Obama will tax the middle class while pretending to tax only the rich

[NYcarbineer]

You are sorely lacking in a knowledge of basic economics. The more money is diverted from the private sector to the government, the more we will have of the latter, and the less of the former.

but nearly all the money the govt spends winds up back in corporate tills.
Not that I am trying to promote govt spending, just pointing out another angle of the game.

They don't get that money isn't being diverted. They also don't want to face the fact that the government's spending creates thousands, maybe millions, of good paying jobs IN the private sector.

Why do they think even guys like Boehner and Cantor piss themselves when a business in their district/state is faced with losing big fat government contracts???????

 

[auditor0007]

And he won't be the first to do so. Because, as the article states and Willie Sutton would rejoin- "thats where the money is".

I clearly remember Clinton getting spanked by even the NY Times for raising taxes in 93 that hit the 'middle class'. We'll see how this works out.


Where the Tax Money Is
Obama targets the middle class while pretending to tax only the rich.

snip-
Since he's asking, imagine that instead of proposing to raise the top income tax rate well north of 40%, the President decided to go all the way to 100%.

But it's still a useful experiment because it exposes the fiscal futility of raising rates on the top 2%, or even the top 5% or 10%, of taxpayers to close the deficit.
The mathematical reality is that in the absence of entitlement reform on the Paul Ryan model, Washington will need to soak the middle class—because that's where the big money is.

snip-
he top 1% of taxpayers—those with salaries, dividends and capital gains roughly above about $380,000—paid 38% of taxes. But assume that tax policy confiscated all the taxable income of all the "millionaires and billionaires" Mr. Obama singled out. That yields merely about $938 billion, which is sand on the beach amid the $4 trillion White House budget, a $1.65 trillion deficit, and spending at 25% as a share of the economy, a post-World War II record.

snip-
Say we take it up to the top 10%, or everyone with income over $114,000, including joint filers. That's five times Mr. Obama's 2% promise. The IRS data are broken down at $100,000, yet taxing all income above that level throws up only $3.4 trillion. And remember, the top 10% already pay 69% of all total income taxes, while the top 5% pay more than all of the other 95%.

This is politically risky, however, so Mr. Obama's game has always been to pretend not to increase taxes for middle class voters while looking for sneaky ways to do it. His first budget in 2009 included a "climate revenues" section from the indirect carbon tax of cap and trade, which of course would be passed down to all consumers. Such Democratic luminaries as Nancy Pelosi have often chattered about a European-style value-added tax, or VAT, which from a liberal perspective has the virtue of applying to every level of production or service and therefore is largely hidden from the people who pay it.

Now that those two ideas have failed politically, Mr. Obama is turning as he did last week to limiting tax deductions and other "loopholes," such as for mortgage interest payments. We support doing away with these distortions too, and so does Mr. Ryan, but in return for lower tax rates. Mr. Obama just wants the extra money, which he says will reduce the deficit but in practice will merely enable more spending.

Keep in mind that the most expensive tax deductions, in terms of lost tax revenue, go mainly to the middle class. These include the deductions for state and local tax payments (especially property taxes), mortgage interest, employer-sponsored health insurance, 401(k) contributions and charitable donations. The irony is that even as Mr. Obama says he merely wants the rich to pay a little bit more, his proposals would make the tax code less progressive than it is today.


more at-

Review & Outlook: Where the Tax Money Is - WSJ.com

We need to cut a little and raise taxes a little. Thinking we can get by with only raising taxes on the super wealthy won't cut it. The middle class will need to step up to the plate also. The thing is if we make the right cuts in spending, the tax increases necessary should not be that hard to swallow. Just end the Bush tax cuts across the board.

 

[Trajan]

I think one point is we have run out of rope. if we hit the middle class, that is; where the money is, we take a hit ala consumer spending, which is already beginning to thin out ala inflation.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Another hidden tax that will come--inflation.

Inflation is not a tax, but mostly a result of the corporate world and speculators.

Of course the question is will wages go up to match inflation.
They have not been for a decade or so.

What better way to pay off trillions in debt than with highly inflated dollars?