NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/politics/11cnd-tax.html?ex=1286683200&en=927e1df80ddab3d3&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Some Conservatives I know that heard about this were pissed. Bush's tax-panel (who he appointed but hasn't approved of yet) has basically suggested, ironically-enough, that taxes should not be cut anymore and that they should cut taxes for the poor and raise taxes for the wealthy. You'll see what I mean.

Bush's tax-panel has already said they're not going to raise or lower taxes, but should keep it the way it is right now.
They agree with the national income tax and oppose replacing it with a national sales tax or value-added tax.
A flat tax is still under consideration and will be discussed next week.
They want to abolish the alternative minimum tax for individuals, which would cut taxes for the poor by about $1.2 trillion over 10 years. To offset that, they have several ideas.
One suggestion is to cut mortgage interest deductions by roughly 75%, essentially, heavily raising taxes for the wealthy. Because right now, you can deduct up to $1 million on mortgage interest. Under this plan, it depends on the state, being $244,000 on average.
Another suggestion is to change health insurance deductions into a credit, meaning that wealthy people would get the same deduction as the poor.
For employer-paid health insurance, they've suggested capping tax-free insurance premiums at $11,000 for everyone. Whereas, right now, every penny that employers pay for health insurance is tax-free.
They'd like to expand the charitable contributions deduction, though.
Being that they've already rejected a value-added tax and a national sales tax, if they reject a flat tax next week, then the Bush administration has no alternative suggestion to the current progressive tax system. And so far, it seems, they're also trying to reduce the tax-cuts that Bush gave to the rich.

Bush already shocked conservatives by proposing that we loosen immigration restrictions and allow them to become naturalized more quickly... He also has befriended the Saudis and given the Pakistanis weapons, despite the fact that they persecute Christians and support terrorism. And despite the fact that he gave the largest tax-cut in history, he also has been one of the largest SPENDERS in history. Also, although he and Congress overturned Clintons' assault-weapons ban, he hasn't proposed reducing gun-control anymore at all, such as the dreaded Brady bill. AND he cut military veterans' benefits. And now, he's lowering taxes for the poor and raising taxes for the rich. Is he Republican or Democrat? ;)

The AMT has nothing to do with poor people.

And whoever wrote that article is a little confused as to how the tax code works.

Well, they are running out of useful programs to cut funding to, and they can't cut pork or military spending, so they are down to raising taxes.

The AMT has nothing to do with poor people.
Ack.

Thanks.

And actually, I've never file a tax return. I had a job a year ago, but I'm young, don't have any property, so I just.. didn't really care.

Raising taxes for the wealthy will only further weaken our economy to advances by the rapidly growing Asian markets. If the upper classes have less money, we see fewer things like startups, production capital, and so on. The real solution here is to cut the ever-loving bejesus out of all taxes and get rid of all these ridiculous programs that are nothing more than a glut on our national budget. If we're spending billions of dollars per year to stop me form buying pot [which I will be doing in two hours] and about a thousand other stupid things, obviously we're going to start having budget problems before too long.

I think this action [along with the US agreement to eliminate farm subsidies--booyah] indicates that someone in Washington has some idea as to just how ridiculous the situation is getting. Unfortunately, they're looking to ease their burden by making a bigger dent in our business startups and such. This is about as bad as just about everything else I've watched Bush fuck up. I was sort of hoping that the farm subsidy issue would prove we're moving in the right direction, but I can see they're still only seeing half the picture, as usual.

Right now, a tax increase in any area is a bad idea, especially with gas prices being what they are. If people have to put more coin into their tanks, they're less likely to spend in the other markets as it is. Take away from the spending power that remains by taxing it to death and the situation is obviously going to be quite bad.