Will the Bush Tax Cuts be Extended?

[The Thriller]

Will Congress cave in and extend the tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of our country? Or will they stand firm w/the President and let the tax cuts expire?

And should they or shouldn't they be expired? Why?

 

[LogGrad98]

I think I hear crickets in here.

HELLO!!

ECHO! eCHO! ecHO! echO! cho! o! o!

 

[Get Down]

congress will agree with the president and extend the tax cuts

 

[Duck Rodgers]

The "rich" as in the guy that owns a few successful businesses around your city shouldn't be taxed more. The mega-rich should be the issue. I'm tired of these idiots like Warren Buffet parading around on T.V. telling the government to tax him more when he damn well knows he doesn't pay squat as it is, and thus is speaking for a group of people which he doesn't even belong to. He wouldn't be 1/100th as wealthy as he is if he ever payed a proper tax. Get rid of all the foreign bank loopholes/hedge funds masquerading as charity foundations and go from there. Austerity/raising taxes on normal/normal "rich" people is not the answer. People keep acting like the derivative problem went away somehow. The debt hole cannot be fixed.

 

[franklin]

The "rich" as in the guy that owns a few successful businesses around your city shouldn't be taxed more. The mega-rich should be the issue. I'm tired of these idiots like Warren Buffet parading around on T.V. telling the government to tax him more when he damn well knows he doesn't pay squat as it is, and thus is speaking for a group of people which he doesn't even belong to. He wouldn't be 1/100th as wealthy as he is if he ever payed a proper tax. Get rid of all the foreign bank loopholes/hedge funds masquerading as charity foundations and go from there. Austerity/raising taxes on normal/normal "rich" people is not the answer. People keep acting like the derivative problem went away somehow. The debt hole cannot be fixed.

I'm gonna give you half credit for this, and give a damn about the rest later. Buffett is a weird dude by conventional standards. He's the 1st to 3rd richest dude on the planet but only pulls in $100k/yr. He wouldn't pay anything extra if the SS cap was kicked, lobbies for derivative tax exemptions and bank bailouts (huge holdings), and benefits from raising the death tax (which he won't pay any of since he's sending it all to B&M Gates Foundation). Focusing on the ultra-rich is one really good answer IMO. Something like no death tax up to $20 or $40 mil., or whatever we decide is reasonable, then highly progressive thereafter. If we did this the right way then we wouldn't have to worry about what the top 2% pay today. We'll get it the Jeffersonian way while protecting property for you while you're alive.

Reverting to pre-Bush tax cut rates on the rich won't make a difference in the economy after 3 months of stock market readjustment. Mark it down. America is stronger than a little tax policy.

 

[LogGrad98]

https://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

"The top-earning 5 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $159,619), however, still paid far more than the bottom 95 percent. The top 5 percent earned 34.7 percent of the nation's adjusted gross income, but paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes."

 

[TheMulletMutilator]

I think it is tough to call these tax cuts anymore as many have pointed out. The tax rate has been the same since 2001 when this was passed. I am not sure what will happen. I will say that we have other problems with inflation on the horizon with the FED printing 600 billion dollars into the economy that isn't backed by anything.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

I think it is tough to call these tax cuts anymore as many have pointed out. The tax rate has been the same since 2001 when this was passed. I am not sure what will happen. I will say that we have other problems with inflation on the horizon with the FED printing 600 billion dollars into the economy that isn't backed by anything.

Most of the major banks don't have any money. They are all insolvent living off of the Fed's digital money that isn't worth the paper that it's not printed on. Did you see that report a few days ago where the Fed dolled out 9 trillion dollars during the height of the crisis?

https://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/news/economy/fed_reserve_data_release/index.htm

The numbers that come out publicly aren't worth anything. They feed us 1/10 of the available information on what is happening in the real economy and let us waste our time talking about that when the real action is happening elsewhere. The FED will publicly buy 600 billion dollars worth of government bonds, 300 billion dollars worth of bad mortgages, and then pump 2.5 trillion dollars on top of that into the economy that won't be disclosed for years, or even at all. That's how they work and always have worked. That's the problem with this conversation. People go on and on about stupid stimulus that the government deals in, when The Fed is doing much worse. The Fed needs to be fully audited, and then there will be plenty of factual information to warrant its dismantlement. The austerity/tax hike conversation is completely worthless until that happens.

 

[franklin]

I think it is tough to call these tax cuts anymore as many have pointed out. The tax rate has been the same since 2001 when this was passed. I am not sure what will happen. I will say that we have other problems with inflation on the horizon with the FED printing 600 billion dollars into the economy that isn't backed by anything.

