AP Poll: Most favor taxing the rich to pay for health bill

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@jammer, yes Japan does reduce costs. For example, an MRI in Japan costs the equivalent of $99.00. They have been doing wonders with holding down costs.

Perhaps if we accelerated, which I do believe we have with the 125 deduction on taxes, the depreciation of the medical devices, the providers could realize a profit faster and thereby reduce costs.

so let me get this straight: guy works hard, becomes fairly wealthy, his company and his funds afford him health care, expensive private healthcare....and as a result he should forced to pay for government health care too, bc the poor guy can't afford it? absurd!

the fact remains that the health care system provided needs to be reformed. adding a new health-care plan, charging the tax payers for it only adds to the problems in this country, not resolves them ~particularly spending appropriation.

i am all for making sure those who do not have health-care are able to get it. i am all for reform and providing better ways and quality care for the citizens of this country. but to tell the rich guy it's his fault that people don't have health care on poor end, isn't right. the truth is, we have the richest poor in the world.

you want to see to people suffering w/ no ability to get care? third world countries are at stake everywhere. here's the other issue: forcing americans to purchase healthcare~ under the government system is a government controlled maneuver to own it's citizens. in the freest the country in the world, doesn't this appear to be a crime?

and the truth is, gov. run healthcare isn't nearly as good as non-governement run. how do i know this? the military is a government run entity ...and it's healthcare system reflects that. all i'm stating here, is that it's a prime ex.

Keeping the "poor" healthy and consuming, is in the best interest of the "rich" and the whole country.

ANSWER--------------an "ALL" property TAX. O ------And find ALL the property. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY, (really,...we do.) This requires no net Change; "Balanced Books" . TAX "what your sitting on". Tracks of land, bottles of booze, works of art, ....etc. No "consumption" tax,....no "income" tax. TAX THE "STUFF".

So I'm clueless in stating that the United States has the lowest tax rates of any of the eight industrialized nations. If I'm clueless you people you don't believe that statement are stupid. Do some research and add all the taxes together income,capital gains, inheritence, and social security. We still have the lowest tax rates. Germany, Great Britian, France, Japan,Italy and the rest of Europe all have higher tax rates. They all enjoy healthcare, education through college if you qualify and retirement the only thing they don't get screwed on is military spending we're the ones who get screwed by the military industrial complex and those politicians who are in their pockets. The people who don't think the rich should pay a higher rate of taxes I ask you this question. Are you one of the fifteen thousand households in the U.S. that are earning over one million a year. Wall Street executives, athletes and actors create nothing of of value, athletes and actors enertain us and Wall Street executives rip off the taxpayer. They decry socialism but take the money without question, if they were real capitalist they would let their companies die but they don't do that. CEO's earning 500 times the salary of the worker is perverted capitalism. Those CEO's should be earning 20 times the average salary and pay dividends to shareholders or re-invest in the company to make it grow and employ more people but they don't do that. So that leaves one thing tax them at a confiscatory rate of 60 or 70 percent on every dollar they earn over twenty million a year, that will end gross executive pay.
tommic

"WHAT? Who would Jesus prick rich or poor"?

hmmmmmm,....I dont know,.....but if I gussied up,...and shaved my legs........

There seems to be a lot of anti-rich bigotry here which I feel stems from the media's portrayal of some wealthy individuals recently who have made some very bad criminal decisions.

Many here don't think that there are actually rich people who operate within the bounds of the law. They will never know the names of the ethical law abiding wealthy simply because the ethical and law abiding wealthy don't make headlines.

Then there's the people here that accuse the rich of oppressing them and keeping them down. For most people with that mindset, there's no greater force which oppresses them than themselves.

Pay Ahead on Taxes?

Add a new line to all tax forms => Pay X above taxes ahead of time: _______
Add next new line to tax forms => Multiply X times .30 for 30% credit: _______

The rich will still be very rich, the poor will still be poor but maybe a little healther. The tax system never has been equal and should not be.

Definitely tax the rich! There is no excuse -- not that rich people are super talented or super special -- not that poor people are lazy, etc, for some people to be making 500 times what other people make! That's just plain retarded. Many rich are legacy rich, meaning they inherited their wealth - they didn't work hard at all. Many CEOs and executives have they jobs they do because rich families do favors for each other. The average income for low and middle classes has not risen with the cost of living, however the income for the wealthy has increased dramatically in recent years. This is because the boys at the top aren't sharing profits. They are TAKING them for themselves. It's got nothing to do with talent. It's pure greed. The argument that rich people are rich because they actually are better than everyone else is one of the most ignorant arguments I have ever heard in my entire life.

The way we run our economy is nothing more than a scam. The haves try to keep the have-nots from becoming haves and the haves all rub each other's backs. Meanwhile Fox news and religion keep everyone ignorant so they will keep voting against their own self-interest.

The rich are rich because they exploit the poor and middle-class, not because they are THAT much more talented. Our system rewards the greedy backstabbers. That's who become the executives of fortune 500 companies, and they pay themselves RIDICULOUSLY huge salaries AT THE EXPENSE of the salaries of the underlings. Not everyone is as selfish and greedy in their career ambitions to want to rise up the chain of command at a company that screws everyone else in order to reward the most vile greedy selfish bastards this country has to offer. I certainly don't. It's got nothing to do with talent and everything to do with conscience.

Rich people certainly aren't creating jobs in America if they can save a chunk of change by outsourcing to countries that have less worker's rights / protections. If they can exploit a child overseas to do your job, they'll fire your 'overpaid' ass in a black heartbeat. It's all about increasing profits for share holders.

