You May Be Rich!!!

[Altazi]

"For the second time in a week, a prominent Democrat has downgraded Barack Obama's definition of the middle class -- leading Republicans to question whether he'll stick to his promise not to raise taxes on anyone making under $250,000.

The latest hiccup in the campaign message came Friday morning on KOA-AM, when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson pegged the middle class as those making $120,000 and under."

Link

I'm getting "richer" by the day. Thanks, a lot, dems.

[BillInInd]

I'm not there yet, I got a ways to go.

[darthvader420]

You people are so paranoid about your taxes. If you make 250,000 dollars a year your taxes will go up by a measly 3%. It's the people making millions a year that are seeing a big tax hike, which is just the reversal of the Bush tax cuts. We have the biggest income gap since 1929, right before the stock market crash. I think that should tell you something.

When a Republican says he'll cut taxes you cheer, though you really see a tiny tax cut while the multi millionaires get a gigantic break. Then the Democrats come along with a well thought out plan that actually gives a significant tax break to the majority of citizens and you people whine and whine. All they're doing is reversing the crazy Bush tax cuts while giving a break to the lower classes who are currently all going bankrupt as the economy collapses.

Taxes are complicated business but Republicans have managed to dumb it down beyond reason. Any talk of tax increases and you people freak out, no matter who it's targeted at.

[Altazi]

Damn straight I am "paranoid" about my taxes - there are rapacious politicians everywhere. Why shouldn't I care about what is mine?

How can you provide tax relief to people who don't pay taxes in the first place?

Government is like a cancer - it will grow as long as it has a food supply - money. We need to restrict government's income to restrict its growth. For myself, I just need government to get out of my way.

[calgaryvolt]

You could take your chances and not pay taxes at all and wait for the tax man to figure things out. If the government wants your money so bad they should have to work for it. Let them do the number crunching and accounting.

I keep seeing those commercials on TV for some law firm (or whatever) that will work for you to reduce the amount of tax owed should the tax man come after you. I believe that some of the people on the commercial are claiming that their amount owing was reduced from a $100,00 or so to less than $10,000. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

[darthvader420]

Go live in the woods if you don't want to pay taxes.

[OPEC SUCKS]

Sorry Darth, you can't go live in the woods. ESA baby !! Environmentally sensitive area. Spotted owl. Spotted owl, might live there. Maybe a potential habitat. Have you ever had to deal with the mess that enviropreneurism has created ?? Eco Business ?? We can get in trouble with one of our weed cutting crews on the freeway shoulder. In a cut section of roadway !!! No Shiatt, the US Marines have been restricted in their use of Camp Pendleton by ESA. Seriously, don't even think of stiffing the IRS. They have almost as much power as the Eco Nazis !!!

Anyone here work for a government agency or organization ?

[Altazi]

Go live in the woods if you don't want to pay taxes.

You don't get it, do you? It's not that I don't want to pay taxes. I'll gladly pay my fair share - my problem is the definition of "fair". That and the fact that government is growing uncontrollably. Think about it - there is a limit to how much government the private sector can support. Only the private sector truly pays taxes; only the people who create wealth pay taxes. Everyone else is just redistributing the wealth created by the few. Consider a state or federal employee: they work, they get paid, and they pay taxes. The money they make comes from taxes paid by the private sector, and the taxes they pay is just a "take-back" from the government that paid them.

Think about it in another way. A person earns $1 by creating something; of that $1, he has to pay $0.40 (if not more) in state and federal taxes, leaving him $0.60. Of that remaining $0.60, he has to pay for his housing, food, utilities, insurance, healthcare, etc. After all of that, he is lucky to have $0.05 to spend as "discretionary income". Now also consider that, of the $0.60 he spends, how much of that goes to pay the various businesses' taxes that they have to pay, since as we all know, businesses don't pay taxes. By the time the accounting is all done, I'll bet you'd find that the lion's share of all of that economic activity ended up in a government coffer somewhere.

As a beleaguered private sector wealth-creator, I am getting sick and tired of the expansionist government with their ever-present hand in my wallet. Down with Nanny State! Down with Government trying to be the Be-All and End-All! Down with hand-outs and bail-outs! Down with shiftless, lazy-a$$ scum who are gaming the system at the expense of hard-working citizens!

[darthvader420]

Here's a fun pie graph. Where do the tax dollars go? Nanny-state handouts add up to a pitiful fraction of the total budget. Get ready for some military budget cuts in the future: it's the only way the US can ever get out of this hole.

[Mike756]

"This only represents discretionary spending and doesn't include social security, medicare, medicaid, and interest."

Nice caveat there; lets see the graph with those included.

How much of the Pentagon's budget is due to politicians meddling with decisions regarding bases and manufacturing centers? i.e. the socialist aspects of the budget.