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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (132884)	3/11/2010 11:50:42 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 540980

"Begin with his proposed tax changes. Ryan would not only retain the Bush tax cuts for the highest earners, he would further lower the top tax rate to 25%. On top of that, he would repeal all taxes on corporate income, inherited estates, capital gains, and dividends." But of course. It worked so well the first 3 times we should do it again. There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of The Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with THE real world. The other, OF course, involves orcs. --

To: JohnM who wrote (132884)	3/12/2010 12:08:00 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540980

According to the Tax Policy Center, the richest 1% of all taxpayers, who earn more than 21% of the national income and currently pay about 25% of federal taxes I assume that the Tax Policy Center is mixing Social Security taxes with income taxes...and even then, the numbers are suspect. On income taxes, the top 1% earned 21.2% of income but paid 40.4% of total collected. The bottom 50% earned 12.26% of income and paid 2.89%. Those numbers are courtesy of the IRS by way of the Tax Foundation website. taxfoundation.org We have a progressive system. The bottom half of the income ladder pays virtually nothing for the goods and services provided by the federal government. As for Ryan, he is fighting a fight that has long been lost. We arent going in that direction any time soon...if ever. Any chance the Republicans had to make radical changes to the tax code where lost as they chose the path of least resistance...and that was spending like drunken sailors. Slacker

To: JohnM who wrote (132884)	3/17/2010 12:15:09 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 540980

Not that I necessarily support Ryan's plan, but there are a number of inaccurate statements in that article. (Also I think many Republicans don't support the plan, so conclusions based on it, really only apply to Ryan and strong supporters of the plan, even if they where accurate.) The essence is opposition to the downward redistribution of income. No it isn't. But they generally resist increasing the downward redistribution of income, and they may even want to reduce that downward redistribution a bit, but that isn't the same thing as opposing the whole idea, or trying to eliminate it in practice. Ryan's plan would make the federal tax code regressive No it wouldn't. Since high income people would still pay the 25% rate, while poorer people would pay less (many paying no income tax at all, and the other taxes would amount to less than 25%) pushing workers into an under-regulated individual market I'd hardly call it under-regulated. And the regulations that do exist in the different health care insurance markets are a major reason that health care insurance has become less affordable. The basic thrust of liberal public policy over the last century is to keep in places the market system but use government to slightly mitigate against risk Its been to more and more push government power over market forces. but the overwhelming thrust in every way is to liberate the lucky and successful to enjoy their good fortune without burdening them with any responsibility for the welfare of their fellow citizens That isn't true. Social spending would still be massive if everything in his plan became law. The core of the Randian worldview, as absorbed by the modern GOP The GOP has never absorbed or supported the core of the Randian world view.