Re: Republican Platform Won’t Protect Mortgage Tax Deduction
How did I mischaracterize the Republican platform?
By saying people who want a flat fair tax code are after "tax increases for the middle class, and tax cuts for the rich"...
I'm up in arms because the right are willing to cut the throats of the middle class so they can give a tax break to their buddies during a time where demand is low and the economy could slip back into recession quite easily.
If Obama is re-elected, and the Bush Tax Cuts expire (which he'd have no problem with), the middle class will be the ones getting screwed...
10% --> 15% (5pt increase, a 50% hike)
15% --> 15% (for a small group of people whose agi is about 17K-23K it doesn't change)
15% --> 25% (10pt increase, a 66.66% hike)
25% --> 28% (3pt increase, a 12% hike)
28% --> 31% (3pt increase, a 10.7% hike)
33% --> 36% (3pt increase, a 9% hike)
35% --> 39.6% (4.6pt increase, a 13% hike)
(That and around 50% of the population use deductions, tax breaks, or lack of income to get around paying any taxes at all)
So as you can see, that's not tax cuts for the rich, and tax raises for the middle class... If the Bush Tax Cuts expire, the largest hike will be to those whose agi is under $33K/yr, who will have their taxes more than doubled... then everyone after that gets a slight 3pt bump or an 11% hike... But... Obama created enough credits to have everyone in the lower rungs get out of paying taxes... so the people who will be effected worst are those hardworking people, who have gotten jobs which lift them barely out of the poverty level, but not far enough to be able to improve their station in life... who make like $30-45K/yr...
Now, Obama wants to claim that he just wants to raise the taxes on the rich only... that 4.6% increase, isn't going to generate jack (like $150B if all the rich pay, but most will get around it, that doesn't even close to closing a $1.2T deficit)... and the only thing it's going to do is to allow rich people to move their money around and avoid taxation, while the moderately wealthy are stiffed... creating a massive divide between the rich and the ultra rich...
Republicans have been arguing things like facilitating the move to a flat tax by dropping from 6 brackets to 3 brackets... Others want to stay with the Bush Tax Cuts and keep rates where they are... Others say go right to the flat tax... but NONE of them are saying this class should pay more in taxes than the other... That's the Democrats push...
You're confusing hatred of Republicans, with your positions on this issue... Clearly you support the same thing the Republicans do this time around...
I'm not against that at all, so long as all income is on the table.
Simplify the tax code, streamline everything, eliminate all the credits, breaks, and loopholes... Then everyone can pay their "fair" share...
I agree wholeheartedly... which is what this discussion that you posted was about... that's the very platform that the Republican Party is going to be taking up... They just need to hammer out the details...
In doing so, some are going to want to leave in this tax break or the other (in this particular case the argument for mortgage deductions in a time with a fragile housing market)... and I'm sure gigantic corporations will want to keep subsidies and such... so it'd be a miracle to make things completely fair... but the elimination of loopholes is something Romney has been big on, and did so as MA governor... So I have full faith that if Romney is in office, he will be ushering in the closing of many loopholes...
However, the Republican platform they're working on is that they want a simplified lower flatter fairer tax for everyone across the board, and to eliminate as many loopholes as they can, so everyone is paying their fair share.
The Republicans have it right this time around.
I'm addressing the timing. It wasn't too long ago the Republicans were holding unemployment benefits hostage so they could keep all of Bush's tax cuts in place because raising taxes would harm the fragile economy. Now, it's fine because Romney wants to do it.
So why not hit capital gains as well? Oh, that's right... they want to cut that.
Capital Gains Fault Line as Obama-Romney Tax Plans Differ - Bloomberg
Sadly, just about everything is going to be timed out funny with the election year...
Romney's plan isn't to raise taxes... I think with the Bush Tax Cuts, what most people focus in on are the individual tax rates, because they lowered them from Clinton's "largest tax hike in history". I don't think people really realize all the other small items that were involved in the Bush Tax Cuts... and I think most Republicans would say set em back the way they were... make people pay exactly what they owe...
Regarding capital gains taxes... Romney's plan is to keep capital gains taxes where they are for those with over $200K (15%).... but to lower them for everyone below that across the board by 20% (because he want's to eliminate capital gains taxes for them which are supposed to go up to 20%.)
Obama on the other hand wants to tax everyone else to pay for his reckless spending. He wants to raise individual income taxes, raise capital gains taxes significantly across the board and additionally on the top bracket. He wants to raise tax penalties on companies. He wants to tax tax tax... Tax and spend... I thought we did away with that...
Now, if you think the federal government is wise with handling/spending money, then you should support the guy who wants to grab more of it from the people, and keep spending it the ways he has been.
If you think companies are far more efficient with it, and that people should get to keep more of the money that they go out and earn, then you should vote for Romney.
