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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (16858)	4/9/2008 1:32:45 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

You understand, you just dont wanna understand. Now let's be nice, this is a discussion right? First, let's assume he has some deductions. Second, let's remember that you pay taxes on adjusted income, not gross. And what's the cap on FICA? Assume he has a 401K he doesn't pay taxes on. What do you think his effective tax rate is? Now let's consider how much MORE that person actually pays in taxes. Not sure what the sales tax is in CA, but I'll assume 7%. And since we have a negative savings rate, just about all his after tax income gets taxed at that rate. Then he has property tax. If he buys a gallon of gas about 50 cents extra goes to the Fed government (and probably some to the state). Also every product he buys moves across the country on trucks, so some portion of the cost is highway taxes. Then he has excise taxes on electric, gas, phone, cell phone, cable. And those corporate tax rates? He's paying those as well because they are essentially built into the prices he pays for "stuff". Now the big difference is that he's got $201,000 a year to pay all this stuff. The family of 5 that grosses $70,000 may not pay as large a percentage in State and Fed income taxes, but on all the other stuff they are paying the same rate. If they buy a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas, that 7% sales tax or 50 cent a gallon excise tax is a much bigger percent of disposable income. So at the end of the day, the poor sucker making 70K is paying a huge percentage of his 'disposable income' in taxes. OK, we've got a country that is running a huge deficit. The dollar is tanking and as a result inflation is kicking in. The debt is going up big time and the interest on the debt is going up big time. This can't continue... it has to resolve itself. The country has to be on a sound financial basis or our standard of living will tank. So do you want to raise taxes on the family making $70K or the guy making $200K (who was doing quite well before the 'stimulative temporary' tax cuts)? I'll give you the power to make the decision.