Showing posts with label class warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label class warfare. Show all posts
Friday, May 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Thomas Sowell Jumps The Shark
April 10th, 2012
Sigh. This is what passes for great thinking in the post "Derb" NRO offices?
In his column today, Thomas Sowell first regurgitates long debunked smears about half of Americans not paying their "fair share" (that would be the poor half).
That this is mendacious propaganda is illustrated HERE, HERE and HERE.
Sigh. This is what passes for great thinking in the post "Derb" NRO offices?
In his column today, Thomas Sowell first regurgitates long debunked smears about half of Americans not paying their "fair share" (that would be the poor half).
That this is mendacious propaganda is illustrated HERE, HERE and HERE.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Quote Of The Day - Here and Now Edition
Jan 30th, 2012
"Like his father, Mitt Romney worries about those who would demonize wealth and success. But, whereas George sought to ease their plight, Mitt seeks to demonize the demonizers.
It’s as though Mitt inherited all of his father’s noblesse, but none of the oblige."
-- Noam Scheiber on Romney's disconnect from the average citizen
It’s as though Mitt inherited all of his father’s noblesse, but none of the oblige."
-- Noam Scheiber on Romney's disconnect from the average citizen
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The Big Tax Dodge
Jan 10th, 2012
An astounding report was released last week by the I.R.S. showing hundreds of billions of dollars in uncollected tax revenue annually.
AP reports:
"People and businesses underpaid their taxes by an estimated 17 percent in the most recent year studied, meaning they failed to send the government $450 billion it was owed, according to an Internal Revenue Service report released Friday.
The study covered 2006, the most recent for which the IRS said it had data available. The amount of underpaid taxes far exceeded the size of the entire federal budget deficit at the time." EMPHASIS OURS
There is no excuse for the extreme austerity measures and budget slashing that so many of our leaders are attempting to impose upon our struggling nation. The money is there. The problem isn't spending. It's not even necessarily the obscenely low tax rates our richest citizens enjoy. The crisis lies in enforcement.
Bruce Bartlett notes:
"There is more noncompliance in areas like pensions and investment income, where there is reporting but generally no withholding. Noncompliance rises as reporting requirements weaken for things like alimony and capital gains and rises sharply where reporting requirements are nonexistent, such as for proprietors’ income, rents and royalties." EMPHASIS OURS
Get it? The wealthiest among us, whose tax rates are ludicrously low as it is, aren't even paying what they owe.
Linda Douglas reports for ABC:
"The number of audits has gone down," says Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., of the House IRS Oversight Subcommittee. "I think that as much as anything is giving fuel to this notion that 'I can cheat, no one will ever know ' "
Experts say the number of audits has dropped as Congress has demanded the IRS be more consumer-friendly: The agency has been pressured to devote more resources to answering questions and to use less aggressive tactics to enforce the law."
An astounding report was released last week by the I.R.S. showing hundreds of billions of dollars in uncollected tax revenue annually.
AP reports:
"People and businesses underpaid their taxes by an estimated 17 percent in the most recent year studied, meaning they failed to send the government $450 billion it was owed, according to an Internal Revenue Service report released Friday.
The study covered 2006, the most recent for which the IRS said it had data available. The amount of underpaid taxes far exceeded the size of the entire federal budget deficit at the time." EMPHASIS OURS
There is no excuse for the extreme austerity measures and budget slashing that so many of our leaders are attempting to impose upon our struggling nation. The money is there. The problem isn't spending. It's not even necessarily the obscenely low tax rates our richest citizens enjoy. The crisis lies in enforcement.
Bruce Bartlett notes:
"There is more noncompliance in areas like pensions and investment income, where there is reporting but generally no withholding. Noncompliance rises as reporting requirements weaken for things like alimony and capital gains and rises sharply where reporting requirements are nonexistent, such as for proprietors’ income, rents and royalties." EMPHASIS OURS
Get it? The wealthiest among us, whose tax rates are ludicrously low as it is, aren't even paying what they owe.
