I'm in the top 1% income bracket. According to research I've seen the top 1% earn 16% of all income and pay 34% of all Federal taxes. My opinion is the tax system should be class neutral (if you earn 10% of all income you should pay 10% of all taxes) . As it is now, there is the paying class and the user class with a serious disconnect. I'd love to see a balanced budget amendment with all the tax increases that it would imply. That way the country would see there is no free lunch. While we're at it, I'd also love to see a sliding scale tariff on imported goods (the rate depends on the amount of the imbalance with the US). The funds could go toward reducing the deficit. That way the world could see there is no free lunch to prosperity. http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/250.html
Kin, You have really got that mortgage interest rule mixed up. It has nothing to do with interest paid, but the face value of the loan itself. so if you have a 2M dollar loan on your home and you pay 100K per year in interest, you can only deduct half of it or 50K because the other 50K of interest is attributable to the part of the mortgage that exceeded 1M. So reducing this limit to 350K will affect all Americans that have a loan on their home over 350K, or basically all of california and the coatal cities.
One thing that doesn't make sense is the panels argument that the top 2% get most of the benefit from the home interest deduction. The reality is if you're in the top 2% income earners the interest deduction is phased out so you get nothing. I have no mortgages on my properties because there is nothing I could write off.
Class neutral is an issue that is much too far downstream of the problem imo. The real issue is that federal taxes should be a tenth of what they are now.
They cant be. Where do think the money to pay the interest bill for all this debt comes from? http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm
Actually, the total interest bill is stated here http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdint.htm Either we are not paying enough taxes, or not enough of us are paying enough taxes.
Well, well..look who is on that Bush's appointed panel...taken directly from the msnbc link you posted...yes, Charlie Rossotti from the CARLYLE GROUP.... "Charles Rossotti, senior adviser to the Carlyle Group, the investment firm, and a member of the panel, says the system tends to encourage the construction of bigger houses rather than an increase in the number of people who own their home."