The Fiscal Times: For the first time since the Great Depression, households are receiving more income from the government than they are paying the government in taxes. The combination ofmore cash from various programs, called transfer payments, and lower taxes has been a double-barreled boost to consumersâ buying power, while also blowing a hole in thedeficit. The 1930s offer a cautionary tale: The only other time government income support exceeded taxes paid was from 1931 to 1936. That trend reversed in 1936, after a recovery was underway, and the economy fell back into a second leg of recession during 1937 and 1938. As then, the pattern now reflects two factors: the severe depth of the 2007-09 recession and the massive fiscal policy response to it. The recession cut deeply into tax payments as more people lost their jobs, and it boosted payments for so-called automatic stabilizers, such as unemployment insurance, that ramp up payments as the economy turns down. Plus, policy actions, including the Recovery Act, boosted payments to households by expanding and extending jobless benefits and creating other income subsidies while extending the Bush-era tax cuts and adding new reductions in income and payroll taxes. Government transfers of income to households started to overtake personal taxes at the start of 2008, and the gap has been widening. In February, households received more than $2.3 trillion in income support from unemployment benefits, Social Security, disability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, veteransâ benefits, education assistance and other cash transfers of government funds to individuals. In the same month, households paid $2.2 trillion in income, payroll, and other taxes. The difference was about $150 billion, equivalent to more than 1 percentage point of overall personal income and about four times the amount Republicans and Democrats agreed to cut from government spending through Sept. 30. Hope and Change!
Using tax revenue from the wealthy to pay down the debt strengthens the dollar and actually increases the value of the capital of the wealthy Americans... Cutting expenses and increasing revenues is the only sensible plan.
There is no redistribution of wealth, but there is redistribution of money from the working class to the wealthy, which makes them wealthier yet. Sweet deal if you're one of the chosen few. Trickle down theory claims that the wealthy will then put some of that money back into the job market. Nice theory! Reality is something entirely different. The wealthy just keep it and any reinvesting is done overseas where slave wages prevail. Spin it any way you like, but that's what happens.
I'd say that about 47% of Americans weren't taught much about American history and know very little about the country that gives them their freedom.
This is odd. 47% of Americans pay no taxes. But....just 43% of Americans say they are taxed about right! I think if you pay no taxes you would say you are taxed about right. So, is 4% of those who don't pay taxes wanting to pay taxes or are they saying they would like to get more money redistributed to them from the rich? http://www.gallup.com/poll/147152/Americans-Split-Whether-Taxes-High.aspx
You really are a broken record. You seem so angry and bitter at life. Have you thought about studying Buddhism? I'm being serious. This stress you seem to have is not healthy.
LOL! I'm a broken record? Every post in this forum is a broken record of someone pissing and moaning about something or someone. How many times you guys gonna' call Obama a socialist? How many times you gonna' cry about some coming after your precious money, guns, etc., etc.? Shit, you could come here any day of the week, read the posts, take off for 6 months and come back to the same people making the same rants. Yes, I rant against the banks and those that minimize their role in the destruction of our country. Yes, I rant against a corrupt political system which facilitates that destruction. Yes, I rant against those that talk out of both sides of their mouth whether they be dem or repub. What else is there to do in this forum? Wanna' trading tip? Keep buying silver, but you already knew that.
Yes Captain, you are a broken record. You are living in the past. That is a fact. We are not going to pay high school graduates 75k a year to be in a union and manufacture shit that won't be able to sell to the rest of the world. It's over dude. And for the record, I'm not complaining that Obama is a socialist, I just think he is a fraud, a schyster, a phony, an empty suit. He can't come after my gun because I don't own one. My money? He doesn't need to take it. He's doing one better. He's making my money worthless. As for talking out of both sides of their mouth, sir, let me get you a mirror. Keep living the union fantasy Captain. If you come to me looking for a job, I'll pay you what you're worth and not a penny more.