Linda Douglas reports for ABC:
"The number of audits has gone down," says Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., of the House IRS Oversight Subcommittee. "I think that as much as anything is giving fuel to this notion that 'I can cheat, no one will ever know ' "
Experts say the number of audits has dropped as Congress has demanded the IRS be more consumer-friendly: The agency has been pressured to devote more resources to answering questions and to use less aggressive tactics to enforce the law."
What we are dealing with here is nothing short of an institutionalized incentive for fraud.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Meet Chad Wilmer
Oct 14th, 2011
Thanks to Rachel Maddow for the introduction:
"Chad Wilmer of Downers Grove, Illinois, sends his counter to the We Are The 53%, where people post that they pay taxes and the other 47 percent don't, so the 99 percent should hush up."
Thanks to Rachel Maddow for the introduction:
"Chad Wilmer of Downers Grove, Illinois, sends his counter to the We Are The 53%, where people post that they pay taxes and the other 47 percent don't, so the 99 percent should hush up."
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Inequalstan
Sept 25th, 2011
I must admit, the new Chris Hayes weekend show is off to a fine start. Yesterday, he did a great job of exposing just how dishonest one very familiar conservative talking point really is. Oh, and he took a righteous shot at David Brooks, as well.
I must admit, the new Chris Hayes weekend show is off to a fine start. Yesterday, he did a great job of exposing just how dishonest one very familiar conservative talking point really is. Oh, and he took a righteous shot at David Brooks, as well.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Class Warfare?
Sept 24th, 2011
Krugman looks at the numbers:
"Detailed estimates from the Congressional Budget Office — which only go up to 2005, but the basic picture surely hasn’t changed — show that between 1979 and 2005 the inflation-adjusted income of families in the middle of the income distribution rose 21 percent. That’s growth, but it’s slow, especially compared with the 100 percent rise in median income over a generation after World War II.
Meanwhile, over the same period, the income of the very rich, the top 100th of 1 percent of the income distribution, rose by 480 percent. No, that isn’t a misprint. In 2005 dollars, the average annual income of that group rose from $4.2 million to $24.3 million.
So do the wealthy look to you like the victims of class warfare?"
No.
Krugman looks at the numbers:
Meanwhile, over the same period, the income of the very rich, the top 100th of 1 percent of the income distribution, rose by 480 percent. No, that isn’t a misprint. In 2005 dollars, the average annual income of that group rose from $4.2 million to $24.3 million.
So do the wealthy look to you like the victims of class warfare?"
No.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
The View From The Street
Sept 19th, 2011
The view from Wall Street, to be more specific. Follow the action on twitter.com using #OccupyWallStreet and on Facebook HERE
The view from Wall Street, to be more specific. Follow the action on twitter.com using #OccupyWallStreet and on Facebook HERE
A Vast Majority Backs Higher Taxes... Still
Sept 19th, 2011
Is the President's call to raise taxes on those who make more than one million dollars a year "class warfare" as so many Republicans have been suggesting? Well, not according to a vast majority of Americans. Period.
Bruce Bartlett did a round up today of every current poll that has asked Americans their opinions on the matter. He notes that "three-fourths of people support higher taxes and only 21 percent support the doctrinaire right-wing position." A screen cap of the results is shown below (the original is interactive and links back to each source).
Is the President's call to raise taxes on those who make more than one million dollars a year "class warfare" as so many Republicans have been suggesting? Well, not according to a vast majority of Americans. Period.
Bruce Bartlett did a round up today of every current poll that has asked Americans their opinions on the matter. He notes that "three-fourths of people support higher taxes and only 21 percent support the doctrinaire right-wing position." A screen cap of the results is shown below (the original is interactive and links back to each source).
Quote Of The Day - Here and Now Edition
Sept 19th, 2011
"This is not class warfare. It's math."
-- President Barack Obama on his latest revenue proposals.
-- President Barack Obama on his latest revenue proposals.
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