09-04-2008, 03:36 PM
I'm curious about how the current campaign rhetoric can claim they'll reduce Federal taxes for 95% of the people, when almost half of us (38-40%) pay no Federal taxes in the first place.
How can they give a tax break to someone who didn't pay tax? I've had years where I've earned a lot, and paid a lot of taxes, and I've also had years where my income is so low, or because of deductions and exceptions, I've not paid any Federal taxes. None. Does that mean we would get a kickback anyway? Would this new tax plan call for taking some money away from rich people, and giving it to you and me? Even if I paid no tax? That sounds kinda cool, I can support that!
Increasing taxes, and increasing tax revenue aren't the same thing. If the goal is to increase tax revenue, which method works best? Both of the opposing methods have their advocates. Both sides are equally dishonest about which works best, distorting the statistics to demonstrate that their side is right and the other side is wrong. (and both sides equally abuse and misspend the taxes they collect, and blame each other, but that's another story)
If one method of collecting more tax money is by increasing the percentage paid by taxpayers--primarily the group that pays most tax already, high-income earners--and the other method calls for lowering the percentage of taxation, primarily on the high-earning bracket, claiming this will stimulate more tax revenue by increasing the size of the economy, which method a voter supports often depends on which bracket they're in.
"I'm not a Democrat because I love poor people, I'm a Democrat because I hate rich people"
How can they give a tax break to someone who didn't pay tax? I've had years where I've earned a lot, and paid a lot of taxes, and I've also had years where my income is so low, or because of deductions and exceptions, I've not paid any Federal taxes. None. Does that mean we would get a kickback anyway? Would this new tax plan call for taking some money away from rich people, and giving it to you and me? Even if I paid no tax? That sounds kinda cool, I can support that!
Increasing taxes, and increasing tax revenue aren't the same thing. If the goal is to increase tax revenue, which method works best? Both of the opposing methods have their advocates. Both sides are equally dishonest about which works best, distorting the statistics to demonstrate that their side is right and the other side is wrong. (and both sides equally abuse and misspend the taxes they collect, and blame each other, but that's another story)
If one method of collecting more tax money is by increasing the percentage paid by taxpayers--primarily the group that pays most tax already, high-income earners--and the other method calls for lowering the percentage of taxation, primarily on the high-earning bracket, claiming this will stimulate more tax revenue by increasing the size of the economy, which method a voter supports often depends on which bracket they're in.
"I'm not a Democrat because I love poor people, I'm a Democrat because I hate rich people"