The thread topic is the GOP tax plan and its results. You're the one that tried to steer the conversation to Black man bad. I'm just getting us back on topic
Ah, is that why you made a post on share buybacks? Because you wanted it to stay on the GOP tax plan? Tell me, please. If someone posts a thread and then makes another post in the thread about something else, everyone who follows has to only stay on the original topic? Because, as I understood message forums to work, conversation was usually in the "post -> response" format. Now, if I made a new post about animal cruelty or global warming out of the blue, then sure - you'd have a point.
https://thinkprogress.org/the-trump...o-gut-food-stamps-hitting-red-states-hardest/ The Trump administration plans to gut food stamps, hitting red states hardest 3.6 million Americans will lose food stamps under a regulatory maneuver nobody in Congress likes. 1.9 million of them live in Trump country. President Donald Trump’s latest attack on working families will hit especially hard in the states that voted for him: More than half of the people who are set to lose access to food stamps under regulations proposed this summer live in states that went for Trump in 2016. One in every twelve people who receives food stamps nationwide will lose them under the policy — some 3.6 million people, according to new analysis by Mathematica, the private policy analysis firm the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has relied upon for the past 40 years. “I was surprised by the extent of the impact in some of the southern states, such as Texas,” Mathematica senior research programmer Sarah Lauffer said. The impact was always going to be severe in states that apply the current rules in the most generous fashion, but southern states have generally not extended their eligibility lines quite as far. Despite that, Lauffer said, her team found “34% of elderly Texans receiving benefits will lose them through this rule.”
As with all of these news posts, the story isn't exactly how they make it seem. The states make money on SNAP. They use loopholes to register individuals for SNAP and those individuals do not always collect the SNAP dollars. Some that do also would not qualify for SNAP at all were they to be vetted for the program through the right procedures. They simply qualify for SNAP dollars because they happen to qualify for other temporary assistance dollars. Through an adjustment made (back in 2008, if I recall) the states were allowed to qualify folks for SNAP through "Broad based categorical eligibility" requirements. Meaning if someone met the requirements of another program on a temporary basis, they automatically qualified and bypassed the requirements for SNAP. For example, and this was detailed during the public spectacle of the "Minnesota Millionaire", a person could be completely well off with savings in the bank, but because they would be eligible for state assistance programs based on income, they would automatically qualify for SNAP as well. If this individual tried to apply for SNAP by itself, the process in which eligibility would be considered would take into account bank savings as well as income, whereas state run programs did not. This is the problem, and there is wasteful spend being addressed by it. Don't believe the bullshit you read in posts or articles like this. People who don't need SNAP get SNAP right now, I've posted on this exact scenario that I experienced when working at my last company and a woman who made over 150k a year had her parent's SNAP cards and was using them to buy groceries regularly. When I questioned her, she said "they are entitled to the money and they qualified through the state". But because it was a state program loophole (the Broad based categorical eligibility) the state did not check and see that her parents lived with her and she supported them and was in no way qualified for benefits. People will lose benefits under this new - and correct - proposal. And if they truly need and qualify for SNAP, they can go right back on the program. The right way. Stop the bullshit.
