class warfare

If You Liberals Really Want a Class War…

Mark Noonan51 Comments

…then we on the right are pleased to give you one.  From National Review Online:

…While we would prefer no tax increase at all, eliminating this deduction (for State and local taxes) would be a sensible reform of the tax code, and could be paired with tax cuts elsewhere for a fiscally neutral simplification of our byzantine tax code.

Estimates suggest that eliminating this deduction would raise as much as $900 billion over ten years, though it may well turn out to be less as taxpayers modify their behavior in light of the new incentives. That won’t balance the budget with deficits running that much or more every single year, but it is nothing to turn the national nose up at, either: $900 billion would completely offset the estimated deficit for 2013. Progressives should welcome eliminating the deduction in that the new tax burden would fall much more heavily upon those earning $200,000 or more. As Reihan Salam points out, households in the $200,000-and-up range would pay an average of $5,166 more without the deduction, while those in the $30,000-to-$50,000 range would pay only $70 more…

Wouldn’t cost me a penny more, of course, as I live in a no-income-tax State.  But it would cost people in New York and California a bundle, especially if they are making more than 250 grand a year and are getting hit with those very high California and New York State income taxes.  But, given that those two States voted overwhelmingly for Obama, it stands to reason that they’ll be pleased as punch to fork over a bit more to Uncle Sam.  Unless, that is, they were just stupid and thought that Obama was talking about people like Bill Gates when he said “make millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share”.  We on the right can’t be blamed if people didn’t bother to actually look past Obama’s rhetoric and examine his concrete proposals.

This is not quite up to the standards I want – I still prefer my “wealth tax”, and I’ve actually come around to turning the screws a little harder on it.  While still excluding farms/ranches, mines and factories which are family or individually owned, I’m thinking that a 10% annual tax on all wealth in excess of $2 million should do the trick.  Which trick is that?  The double trick of both making rich liberals pay for their liberalism and showing lower and middle class Americans just who’s side we’re on.  The dirty secret of liberalism is that it is run by rich people and largely for the benefit of rich people – I want to drive that home.  Next step is to eliminate charitable deductions for any organization which does not provide direct housing, clothing, food or medical aid to poor people…no more tax write-offs for donating to liberal political groups which have got themselves a tax exemption.  Oh, and the group dispensing the help to the poor better have administrative expenses down to no more than, say, 30% of expenditures or it gets reclassified as a very heavily taxed racketeer influenced/corrupt organization.

I’m all set for the class war.  Are you?

Shocking News: Secretaries Don’t Pay More than Buffett

Mark Noonan10 Comments

Yet another liberal lie disposed of  – from the AP:

…There may be individual millionaires who pay taxes at rates lower than middle-income workers. In 2009, 1,470 households filed tax returns with incomes above $1 million yet paid no federal income tax, according to the Internal Revenue Service. But that’s less than 1 percent of the nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1 million.

This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes, payroll taxes and other taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay an average of 15 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent…

Doubling up on the dishonesty is the fact that Buffett routinely takes advantage of every tax break he can – and, indeed, has on-going disputes with the IRS as it claims Buffett owes more than he paid.  The bottom line is that the “millionaires pay more than secretaries” is a lie while the actions of people like Buffett prove that the call for a tax hike isn’t to make the rich “pay their fair share” but to allow Obama to more heavily tax the upper middle class (remember, in Obamunism, “millionaires and billionaires” start at $200,000.00 per year for individual income earners).

All part of the scam, at any rate.  Buffett makes his money off of the current, corrupt way of doing business.  If it weren’t for our Byzantine tax and regulatory codes and the ability of billionaires like Buffett to grease the palms of politicians, Buffett never would have made his money – certainly no where near the billions he currently has.  Buffett is a liberal financial shark who grows fat not out of creating wealth, but by siphoning it off from the productive by means of financial shennanigans.  But this does give Buffett a vested interest in the status quo…if the liberal State is swept away, so will Buffett’s ability to maintain and grow his horde.  And not just for Buffett, but for a host of such economic parasites.

So, come up with bogus stories claiming that secretaries pay more than billionaires, help Obama increase taxes on “the rich” which really works out to tax hikes on middle class people while the Buffetts of the world are unscathed…and finally hope that all the class warfare rhetoric and actions helps Obama get re-elected so the gravy train can keep rolling along.  That is all this was ever about…and it is all it ever will be about until we turn these cretins out.

 

Warren Buffett Wants His Taxes Raised

Mark Noonan114 Comments

From the New York Times:

…Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot…

First off, Warren, if you really want to kick in a bit extra, then why did you have your team of lawyers and accountants (I’m sure you’ve got them) work the system so that you only paid an effective tax rate of 17.4%?  It is no problem for you to pay more – just take fewer deductions.  Or, if you want, just cut a billion dollar check to Uncle Sam.

Of course you won’t do that – not for you to just step up to the plate.  That wouldn’t advance your true cause here…keeping Big Government going through a round of tax hikes which might, indeed, take a little more from your annual income, but which will mostly hit people of far less wealth than you.  Because, dear Warren, you know better than most the truth…for all the billions you have, your wealth is chump change compared to the hundreds of billions held in smaller amounts by the people who make 200k or more per year.

Liberal financial sharks, like Buffett, thrive in a system of fiat money, government-subsidized debt and Big Government graft.  If that system comes to an end – via bankruptcy – then the Buffett’s of the world might have to get a real job.  You know, produce actual wealth  in order to make money.  The thought is too horrifying to contemplate.  So, rather than see their milch cow go down, they write Op-Eds in the New York Times which will then be cited by liberals as justification for higher taxes:  “see, even someone as rich as Warren Buffett wants a tax hike!”.   Sorry, Warren – too bad, liberals:  we’re on to the scam.

I propose a way to test this willingness of Buffett and other bazillionaire liberals to pay taxes.  Rather than hiking income taxes, why don’t we tax wealth?  I propose a 5% tax on all wealth in excess of $5 million.  Total it up for us, Warren – how rich are you?  Forbes says you’re worth $45 billion.  This means we want $2.25 billion from you next year.  And the year after.  You’d better hope your investments hold up, huh?  I know you were hoping for a “soak the middle class” tax hike which also might have cost you a measly million or two more per year (easily made up, of course, by some bit of sharp financial practice elsewhere), but I want to really tax the rich…I want a couple billion dollars from you.  Every year.  You do that, and I’ll agree to a general income tax hike.

Cross Posted:  Noonan for Nevada