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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Koligman who wrote (24675)	9/19/2012 1:21:53 PM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Even if one agrees with the idea that he should have paid more, there is no way what he was doing was freeloading. Freeloading is taking advantage of the charity of others. Living off of others. He didn't do that. He generated a lot of wealth, and then gave a big chunk of it to the government. He wasn't a charity or welfare case. Saying that, doesn't imply that he shouldn't have paid more (or that he should have), which is a separate issue. Lower taxes on investment income isn't gaming the system. Its a feature of the system, not some loophole around it.

To: John Koligman who wrote (24675)	9/19/2012 1:59:29 PM
From: Lane3	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

I think people making 20-30 mil a year should be paying the top rate. Fine, but then anyone else who reduces his rate by filing deductions or directing investments to more advantageous rates or any of the other things that the tax code encourages is also not paying his fair share. I have income from dividends, which are taxed at a lower rate than my bank interest or my pension. I also own municipal bonds, which aren't federally taxed at all. Am I not paying my fair share as well? If I'm not, then why would Congress have a tax code where munis are free from federal tax? Did they not set that up intentionally to get folks like me to buy them, thus supporting the states that issue them? Is it trying to turn me into a freeloader? I do not know what my fair share is. I only know what the law says I must pay and I pay it. Fairness is not determined, seems to me, at the taxpayer level. If the code that we all follow isn't fair by facilitating my paying less than the top rate for my income level on all my income, that's not my fault. The unfairness is in the code, which I follow.