Is 39% tax rate for wealthy really fair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a democrat, but I'm not sure I understand the justification of the wealthy paying such a high tax rate. Can someone explain this to me? We are middle class and pay about 12%. It seems like 39% is quite high, even for the wealthy. This seems like more than their fair share. What am I missing?

The only way that you can be middle class and paying 12% income tax is by having significant deductions. If you do the same kind of math for the rich, they are not paying 39% either.

Also, for the "they aren't paying anything" crowd, the poor are paying payroll taxes which are a higher proportion of their income than it is for high earners. A lot of us didn't notice when the payroll tax holiday ended. You can believe the working poor noticed.

Well, that is a very good point. I didn't think about that. thanks.

But untrue. Most every deduction is phased out for high income earners.

39% is not really accurate since there are covert costs like not allowing the full range of deductions and credits. Medicare surcharges.
http://www.morganlewis.com/index.cfm/newsID/0f437a24-38ca-487e-b0b1-859bd983d11a/fuseaction/news.detail
https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/personal-finance/new-medicare-taxes

[Anonymous]

Those who think immigrants are using tax money, do you think tax money could be spent on the immigrants home country instead, so they would not have a reason to want to be elsewhere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those who think immigrants are using tax money, do you think tax money could be spent on the immigrants home country instead, so they would not have a reason to want to be elsewhere?

I think their governments should take care of their people.

[Anonymous]

Earn less, reduce your tax bill. Earn more, hire a better CPA to find those tax loopholes. Stop complaining that you have so much money that you are in a high tax bracket.

[Anonymous]

I think their governments should take care of their people.
[Report Post]

Here's a novel thought;maybe people should take care of themselves.

[Anonymous]

The question shouldn't be whether 39% if fair for the wealthy but why tax rates need to be as high as they are at all. A small sampling of our tax dollars at works demonstrates the waste, fraud and abuse of tax payer dollars says it all. Our legislators have run amok and we are footing the bill.


$1M on fruit fly sexual attractiveness study
$1.5M on designing video game controller
$100K to fund comedy group tour in India
$500K+ on dancing robot that connects to iPhone
$10K talking urinal cakes
$320K robotic squirrels
$1.4B improper food stamp purchases
$6B for research to find out what lessons about democracy and decision-making can be learned from fish
$350K research on how to improve your golf game.
$47.9B on fraudulent or improper Medicare payments
$25B annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties
$123B annually of federal programs (22%) failing to show any positive impact on the population they serve
$100B per the CBO on wasteful including 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs
$2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job
$3.9M spent by the SEC rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters
$146M for upgrades for federal employees who refuse to fly coach
$800K in stimulus funds to study the impact of genital washing in South Africa
$3M for research on video games
$2.6M to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly
$500M to figure out why five-year-olds “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom
$1.8M on a museum of neon signs in Las Vegas

[Anonymous]

Cool where did you get that list?

[Anonymous]

20:53 I would bet an enormous amount of money that your "list" is completely inaccurate and a misrepresentation. You can't make a good point if you're just bullshitting this much. Further, a lot of your beef appears to be with basic science research. Yeah, fruit flies may not sound awesome and science-y enough to you, but research of the humble fruit fly formed the foundation of genetics. They're VERY important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question shouldn't be whether 39% if fair for the wealthy but why tax rates need to be as high as they are at all. A small sampling of our tax dollars at works demonstrates the waste, fraud and abuse of tax payer dollars says it all. Our legislators have run amok and we are footing the bill.


$1M on fruit fly sexual attractiveness study
$1.5M on designing video game controller
$100K to fund comedy group tour in India
$500K+ on dancing robot that connects to iPhone
$10K talking urinal cakes
$320K robotic squirrels
$1.4B improper food stamp purchases
$6B for research to find out what lessons about democracy and decision-making can be learned from fish
$350K research on how to improve your golf game.
$47.9B on fraudulent or improper Medicare payments
$25B annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties
$123B annually of federal programs (22%) failing to show any positive impact on the population they serve
$100B per the CBO on wasteful including 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs
$2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job
$3.9M spent by the SEC rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters
$146M for upgrades for federal employees who refuse to fly coach
$800K in stimulus funds to study the impact of genital washing in South Africa
$3M for research on video games
$2.6M to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly
$500M to figure out why five-year-olds “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom
$1.8M on a museum of neon signs in Las Vegas

The list is crap. There are only a few meaningful items in here. There is not $48 billion of annual medicare fraud. That's about 10 years of fraud. And what the hell is $123 billion of federal programs failing to show any positive impact on the populations I serve. Is that the total of useless defense spending by chance? Because maybe then you have a point.

No one spent $6 billion on learning democracy from fish.

The excess annual cost of maintaining federal properties is $190M, not $25B. They erroneously counted the asset value, which if we sold would be a one time revenue benefit, not annual.

That much took five minutes of research.

This list is obviously total shit but you will happily peddle it over and over, I'm sure.

[Anonymous]

No waste or fraud in government spending. Sure. Keep right on telling yourselves that as you right your next check to the IRS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The question shouldn't be whether 39% if fair for the wealthy but why tax rates need to be as high as they are at all. A small sampling of our tax dollars at works demonstrates the waste, fraud and abuse of tax payer dollars says it all. Our legislators have run amok and we are footing the bill.


$1M on fruit fly sexual attractiveness study
$1.5M on designing video game controller
$100K to fund comedy group tour in India
$500K+ on dancing robot that connects to iPhone
$10K talking urinal cakes
$320K robotic squirrels
$1.4B improper food stamp purchases
$6B for research to find out what lessons about democracy and decision-making can be learned from fish
$350K research on how to improve your golf game.
$47.9B on fraudulent or improper Medicare payments
$25B annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties
$123B annually of federal programs (22%) failing to show any positive impact on the population they serve
$100B per the CBO on wasteful including 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs
$2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job
$3.9M spent by the SEC rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters
$146M for upgrades for federal employees who refuse to fly coach
$800K in stimulus funds to study the impact of genital washing in South Africa
$3M for research on video games
$2.6M to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly
$500M to figure out why five-year-olds “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom
$1.8M on a museum of neon signs in Las Vegas

The list is crap. There are only a few meaningful items in here. There is not $48 billion of annual medicare fraud. That's about 10 years of fraud. And what the hell is $123 billion of federal programs failing to show any positive impact on the populations I serve. Is that the total of useless defense spending by chance? Because maybe then you have a point.

No one spent $6 billion on learning democracy from fish.

The excess annual cost of maintaining federal properties is $190M, not $25B. They erroneously counted the asset value, which if we sold would be a one time revenue benefit, not annual.

That much took five minutes of research.

This list is obviously total shit but you will happily peddle it over and over, I'm sure.

These morons are always wrong but rarely in doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No waste or fraud in government spending. Sure. Keep right on telling yourselves that as you right your next check to the IRS.

That's not the point. The point is the list is crap. Can we just make up whatever we want in order to persuade people, confident that deep down it is "truthy" enough???

[Anonymous]

Reagan and Bush dropped income taxes to Great Depression levels. Is it any wonder were now in a Great Recession. Highest taxes were in the 50s and 60s. The nation prospered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those who think immigrants are using tax money, do you think tax money could be spent on the immigrants home country instead, so they would not have a reason to want to be elsewhere?

I think their governments should take care of their people.

Who do you think should pick your fruit and mow your lawn?

[Anonymous]

People. The fed government is set to collect more money than has ever been collected in a year. We not not have a income problem we have a spending problem.