Interesting Article About Obama's Economic Ideology

[Mr. Body]

Hilarious.

A bridge collapses. People die.

The bridge was built by the govt. "maintained" by the govt......and yet; you CANNOT blame the govt!!! Govt = Good in your naive little immature, unable to assimilate knowledge brain, therefore, well, the bridge must have collapsed because of the rich!!!!

Priceless.

I suggest you learn something, my friend. In Minnesota, due to GOP leadership, the funds were denied to make structural improvements that would have prevented the bridge collapse. In fact, at the time, the idea of giving out the money was ridiculed. Now, even leaving aside the very human sorrows of those who needlessly died, the outward payments the state has to make to the dead and for reconstruction is higher than what maintenance was.

Maintenance of infrastructure is a vital national policy. For security, for commerce, and because it's far more expensive to fix things when they're broken. But the GOP decides to belittle it, going for tax cuts for the top marginal tax brackets (leaving alone high payroll taxes for the little guys), and for discretionary wars we have no moral or security business waging -- that are enormously, vastly expensive, and are laying waste to the dollar.

Most of the rich are sound, wise people, but a good number have grappled the government to evil purpose, all the while destroying one of our national parties -- the Republicans used to be sane, and fiscal conservative philosophies are good ones, but now they are insane, crooked, and compromised to the gills. But Warren Buffett, among others, knows what you're too stupid to understand -- you have to pay for things. And a sound society allows some shifting of burdens. This is not 'communism', this is not 'socialism', although no doubt that's the next thing out of your mouth.

[101A]

I suggest you learn something, my friend. In Minnesota, due to GOP leadership, the funds were denied to make structural improvements that would have prevented the bridge collapse. In fact, at the time, the idea of giving out the money was ridiculed. Now, even leaving aside the very human sorrows of those who needlessly died, the outward payments the state has to make to the dead and for reconstruction is higher than what maintenance was.

Maintenance of infrastructure is a vital national policy. For security, for commerce, and because it's far more expensive to fix things when they're broken. But the GOP decides to belittle it, going for tax cuts for the top marginal tax brackets (leaving alone high payroll taxes for the little guys), and for discretionary wars we have no moral or security business waging -- that are enormously, vastly expensive, and are laying waste to the dollar.

Most of the rich are sound, wise people, but a good number have grappled the government to evil purpose, all the while destroying one of our national parties -- the Republicans used to be sane, and fiscal conservative philosophies are good ones, but now they are insane, crooked, and compromised to the gills. But Warren Buffett, among others, knows what you're too stupid to understand -- you have to pay for things. And a sound society allows some shifting of burdens. This is not 'communism', this is not 'socialism', although no doubt that's the next thing out of your mouth.

I know this:

The Govt. was in charge of the bridge in question.

The govt. failed.

I guess I'm too stupid to understand that giving the govt. MORE responsibility and power will help cure this problem?

Also, where in the world have I stated that the govt. should not be funded?

I simply pointed out that Obama has decided that the wise, responsible thing to do is give a tax cut to 900 people for each single individual who receives a tax increase. I suggested that that is a very convenient position in a democracy. If it is SO important to fund all of this big government, why is Obama ONLY repealing the Bush tax cuts on the most wealthy? ALL people who pay income tax got a tax cut, why shouldn't everybody pay part of this very righteous burden?

[101A]

Also, isn't Warren Buffet EXACTLY the kind of ultra rich dude we ought to be looking out for? You think maybe he's working the govt. AND public opinion to his own ends?

[Wild Cobra]

I'll answer the question:

If you itemize your deductions, then you get to reduce your AGI on a dollar per dollar basis for each dollar you paid.

This, in essence reduces your federal taxes by the amount you paid in state income taxes multiplied by your marginal tax rate.

If say you paid $5,000 in state income taxes and have a marginal tax rate of 35% then you get to reduce your ultimate federal tax paid by $1750.

So in your calculations, you don't get to take a percentage for percentage addition of state and local income taxes.

So if the state income tax is 9% you have to run that times .65 or roughly 6%

Just to be accurate...

This is true, but you leave out the fact that filing that way replaces the standard deduction. I filed that way a few years when it was advantageous for me to. I still would save money filing that way, but I prefer the short form. I actually pay more in taxes than I need to. I don't deduct my charitable contributions either. I am more pissed at the way liberals want us to pay taxes rather than how much I pay. It's a matter of principle.

[PixelPusher]

I know this:

The Govt. was in charge of the bridge in question.

The govt. failed.

I guess I'm too stupid to understand that giving the govt. MORE responsibility and power will help cure this problem?

GOP comes into power. GOP cuts funding. GOP cuts have consequences. GOP blames "guvmit".

Yeah, that not at all cynical.

[Wild Cobra]

Further, if you really get down to it, let's examine what the capital gains tax does.

---snip---

Don't forget how capitol gains and dividends differ from income. When they come from stucks in a company that you are part owner of, you already paid a 35% federal rate on those profits. Now add that 15%, and you now are really paying a 44.75% of the gains on your stock holdings.

Capitol gains are also paid on property investments, and inflation isn't factored in on either stock gains or property value gains. I would advocate a zero capitol gains tax myself. If you sell a house for $400,000, twice what you bought it for 10 years earlier, and reinvested in a smaller house after the children move out that for $300,000, should you pay more than 15,000 in taxes on that trasaction? Aren't you possible behind after ten years of inflation?

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I think it's worth noting too, that we're currently running a $500 billion dollar budget defecit, so don't act like all the revenue this taxation brings in is just going to be handed right back out into the slums of America.

Come on, Obama's proposing $500 (or is it a $1000 this time?) to every working family, coming out of the pocket of big oil. That wouldn't do for the deficit.

The extremely wealthy have run amok in their earnings and uniformly supported Bush as he's been draining the national coffers at an astronomical rate for the past 8 years. So what, under Obama, these top earners pull down 7.2 million dollars per year as opposed to 8 million? Phhhhh, I could give a less if Obama puts the burden of cleaning up Bush's national bankruptcy on them.

Bush was a ty president. That doesn't mean Obama should have free reign to do an even worse job.

[Wild Cobra]

I suggest you learn something, my friend. In Minnesota, due to GOP leadership, the funds were denied to make structural improvements that would have prevented the bridge collapse. In fact, at the time, the idea of giving out the money was ridiculed. Now, even leaving aside the very human sorrows of those who needlessly died, the outward payments the state has to make to the dead and for reconstruction is higher than what maintenance was.

Do you engage in propaganda purposely, or are you ignorant to the facts?

There are more democrats than republicans in the minnessota state delegation, and that's where such decisions are made. The govorner approves or vetos.

Where are the quotes that a republican govorner killed necessary infrastructure improvements?