10 myths about the "Bush" tax cuts

[Angel Heart]

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I'm part of a 'low income' family. I must say, I'm thankful for the Bush tax cuts. I have 4 children. Bush's tax cuts raised the child tax credit. It's money I get back above and beyond paying what I owe in taxes.

Let's look at the other end of the income spectrum... Cindy McCain:

Cindy McCain reports $6 million in 2006 income - CNN.com

The documents show that Mrs. McCain, who files her taxes separately from her husband, paid more than $1.7 million in federal income taxes -- a tax rate of more than 28 percent. She reported nearly $570,000 in itemized deductions.

I think too many get a Robin Hood mentality when it comes to all of this.

 

[Chris]

Not going to show proof I see where tax revenues decreased....Only try and deflect...Tax cuts increased revenues...I have shown that.

Congress increased spending faster than the larger revenues could cover, hence we have a huge deficit. I am sure that Obama's over $1 trillion in new governmental spending would help the situation.

Tax revenues always grow because the economy grows.

By the way, how's the economy doing now?

 

[sealybobo]

Sealy, I'm not so sure this is true.

The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve represents a small fraction of the global market in any given week. I'm a bit doubtful that U.S. price strategy could have such a widespread effect (while holding such a small fraction of the global market share).

And even then, in your own admission, the effects of any such policy are short-term; 60 days according to you. I would suspect that may be why you don't see the national media covering this proposal.

YOu could be right.

But:

It's not just 60 days. When we release the gas and it forces prices to do down across the board, we can buy more to replenish the reserves. So we never run out. I don't know all the answers. All I heard was this could drop gas $1 a gallon and some experts said it could cut the price in half.

Again, I didn't hear the whole plan. Maybe it also gives the oil companies offshore and anwar but they would have to compromise.

All I know is that the Democrats want to compromise with the oil companies for Americans and the Republicans want to just give the oil companies whatever they want and then let them gouge us at the pumps so they can make record profits. It is almost a monopoly. Its not like we can go out and bid every year on which oil companies can tap our lands. Maybe that's what we need? Maybe we should not be giving the major oil companies no bid contracts. Let them compete! Free trade! I'm sure the chinese oil companies will do it better and cheaper!!!! Let's walmart our oil!!!! YEA!!!!

 

[sealybobo]

Bush is the one who lied. He borrowed $700 billion dollars from the Chinese to fund the Iraq war. Someone has to pay that bill? Guess who that someone will be? All he did was pass the tax bill on to the next generation. And God help the next president.

He doesn't care about what will happen 10 to 40 years from now. He just doesn't want a $30,000 bill today. He doesn't worry about it being $90,000 in 40 years. But boy will he shit his pants when he gets that bill.

And do you know who he will blame? Obama.

 

[sealybobo]

I'm part of a 'low income' family. I must say, I'm thankful for the Bush tax cuts. I have 4 children. Bush's tax cuts raised the child tax credit. It's money I get back above and beyond paying what I owe in taxes.

Let's look at the other end of the income spectrum... Cindy McCain:

Cindy McCain reports $6 million in 2006 income - CNN.com



I think too many get a Robin Hood mentality when it comes to all of this.

Yes, I know many a broke ass american like yourself who can't see the big picture. You/they only care about the $400 they got back last year per child. Meanwhile you don't realize that you are putting it back at the pump and grocery store. And college is now unaffordable and.....

Why do i even bother. If you think the chump change Bush gave you was worth the negatives, then you deserve to be broke. I'll give you $400 if you let me give myself $100K, deal? The value of the dollar went down and the cost of living went up. Do you even understand what that means?

You lost more than you gained with Bush. Unless you didn't have shit to begin with, and then $400 must seem like a lot of money to you.

 

[Zoomie1980]

Bush is the one who lied. He borrowed $700 billion dollars from the Chinese to fund the Iraq war. Someone has to pay that bill? Guess who that someone will be? All he did was pass the tax bill on to the next generation. And God help the next president.

We always pass debt on to the next generation. It's a long time American tradition. No one EVER ends paying it....it just grows forever. We'll have to use scientific notation to depict it soon....

 

[gonegolfin]

We always pass debt on to the next generation. It's a long time American tradition. No one EVER ends paying it....it just grows forever. We'll have to use scientific notation to depict it soon....

This is because our monetary system is a debt based system. Without debt, there is no money. Hence, as long as our current monetary system exists, you will not see the private and public debt (cumulatively) extinguished.

Brian

 

[TopGunna]

YOu could be right.

But:

It's not just 60 days. When we release the gas and it forces prices to do down across the board, we can buy more to replenish the reserves. So we never run out. I don't know all the answers. All I heard was this could drop gas $1 a gallon and some experts said it could cut the price in half.

Again, I didn't hear the whole plan. Maybe it also gives the oil companies offshore and anwar but they would have to compromise.

All I know is that the Democrats want to compromise with the oil companies for Americans and the Republicans want to just give the oil companies whatever they want and then let them gouge us at the pumps so they can make record profits. It is almost a monopoly. Its not like we can go out and bid every year on which oil companies can tap our lands. Maybe that's what we need? Maybe we should not be giving the major oil companies no bid contracts. Let them compete! Free trade! I'm sure the chinese oil companies will do it better and cheaper!!!! Let's walmart our oil!!!! YEA!!!!

I think that plan's a little short-sighted. If you're going to make the strategic reserves available to only Americans, it's unlikely to send global prices down because you're insulating 2 seperate markets from one another.

The only way to replenish those reserves is to increase domestic production (which, as you said, may be the thinking) - or to purchase more oil at the global level, where we would still face global prices. If his plan is to sell off the domestic reserves at $80/barrel then replenish those reserves by buying foreign oil at $112/barrel, that's a remarkably bad idea. Not saying that's his plan, but I'd want to hear more details before getting too excited.

Also, oil companies make for an easy scapegoat, but they're not the main problem. As an industry, oil companies collectively are only making 7.9% profit - not that much compared to other industries. Heck, I work for a non-profit, and we routinely charge 10-12% fee - it's necessary for the establishment and maintenance of capital facilities, to maintain working capital, and as a risk mitigator.

The "windfall" profits you are seeing in the media are a product of tacking that 8% on to HUGE input costs; namely, the price of crude oil. 8% applied to billions of dollars of revenue will always look huge compared to 25% profit on millions of dollars of revenue.

If the price of gas is $3.75/gallon, you're likely paying $3.47 worth of costs and 28 cents of profit. So oil companies are certainly doing better than earning 16 cents of profit of $2.00 worth of costs, but it's not like they're changed their price strategy to hurt consumers.