Is this actually the case? There are a lot of middle and upper-middle families out there. I was always under the impression that every percent drop in their taxes had a big effect on the budget balance. What are people willing to give up to get significant tax relief in the middle? Also, didn’t Obama continue Bush’s tax cuts for the lower and middle groups? How low are you thinking here?
The only way I can see freeing up a lot of money for middle-income tax cuts without big service cuts or ballooning deficits is to figure out the root causes of the cost disease in healthcare, education, infrastructure and military procurement. That would be wonderful, but it seems like those problems are politically hard to fix.
Honestly, as it stands, the wealthiest folks pay most of the taxes. I think the to 20% is paying something like 85% of all the tax revenue currently. And the top 1% is paying over 35% of the revenue.
So cuts to the lower brackets would likely not impact overall revenues that much.
No need to guess. There are data points out there.
Look for the bar graph further down.
Middle Class is just under correction just over 40%, that’s why they say give it to that group. If you give to the top group… that’s the rich, they don’t spend it in a timely fashion… if at all.
If you want instant spending you can give it to the poor, it’s like a siph, goes to instant spending except not all spending is equal. Dinner, clothes, electronics are fine, but sometimes if you feed the middle you get home improvements, new cars… purchases that have a x factor to them and stimulate other purchases, wages, etc. It’s a complicate process, but there is a reason you give to the middle and upper-class and not the rich… if you want the money to go somewhere other than bank accounts and stock purchases.
Thanks. That seems pretty progressive, even if you factor in the payroll taxes. I’ve heard that state taxes tend to have a much less progressive distribution.
In most states they start taxing you from the first dollar you make and the difference between making 20k a year and 200k a year as far as your tax rate is barely anything.
Edit: For example in Iowa:
6.12% on taxable income between $13,852 and $23,085.
6.48% on taxable income between $23,086 and $30,780.
6.80% on taxable income between $30,781 and $46,170.
If you think $13k a year is remotely comparable to say $45k a year… yeah, no. Even in a state with a low cost of living, but they basically have the same tax rate. If you made a million a year your rate would go up to about 9% (highest tax range), and then you probably wouldn’t actually be paying that much because you’d have so many vehicles to avoid paying taxes like a peasant anyway.
That’s too bad, and it makes me want to feel around the edges of this non-military hiring freeze. Can day care be considered military if the kids are dependents of soldiers? Where do VA Hospitals fit in, are they military or not? How will Trump hire all those border agents and anti-immigrant brute squads if they aren’t considered military–or will they be?
VA Hospitals are not. They’re under the freeze. My source: my sister that was about to be promoted to top boss counselor at a large metro VA hospital but is stuck in limbo.
That’s just too stupid for words. When will people get it through their heads that the US government (being a sovereign fiat currency issuer) is not constrained with regard to its spending the way state governments or private businesses and individuals are. The only and I repeat only reason for it to refrain from spending as necessary is to keep effective aggregate demand from wildly outstripping supply and thus causing excess inflation.
This stupid “we must balance the federal budget and pay the national debt off” FETISH is going to turn the US into a third world country eventually. :face palm: #smh
There was a kerfluffle about the VA being subject to the hiring freeze. Shortly thereafter, they had a large number of positions exempted from the freeze. The official announcement is here.
I’m sure they’re still feeling the effects (because of course it makes very little sense to say “all these positions can be hired but no support staff”) but it’s not quite as dire as it could have been.
That said, I just had a vet who I work with tell me that his VA healthcare is all jacked up. He said he’d been waiting months for an appointment and the care he got, when he got it, was poor. This was just an unsolicited comment he threw over the cubicle wall, we weren’t discussing anything, so that’s the view from the trenches.
Income tax is only a portion of the overall tax burden. Social Security and Medicare are highly regressive, and sales taxes disproportionately affect lower-income households.
Looking at income tax in a bubble is facile, unless you’re making a pretty constrained point.
The silver lining to GWB’s Iraq war is that Americans have become much more skeptical of military adventurism, and I think they are much less likely to rally around a president who starts a war.
Throughout Obama’s presidency, any American casualties overseas would have been a huge political liability. And I don’t think that will change under Trump, since he seems incapable of explaining the simplest things much less provide a rationale that justifies preventable loss of life. Yes, there are 30-40% who will listen to whatever he says, but it’s pretty clear that the GOP needs more than that to survive the next elections. Starting a war would be political suicide, and I think they know it.
Live feed of Standing Rock final standoff (sorry, Buzzfeed & Facebook only at this point).
Edit: Stream ended a few seconds ago. They were expecting more confrontations (I think there were six arrests and one injury) and feel today was a small victory. Next possible confrontation first thing tomorrow, unless there’s an overnight raid, which the camp folks feel is unlikely.
