Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writer Gene Lyons writes about dealing with the sheep. It doesn’t take much to set off a tirade:
In politics, many simply can’t resist an alluring false dilemma. It’s got to be all-A or all-B, all the time. Did I write a column pointing out that President Clinton last balanced the budget as recently as 2001, and that a return to Clinton-era tax policy — i.e., letting the Bush tax cuts expire on schedule in 2012 — would greatly improve the nation’s balance sheet?
That is, I favor raising marginal income-tax rates on millionaires from 35 to 39.6 percent. Therefore, I must be a communist who advocates the abolition of private enterprise, the confiscation of private property, and the redistribution of wealth to lazy people who won’t work.
I’m sure we’ve heard this line of thinking before and I’m pretty sure I’ve made my views known. In case you missed it, I think everyone should pay the same rate, preferably by eliminating all deductions for individuals and business and instead have a federal retail sales tax.
If you make more, you generally spend more and consequently would pay more overall tax.
Not having read the Lyons’ article (I met Gene Lyons once and he is one upstanding guy), I really am not qualified to comment on the article per se, but I take issue with contrarian’s statement that the wealthier pay more in overall tax. The wealthy have the advantage of options such as tax shelters explained to them because they can afford financial consultations. The lesser do not have that luxury. If you’ll remember several years ago that Ernst and Young was indicted on charges that they made a killing by providing such advice to their wealthy clients. By converting ordinary income into capital gains, the well-to-do were able to get away with paying only 20% tax as opposed to 40%. And a lot of what the wealthy earn is spent abroad on vacations and luxurious accomodations. I would wager that proportionately, the United States economy would be better benefited by the middle class wage earner.
Perhaps my previous post was unclear. My comment was not that the wealthy pay
more in taxes currently. I happen to believe they pay more raw dollars although I cannot substantiate it. (not the point) My point was under the plan I suggested the wealthier would pay more raw dollars because they spend more.
The critical point it seems we would agree on. Get rid of all the deductions.
Mention