US billionaires pay lower tax rate than working class for first time in history -The 400 richest U.S. families now pay a lower overall tax rate than the middle-class, the first time that's happened in 100 years, according to economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. Factoring in federal, state and local taxes, those ultra-wealthy households pay a total rate of about 23% — that compares with just over 24% for the bottom half of households. -The U.S. now "looks like the tax system of a plutocracy," Saez and Zucman say. -The U.S. tax system is supposed to be progressive, meaning that wealthier households pay a larger share of their income to the taxman than the middle class and the poor. Yet after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, that's no longer the case: For the first time in a century, America's 400 richest families now pay lower taxes than people in the middle class. That's according to an analysis of tax data by two prominent economists, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California at Berkeley, that is a centerpiece of their new book, "The Triumph of Injustice," to be published on October 15. Saez and Zucman, who have worked with the noted French economist Thomas Piketty to produce seminal research on inequality, also advised Senator Elizabeth Warren on the Democratic presidential candidate's plan to impose a wealth tax on ultra-rich families. The tipping point came last year when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump at the end of 2017, took effect. While Mr. Trump vowed that middle-class families would be helped by the tax overhaul, experts say most working-class families saw only a minimal benefit, while the wealthiest citizens got the lion's share of breaks. In fact, Saez and Zucman argue, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act turned the tax system on its head. "In 2018, for the first time in the last hundred years, the top 400 richest Americans have paid lower tax rates than the working class," they write. "This looks like the tax system of a plutocracy." Factoring in all federal, state and local taxes, those ultra-wealthy households pay a total rate of about 23% — that compares with 24.2% for the bottom half of households, which includes many in the middle class. The richest families also pay a lower rate than those in the upper middle class and even those in the top 1%, who pay closer to 30% of their income in taxes. Why do the super-rich pay lower taxes? Zucman and Saez, who base their analysis on income tax returns, tax audits and other data, argue that in recent decades the tax system has tilted in favor of the highest earners, with the most recent push coming from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. "In 1970, the richest Americans paid, all taxes included, more than 50% of their income in taxes, twice as much as working-class individuals," the book notes. "In 2018, following the Trump tax reform, and for the first time in the last hundred years, billionaires have paid less than steel workers, schoolteachers and retirees." Today, the tax rates enjoyed by the richest Americans are at levels last seen in the early part of the 20th century, when the U.S. government was a fraction of its current size. In 1910, many popular programs credited with keeping millions of Americans out of poverty didn't exist, including Social Security and Medicare. The rich pay lower tax rates than the middle class because most of their income doesn't come from wages, unlike most workers. Instead, the bulk of billionaires' income stems from capital, such as investments like stocks and bonds, which enjoy a lower tax rate than income. It's the same reason why Warren Buffett famously said his tax rate was lower than his secretary's. The 2017 tax law amplified that trend, according to the new analysis. The tax rate for corporations was slashed to 21% from from 37%. And business income for many taxpayers now enjoys a 20% deduction, thanks to the new tax code, which places more income out of the IRS' reach. "The only category of income that does not benefit from any exemption, deduction, reduced rate or any other favor is wages," Zucman and Saez write. "At any income level, wage earners are thus more heavily taxed than people who derive income from property." In effect, they add, capital income "is becoming tax-free." Why it matters Although advocates of low taxes argue that slashing rates on the rich and corporations boosts economic growth, there's little evidence for that. Instead, the U.S. is facing a number of risks by shifting to a more regressive tax system, the authors say. For one, the federal government is losing out on a massive amount of tax revenue by slashing levies on the rich. Secondly, that lost revenue must be found elsewhere, which means the middle class and poor are likely to be stuck footing the bill. But the most important reason, according to Zucman and Saez, is that the U.S. tax system is creating what they call an "inequality spiral." In other words, the rich are getting richer — that allows them to shape public policies to extract further tax breaks and other benefits, boosting their wealth and political clout. Of course, tax codes can change, which means the U.S. isn't doomed to sink more deeply into the quagmire of inequality, Zucman and Saez write. For instance, the economists propose a new national income tax that would tax all income — whether from labor, capital or other sources — as a supplement to the existing income tax. The also favor a wealth tax. The latter, similar to proposals from both Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders, would tax annual wealth at 2% for those above $50 million and 3.5% above $1 billion. "A wealth tax will never replace the income tax," they note. "Its goal is more limited: to ensure that the ultra-wealthy do not pay less than the rest of the population." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/america...-middle-class/
I’d like to take this moment to remind everyone that what needs real tax reform is payroll taxes, specifically social security. These taxes should be applied to all income and there should be an across the board tax cut on them. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.