This bothers me about Obama....

Parent Cafe
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<p>His tax policies are punitive.</p>

<p>He has talked about raising the top rate back to 39.6 % </p>

<p>OK. I can live with this.</p>

<p>He wants to raise capital gains taxes. I think 20% would be ok, but he might go as high as 28%. That is going to lower revenues and hurt asset prices.</p>

<p>He wants to tax inheritances above $7 million. My guess is most people aren’t going to have too many problems with this. </p>

<p>Medicare taxes are around 2.7%. I haven’t heard him talk about this.</p>

<p>Then we get to social security taxes. He wants a donut style tax rate. First $110,000 taxed the same as now. Next $100,000 taxed at zero. Then tax the rest.</p>

<p>I have a huge problem with this. First the rate of return from social security for the baby boomers are going to be poor as it is, and as time goes on, going to be a lot worse. I was against what Bush wanted to do with social security, but with proposals like Obama’s I could change my mind.</p>

<p>Second, I don’t think the government should take more than 50% of anybody’s income.</p>

<p>When I look at the top brackets, I see 39.6% income tax+ 2.7% for medicare + a 12% tax rate for social security + whatever the state income tax is let’s say 5% and I get a 60.3% tax rate.</p>

<p>I know these rates are for people with high earned incomes, but these tax rates are too high. I haven’t counted sales taxes, property taxes etc. </p>

<p>Obama needs to rethink his social security tax. </p>

<p>What I would really like to see is income tax rates with no deductions for real estate, kids, pensions, other taxes ,etc.</p>

<p>The only deduction I would allow is for catastrophic health costs. </p>

<p>I would like to see something like this…</p>

<p>0% tax under $10,000.
10% tax $10,001 to $50,000.
20% tax $50,001 to $100,000
25% tax $100,001 to $2,000,000
30% tax above $2,000,000.</p>

<p>That’s it . One tax. No more social security taxes, medicare taxes, capital gains tax rates, etc. No more IRAs. No more keoghs. </p>

<p>My educated guess is we wouldn’t have a deficit. :)</p>

<p>We could eliminate a lot of unnecessary paperwork.</p>

<p>We could eliminate a ton of lobbyists.</p>

<p>We would have a progressive system because that is where the money is, and to live in a civilized society, those that are well off have to pay a little more.</p>

<p>We wouldn’t have too much money flowing into real estate, for example, just because that is where the tax breaks are. We would have fewer bubbles. ;)</p>

<p>Capital and labor would have the same tax rates.</p>

<p>(I don’t know what to do with Munis). :)</p>

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<p>By 2019, do you know how much our Medicare/SS bill is? </p>

<p>Look it up and see if you still disagree with his policies.</p>

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<p>I hate the very idea that the govt could take 40% or worse of my money. I bet we’d have a surplus of cash if everyone just paid 15%, though I have absolutely no stats to back up this statement.</p>

<p>What I want to know about Obama is how & where he thinks he will create these new 5 million jobs (which was on a commercial on tv this evening.). Are these all going to be government jobs? We have too many of those now. He doesn’t say and I don’t think too many of our friends in the news media are asking.</p>

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<p>"By 2019, do you know how much our Medicare/SS bill is? </p>

<p>Look it up and see if you still disagree with his policies."</p>

<p>I know what it is and I disagree with his policies.</p>

<p>You do know we have overfunded social security since its inception. The money raised by social security taxes is not exclusively used for social security.</p>

<p>Under what I think is best, this social security tax game would be over.</p>

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<p>The federal government is around 20% of the economy. 15% isn’t going to cut it.</p>

<p>Many people can’t afford 15%, much less 20%.</p>

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<p>dstark: </p>

<p>Are you saying that you favor abolishing social security? That would mean millions of baby boomers have paid into a system for decades and now you want to tell them “sorry, there’s no money to pay you in your retirement”??? If this is not what you mean then can you say how the system will be solvent in 2030?</p>

<p>Secondly, if you eliminate real estate deductions you are going to aggravate the real estate meltdown to the point of plunging this economy into a very serious tailspin. I have long disliked the real estate tax breaks, but this may be the worst time to eliminate them.</p>

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<p>No. I am not in favor of eliminating social security at all. I am in favor of combining the social security and income tax. We don’t spend the money from social security just on social security anyway, so why play games. What I am proposing would save social security.</p>

<p>Right now, the federal government gets around 18% of gdp from taxes and spends around 20%. We are about 2% short every year. (This year it is going to be 3%).</p>

<p>The government gets around 2.7% from corporate taxes, and 7+% from income taxes, 7+% from social security and medicare taxes. </p>

<p>Real estate is problematic. After the federal government is finished pumping in a trillion dollars and saves real estate, the banks and the investment banks, then I would like to see the tax system changed.</p>

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<p>Just so this doesn’t get lost, this is what I would like to see (or something close to this). One tax that includes income taxes, social security taxes, and capital gains taxes. No more deductions except for catastrophic health care costs.</p>

<p>0% tax under $10,000.
10% tax $10,001 to $50,000.
20% tax $50,001 to $100,000
25% tax $100,001 to $2,000,000
30% tax above $2,000,000.</p>

<p>I believe that when you combine income taxes, social security taxes, and medicare taxes most people pay around these rates. </p>

<p>Except now, you can fill out your returns on a postcard and I believe we wouldn’t run any deficits.</p>

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<p>There are any number of flat tax proposals, you should look them up. Maxtax, FairTax… the list goes on. I don’t quit get where you’re all coming from on “we’d get rid of the deficit” though… not gonna happen just by switching to a flat tax system. What that would do, though, is drastically decrease the billions and billions wasted every year on tax compliance, which could give the economy a significant productivity boost. Just making a flat tax isn’t a miracle, though.</p>

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<p>So if I incorporate and have zero income? ;)</p>

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<p>1of42, I don’t like the fair tax. I don’t think it is fair and the rates used won’t give us the revenues needed to balance the budget. </p>

<p>I don’t know all the flat tax proposals out there, but I know a lot. :)</p>

<p>Most don’t generate enough revenues.</p>

<p>If you have one that does, I would like to see it.</p>

<p>I would adjust mine so it generates 17% of the gdp which when added to the corporate tax and the inheritance tax is what we spend.</p>

<p>I think my numbers are close. :)</p>

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<p>We would still have corporate taxes. Sorry.</p>

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<p>But I digress.
Real life example: DS had ~$20,000 income in 2006. ( I am ignoring Canadian taxable TA wage and stipend. ) He paid ~$1000 in for IRS and payroll taxes. He took the standand deduction method and had no deductions for IRA or student loans.
Why?</p>

<p>Bush’s tax cuts was affected who the most? (there is two answers and both answers need not be long)</p>

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<p>Where I live, that’s how we do it. You make this much, you pay this tax. If you make under 20,000 you pay no tax. No write-offs at all.</p>

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<p>Overseas, how do you like the system where you live?</p>

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<p>Who’s going to pay the three trillion for the Bush Boondoggle?</p>

<p>But I agree, it shouldn’t all come out of people’s income. It should come out of their assets. (You could even “flat tax” it, after a certain amount of exemption.)</p>

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<p>The asset I would tax first is those that go to school tuition free. </p>

<p>That’s a hell of an asset, wouldn’t you agree? ;)</p>

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<p>If you can monetize it, I have no problem with it.</p>

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<p>It’s already monetized. How much would it cost if you had to pay? How much do you pay? Tax the difference.</p>

<p>As an aside, pretty awesome achievement for your daughter. :)</p>

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<p>Who has a monet?</p>