If you are not wealthy then you can vote for either of these candidates and know that your taxes won't go up. Only one candidate cuts your taxes while finding a way to pay for it.
About Me
- Andrew, Bridget, Walker, and Josie
- Sailed the Great Lakes (Superior, Huron, and Michigan) in the summer of 2012 and '13. In 2014 it's Erie, Ontario, perhaps further.
4 comments:
The numbers came from a Democratic Party affiliated think tank, so I wonder if there is another side to this assessment?
Regardless, Washington has plenty of money: more and more of it all the time as tax revenues increase. Mr. Obama, I would accept your tax plan if it didn't increase anyone's tax rates. Minuses are fine. Zeroes are OK. Just no increases: hold the line on greed.
I agree with dmarks comment about no increases. The Law of Unintended Consequences comes to play when you increase taxes. People will find ways to put the money someplace safe from taxation and will not spend it. The money then is taken out of the economy and jobs are lost. Therefore, more money is lost and it goes on.
There is a boat factory near me. "Four Winns". Boats are a luxury item, but working-class stiffs make them in a factory.
Years ago, during the Clinton administration, the government passed one of those "class warfare" soak-the-rich luxury taxes on things that included very expensive boats.
The result? The rich weren't screwed over, but they did buy fewer boats. As a result, they had to lay off factory workers at "Four Winns".
There is a current version of this tax. Click here for a good New York Times article.
It tells how the luxury tax "is helping to scuttle parts of the local boating industry, say those who make their livings building, selling and maintaining the boats" and "customers were escaping the luxury tax by setting up off-shore corporations to purchase the boats"
Attempts to "soak the rich" often do not accomplish what they set out to do. The rich have means and resources so they end up barely inconvenienced. Others pay the price.
If you over-tax expensive boats, the main result is not "making more money from boat sales". Such a tax policy is a penalty: a government policy to discourage people from buying boats.
Since this exchange, I've learned that President-Elect Obama wants to raise gasoline taxes.
This would affect everyone, so it would be a tax hike on everyone, and would hit the poor who drive to work the worst.
He also promises a sort of rebate to pay for energy, for individuals. Fine. But what about small businesses who are clobbered by Obama's gas taxes and have to raise prices or fire people? It seems like the best thing to do would be to get rid of all federal gasoline taxes, and let it be taxed like anything else.
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