It's called base money and it's backed by taxing authority. Banking is tied to government, hence the inclusion in the constitution. QE2 is legitimate, and nothing more than extra base money to replace what the market took away. We print money and give it authority by taxing power, but for some reason society cannot get over that druid metal standard thingy (which has a history of failure--ask Ben Franklin if you don't believe me).

If you don't like the Fed printing $600 bln as is necessary in the modern system then what mechanism do you propose as a viable alternate for providing a medium of exchange? I'd guess you prefer some modern wild-catting scheme, but you don't seem like the type that would allow the necessary regulation to go along with it.

 

[TheMulletMutilator]

It's called base money and it's backed by taxing authority. Banking is tied to government, hence the inclusion in the constitution. QE2 is legitimate, and nothing more than extra base money to replace what the market took away. We print money and give it authority by taxing power, but for some reason society cannot get over that druid metal standard thingy (which has a history of failure--ask Ben Franklin if you don't believe me).

If you don't like the Fed printing $600 bln as is necessary in the modern system then what mechanism do you propose as a viable alternate for providing a medium of exchange? I'd guess you prefer some modern wild-catting scheme, but you don't seem like the type that would allow the necessary regulation to go along with it.

You make it pretty clear you are not a fan of the gold standard and I truthfully believe there is no way that we will ever go back to it unfortunately. There is a reason that gold continues to hit record highs and the US dollar is in the garbage can. The Fed will only continue to print out and devalue the dollar while refusing calls from Congress to be audited. Sorry, inflation is coming whether you believe it or not. I also like to point out that a bipartisan effort just pretty much shot down Obama's deficit cutting panel. So we will continue to borrow and spend our way into more chaos.

 

[GoJazz]

Maybe this is a stupid question but if you really believe hyper inflation is coming shouldn't you be barrowing as much money as possible right since you will be able to pay it back with highly inflated cash?

 

[C l u t c H 385]

Maybe this is a stupid question but if you really believe hyper inflation is coming shouldn't you be barrowing as much money as possible right since you will be able to pay it back with highly inflated cash?

Be right back...gotta go do something.

 

[TheMulletMutilator]

Maybe this is a stupid question but if you really believe hyper inflation is coming shouldn't you be barrowing as much money as possible right since you will be able to pay it back with highly inflated cash?

It depends on if your income is adjusted to counteract it. If not then ultimately you would be paying the same with interest on top of it. I doubt many companies are going to willingly give you a raise just because you face inflation.

 

[One Brow]

The "rich" as in the guy that owns a few successful businesses around your city shouldn't be taxed more.

The extra taxes could easily persude him to put more money back into the business rather than take it as profits. After all, people don't get taxed on business income, they get taxed on personal income.

 

[C l u t c H 385]

The extra taxes could easily persude him to put more money back into the business rather than take it as profits. After all, people don't get taxed on business income, they get taxed on personal income.

Yea, how dare people enjoy the fruits of their labor. Friggin ******* bigot homophobes is what they are. Take that money and pay for some transitions, ya know?

 

[Revolution 9]

Let's have a national lottery available in all 50 states, soley for the purpose of getting ourselves out of debt.

 

[richgates]

The Republicans have the president by the short and curlies. They will not extend unemployment benefits without the Bush tax cuts being renewed. And with the latest jobs report and the unemployment rate going up again, I don't see how they can play chicken with each other for long.

 

[One Brow]

Yea, how dare people enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Especially since those people tookno advantage of the common social structure (roads, schools to educate their workers, police, etc.). Obviously they did it all alone, with no societal support. [/sarcasm]

 

[Duck Rodgers]

Maybe this is a stupid question but if you really believe hyper inflation is coming shouldn't you be barrowing as much money as possible right since you will be able to pay it back with highly inflated cash?

Only to the extent that you could afford to pay if nothing happened. It would be madness to go after every type of loan available to you hoping for hyper-inflation. It's impossible to time it. You would probably end up digging your own grave in the interim and having nothing to show for the risk. Then maybe in 5 or 6 subsequent years it really happens and you would be poorer than you were had you done nothing(because you would have defaulted). That's why most people stick to the metals. You've got good protection against both inflation and controlled devaluation. Either way, dollars are bad news right now.

 

[bordelais7]

Especially since those people tookno advantage of the common social structure (roads, schools to educate their workers, police, etc.). Obviously they did it all alone, with no societal support. [/sarcasm]

I know it's a mistake to even bring this up (I'll check back in when this gets to page 24), but aren't you essentially only making an argument for taxation in general, and not necessarily an argument for a progressive tax? If it is indeed a "common social structure", then why should taxation be...uncommon?