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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]I keep hearing that I am on the verge of being "rich" because combined, my school teacher husband and I are on the verge of making $250K.   Why don't I feel rich? [/quote]

I can't explain your feelings. But, much of the focus on the $250K number is because that is the point at which Obama wants to increase the marginal tax rate. There are a couple of things to keep in mind about this:

1) as I said, the tax rate is marginal and will only apply to taxable income above $250,000;
2) the proposed increase is 3%

You probably have $10-$15 thousand in deductions. So, before the tax increase even hits you, you would have to be making in the neighborhood of $265,000. Then, the tax would be an extra $300 per $10,000 which doesn't seem excessive. If your income grew to $300,000 your additional tax burden would be $1050. If your income was $400,000 you would see an additional $4050 tax. Still hardly noticeable. So, when Obama talks about the rich paying more, he means those who are really rich. Because those who are like you and "don't feel rich" aren't rich and won't be paying very much more -- if anything at all.

[/quote]

There's one more thing to keep in mind.  As of 2009, the "1 percenters" paid almost 37% of all incomes paid into the Treasury.  Yes, more than 1 in 3 of all (ALL!) tax dollars was paid by just 1 percent of the population.  The top 5% paid almost 60% of all tax dollars collected. The people between 5 and 10%?  They paid another 11% of all tax dollars.  Thinking about it in reverse, the bottom 50 of wage earners, the poorest of the poor, only paid 2.25% of all taxes collected. (Meaning, they are not taxed.  Hardly at all.)  The bottom 75%?  They paid just 12.3% of all taxes.  Again, hardly taxed.  At all.  You can't give a tax break to people who don't pay taxes to begin with.  And that's pretty much 75% of all wage earners in this country, so says the IRS.

[The source of this data is the IRS.  Link at the taxfoundation.org (see Table 6): http://taxfoundation.org/article/summary-latest-federal-individual-income-tax-data-0#table3]  [/quote]

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