<p>Bush paid federal taxes at a 22% tax rate on $923,807 in adjusted income (which means his tax rate is lower).</p>
<p>Cheney paid approximately 20% in federal taxes on his $3.04 million.</p>
<p>Doesn’t look like progressive tax rates to me.</p>
<p>No wonder we have a deficit.</p>
<p><a href=“Bushes’ 2007 tax bill comes in at $221,635 – The Mercury News”>Bushes’ 2007 tax bill comes in at $221,635 – The Mercury News;
<p>As a society, we either need to cut government spending or raise taxes.</p>
<p>That’s because most rich people pay at a capital gains rate on a lot of their income. Doubt Cheney has much ordinary income</p>
<p>You are probably right.</p>
<p>I want to know if he pays AMT. The Clintons don’t</p>
<p>"President Bush and Vice President Cheney and their wives have released information about their contributions to charities last year.</p>
<p>President Bush and the first lady, Laura Bush, gave a total of $75,560 to churches and charitable organizations, some of which were involved in disaster relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina. The Bush gifts represented 12 percent of their taxable income of $618,694.</p>
<p>Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, donated $6,869,655 to three organizations from the exercise of stock options and from Mrs. Cheney’s book royalties."</p>
<p>[The</a> Chronicle, 4/14/2006: Bush, Cheney Release Information About Charitable Donations](<a href=“http://www.philanthropy.com/free/update/2006/04/2006041402.htm]The”>http://www.philanthropy.com/free/update/2006/04/2006041402.htm)</p>
<p>When you give $7 Million in one year to charities, you can criticize someone else for “only” paying 20 percent in taxes.</p>
<p>By the way, you should check Obama’s charitable giving over the years, particularly before the last couple years. In terms of how little money he donated before 2005, Obama should be thoroughly embarrassed.</p>
<p>Those are nice donations. I’m not criticizing their incomes or charitable donations.</p>
<p>I am only criticizing the fact that we don’t raise enough in taxes to pay our way.</p>
<p>I am not even suggesting that we raise their taxes all that much.</p>
<p>Another $50,000 from the Bushes, another $150,000 from the Cheney’s (not much considering their incomes or charitable donations), and similar amounts from those with high incomes and our deficits would close and we wouldn’t pass on our deficits to our kids.</p>
<p>Well, maybe we can’t do it this year, with the economy in bad shape.</p>
<p>I don’t even donate/buy cookies from the Girl Scouts. Does that make me a bad person?</p>
<p>Does the taxes that I am Not paying, buy me the security and well being of the Nation? </p>
<p>Do you know how a tax deduction works on appreciated stock or stock options work? The process makes sense but somehow it seems a little dirty.</p>
<p>the inability of some to realize that a deficit is not a bad thing still amazes me.</p>
<p>That’s ok Lax. You will figure it out in a few years. ;)</p>
<p>We appear to have paid 16% this year. I think I’m feeling good.</p>
<p>When I see people getting fleeced by con men, or caught up in a Ponzi scheme, I wonder how they could be so blind. Then I read stuff like
and I remember that the first step in the con is to convince the mark that he’s smarter than all the suckers around him, and the rules of simple common sense don’t apply in “this” situation.</p>
<p>Debts aren’t bad right now because there’s a Republican President. In 1994, Newt and all the Republicans had us convinced debts were the worst thing since Red China. Debts will be back in style if there’s a Democratic President.</p>
<p>As for the tax rate, I am actually a fan of bringing CGT and income tax at parity.</p>
<p>If a deficit is amazing, then I suppose if we dug holes one day and filled them the next, there would no problems?</p>
<p>Lax - a deficit in and of itself is not a bad thing. A huge gaping budget deficit such as the one we’ve been in every year for years is not a good thing.</p>
<p>A deficit is fine if it has returns greater than its shortfall - for example for productivity infrastructure investment.</p>
<p>A deficit to fund wasted lives, equipment and time in wars, and to fund American consumption, is thoroughly, thoroughly wasted.</p>
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<p>You realize that you’re in a deficit right? Your personal finances could be considered a deficit…that is unless everything you own is paid off (highly unlikely). I guess the rules of common sense don’t apply in “this” situatioin .</p>
<p>CollectivSynergy: 7 years of deficit is not that long.</p>
<p>LaxAttack, as it happens, I am in a deficit - because with two kids in college I’m spending the money I saved for their education - so I’m spending more than I earn on a current basis as I spend down those funds. But I started from a surplus - I had saved for this event. If I had been in debt at the time my kids started college, I’d be in serious trouble. As it happens, I didn’t go into debt before my financial needs arose, I ran a surplus. </p>
<p>If you’re not talking about an annual budget deficit, but about “debt” (which I suspect you are) you’re still right - I have a mortgage on my home. But outside of spending down my kids’ college funds, I can reduce that mortgage every year through normal payments, so my household debt gets smaller every year - not bigger. What we’ve had since Reagan took office is a budget which runs up its credit cards more every year - in good times and bad - so our aggregate debt gets bigger each year - not just in absolute terms, but in relation to the nation’s wealth.</p>
<p>Common sense says you take on debt to address an extraordinary financial burden - like college or WWII - or to fund a long term asset - like buying a house - and you pay down the debt during “normal” financial times. Running a deficit every year builds up the debt to the point where you’re spending so much for interest on the money borrowed in the past that you cripple your current finances - and when a crisis hits, you’ve run out of ability to borrow money to deal with it. Republican administrations have driven the deficit from 32% of the GDP under Carter to about 68% today. Interest on the debt consumes 9% of the country’s taxes.</p>
<p>That’s your generation’s legacy.</p>
<p>61% of the big companies don’t pay taxes or they pay just a little bit, but folks in this country still buy at Wal-Mart even when that company makes our country worst.</p>