I'm trying to understand why taxing higher incomes and increasing earned income payouts is "bad" !?!?! First these people are damned for getting welfare and now, under a program designed to encourage 'work', they are getting damned !! Social darwinism cannot continue forever without a response.
Ireland is an outsourcing leader because of skilled labor and relatively low wages. Tax policy has less to do with it. Excluding the GAO study that showed that 2/3 of corporations pay no taxes at all (because of the flaw of their methodology around LLCs and S-Corps), corporate taxes as a % of the total amount have been declining for years. http://www.cbpp.org/10-16-03tax.htm Lowering taxes on corporations isn't the right move - especially giving a $1.2b tax break to companies like Exxon. The better move would be no tax cuts for anyone and massive reduction in government.
I agree, but I also don't think corporate tax rates should be raised either. According to your link, tax shelters have reduced taxes US companies pay (which is true), but one could argue they wouldn't be as prevalent if the tax rates weren't as high to begin with. Kind of a chicken and egg situation. Also, the bulk of the tax gap is from small business and individuals, not corporations.
Perhaps you should tell us "where you're coming from"... Are you paying the top tax bracket and think it's righteous that YOUR taxes be raised so that more money can be given to someone else? Or, are you defending the idea that somebody else's taxes should be raised so that YOU can get a bigger hand out?
True, the only people who feel this way are those receiving handouts OR righteous Warren Buffet-types who are so old and rich they think they better give money to someone else so they can feel better about themselves (truly the most selfish reason of all).
In FY 2007, I paid $ 28,743 in Federal Income Taxes on 159K of Adjusted Gross Income. I assure you, I've never received a 'hand-out'.
NOT true at all. I suspect that you are young and full of piss & vigor and prideful of your earning potential and future. Let's hope that you aren't struck by an unexpected bout of ill-health or family responsibilies in a recession. Millions of Americans are self-sufficient, wealthy individuals who support gov't policies designed to assist the poor. They are called: Liberals. You should HOPE to get to that level one day.
You're completely missing the point. I can donate all I want (and do) to organizations or people without being FORCED by the government. This same group of people you reference also believe that everyone should be forced to do the same that they do. Helping the poor is great, but then you have this slippery slope of government forcibly telling people how charitable they should be. See a problem?
No!!! YOU miss the POINT. Why should 'charity' be limitied to people with religious or liberal beliefs? Care for the poor, sick and needy is the responsibilty of ALL of us: not just the very few concerned. (Not that I believe for one second that YOU would qualify as one of those 'few concerned'.) Of course, our nation spends very little on the care of our most needy citizens or even our 'common' citizens. Time for us to quit spending 12.5 BILLION per month on destabilizing Iraq and spend it on IMPROVING our citizens, IMHO.
Hmmm, maybe we should have some sort of peaceful secession in the U.S. Blue state/red state or whatever. You self-sufficient, wealthy types who don't mind paying heavily into those "wonderful" programs can have at it. Raise taxes through the roof. We'll see if it can really transform the lower-class before you're bankrupt...or dead. Personally, I've seen too many people buy groceries with food stamps and go get in their nice SUVs. Or spend their educational vouchers on expensive shoes without attending a single college class. Or put state-of-the art computer labs in schools with low literacy rates, only to have them used for chat and porn...while test scores and literacy rates get even worse. Thanks but no thanks.