fight back. Progressives 'have a dream', a dream that scares the bajeezus out of the rest of us.

 

[Edgy Grammy]

As long as that person is living in the United States, is an American citizen, and benefits from the government services that taxes cover.....YES! I don't care if it is only 50 cents...they should have to pay some tax....if you receive the benefits...then you should pay some tax...

 

[LuciferSam]

As long as that person is living in the United States, is an American citizen, and benefits from the government services that taxes cover.....YES! I don't care if it is only 50 cents...they should have to pay some tax....if you receive the benefits...then you should pay some tax...

Your argument is dogmatic and pointless.