Taxes and who should pay more (everybody)!

This article was well written IMO, and discusses the current state of our tax code and why taxing only the rich isn't enough to close the deficit and pay for all the promises. The trouble is no politician will ever admit middle class taxes are going to go up. Its inevitable without a major budget slash and burn.

Raising taxes on the affluent only reduces the deficit by 10%. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the middle class slashes the deficit by 35% or more. There isn’t a lot anyone can do about the demographic trends over the next 25 years. Finding a way to boost economic growth would certainly make it less painful to bring the deficit down. But shrinking the budget deficit will mean trimming programs that benefit the middle-class and raising taxes on those same people. Even if the poor get less and the rich pay more, in the final analysis the fellow behind the tree who gets taxed will turn out to be in the middle class, because that’s where the real money is.

http://business.time.com/2012/10/16/who ... picks=true

Raise taxes, slash the budget, or kick the can down the road. Seems like a combination of the first two would be preferable.

No one, not one person, has ever suggested that raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans would be enough to close the deficit and pay for all the promises. It would be but one part of a balanced approach to balancing the budget and reducing the deficit which SHOULD include cutting costs and increasing revenue. And even then, as the article indicates, it is going to be a long slow process.

Obama's plan currently on the table raises taxes only on those making over $250k. That would be more than one person.

towermonkey wrote: Obama's plan currently on the table raises taxes only on those making over $250k. That would be more than one person.

?????

unless you are suggesting that Obama and somebody else claimed that was enough to fix the deficit and pay for all the promises

I saw something that the poor & middle class in America have much smaller tax bills than they do in Europe. And that therefore the rich in America pay much more of the tax receipts than the rich in Europe do. I wonder if OWS knows this.

archer wrote:

towermonkey wrote: Obama's plan currently on the table raises taxes only on those making over $250k. That would be more than one person.

?????

unless you are suggesting that Obama and somebody else claimed that was enough to fix the deficit and pay for all the promises

Well, if he is not suggesting that, then what is he suggesting because, from what I can tell, that is his only plan at this point.

towermonkey wrote:

archer wrote:

towermonkey wrote: Obama's plan currently on the table raises taxes only on those making over $250k. That would be more than one person.

?????

unless you are suggesting that Obama and somebody else claimed that was enough to fix the deficit and pay for all the promises

Well, if he is not suggesting that, then what is he suggesting because, from what I can tell, that is his only plan at this point.

He has suggested both letting the tax cuts on the wealthy expire, and numerous cuts in spending, including military....he even offered only $1 in revenue increases to $10 in spending cuts and was turned down. Obama has ALWAYS advocated a balanced approach...and I agree with that. But even if you ignore the cuts he is willing to make....can you point to him EVER claiming that increasing taxes on the wealthy was all we had to do?

Oh, yes, Lucy and the football. The spending cuts that are only required for 1 year and tax increases that are perpetual. Claiming that tax cuts on the wealthy was all we had to do? No, but he really doesn't have anything else. Military cuts are good, but gutting the military is not and the current sequestration will do just that. President Obama has refused to work with half of the Congress for his term as president. He instead goes on national venues and demonizes them. That's not how things get done in Washington.

One thing you probablly won't hear from Obama tonight is these two words "economic growth". Economic growth is the only significant solution to our problem combined with entitlement reform which Obama promised to deal with but never did. We can get away with raising taxes when the economy is humming along, but when it's stagnant, tax increases won't stimulate businesses and therefore won't stimulate the economy.