I took a huge pay cut (had a 6-figure salary) because I was sick of working for a huge mega-corporation, seeing how they screw everybody over! I could just as easily worked my way up, as I am very good at my job, but I could not stand to see people treated poorly and screwed over for the sake of profit. Now I work for a non-profit. I'm much happier now even though I make less.

Tax the rich! They are vultures that feed off of the financially dead and dying.

Even when it's passed there will still be millions without insurance. It's not a save all as some people seem to preach.

It is getting overwhelming.
It doesn't change does it.

They don't earn all that money! They have that much because they have been underpaying and exploiting WORKING Americans, especially since Reagan. The Right has this delusion that lazy poor people (and usually they mean brown people) are just trying to leech off the "hard working rich white folk", when the reality is that hard working WORKING class and middle class citizens have had their standard of living diminish. The rich have been cutting health benefits and paying lower wages for far too long, all the while enjoying multiple yachts and multiple mansions, and poor Tiny Tim can't get that surgery because papa's job was outsourced to Chinese slave laborers and they lost their health insurance.

I'm guessing the 'rich' aren't in favor of it?

"Anybody say nice shot?" -W. Bush

I think taxing the rich to pay for health care is going to benefit them the most in the long run by having a poor, but healthy work force, that can work all the brand new minimum wage jobs that will be created manufacturing all their new green technologies.

Oh, everybody and their entitlement. How about we just tax the insurance companies while limiting the amount they can raise premiums per year? We don't need to tax the rich, we need to force the wealthy to spend their piece of the pie smarter. Tax business, limit their ability to pass those taxes on to the consumer.

Or better yet, how about we force health insurance companies to be not-for-profit, like every other successful healthcare system in the world? Healthcare is not rocket science. We're 30 to 40 years behind the curve and saying that the government can't figure it out economically is like saying a wolf can't figure out how to find prey.

I'd prefer to think of this in a more practical manner: Instead of complaining about who is getting taxed more first, worry about where the money is going. We're funding two wars, stationing hundreds of thousands of troops in places where they need not be, continue to fund Cold War style military budgets, let corporate loopholes stay open while the taxpayers bail the companies out, etc. Maybe after all of that gets a fair shake, then we can complain about how "unfairly" the rich are taxed. I may stick to my preferred ideals of small government and low taxes, but I like to be pragmatic as well. Tax cuts rarely, if ever, work to stimulate growth in the economy. If it does, it is typically for a short amount of time. Sure, there is plenty of evidence for and against that - its something I fully understand, but that is the exact reason why this argument always happens in a cyclical manner which mirrors our political turnover(s).

So, I'd vote "meh." While I have my preference toward a more progressive tax policy, ultimately the political swing back to the right (although likely a pretty moderate swing) will change public sentiment toward tax policy. Nothing to see here folks. Move along... Move along...

Idiots. The rich already pay the majority of taxes. Its unethical to steal the money of one group of people to pay for something other people won't prioritize and budget for. Unplug the iPhone, cable TV and stop spending $4 a day at Starbucks and the average younger person can afford health insurance just fine. We have bred a parasite class in this country. Its the only reason unqualified class-warfare mongers like Obama and Pelosi get elected.

Let me clarify in case it isn't clear; I am not really talking much about the folks who make a few million a year, though they are much more well off than most middle-class folks and probably could stand to give a little more back to the ones that allowed them to have such a nice lifestyle, they aren't the robber barons here. They can have nice stuff, they can send their kids to whatever college they want, that's fine.

I'm talking about the folks that have so much money they don't really have anything to do other than make more money; however, they really aren't the people making the money, they're just pointing their already considerable wealth at very low risk to themselves at methods of increasing those funds at the expense of others.

I mean really, how much stuff could one ever possibly want?
A few nice houses, all the high quality gadgets, furniture, cars, a few boats, etc. You only have so much time to devote to any of it you never use it. My parents weren't rich by any stretch, but they blew money on things they really didn't spend much time with. Pool table, hot tub, a small, but nice boat. They used these things heavily for a little while, but grew bored of them and they became unused. So even if you have all of these things... I'll say that's okay to want to and have access to all these nice things when you want them... lets even go a step farther and you have your own plane and can fly wherever you want, when you want. What about all the money you make after this? Hell, if I had all that money, the rest of it I'd just give it away.

I've been told before that I'd think differently if I actually had all this money, but I'm not so sure. Then again, maybe that's why I don't make all that money.

They got their big tax cuts earlier this decade, without all the jobs and benefits that the rest of us were promised after they took effect. When those in the remnants of the middle class and the struggling majority can no longer withstand a health crisis without facing bankruptcy, we become a much sicker nation.

Even if the government took all of the money from the top 5%, there still wouldn't be enough to pay for most of the reforms. The lower classes will be taxed, just give it time. Each class deeply depends on another. Yes, the upper class could make no money without the lower classes, but the lower classes wouldn't be employed and would have no money if it weren't for the upper class. The money that is taken from them is more necessary, but who is to say the more wealthy don't need it as well. They have spent the money they had planned to get, or have it tied up in a mortgage, college for their kids, ect. and even though it may be a more extravagant lifestyle, it shouldn't be taken away from them, most people earned it.
Also, the rich's taxes pay for the unemployed the government makes it so there is no initiative to get a job because the system will pay more than minimum wage.

What depresses me the most are folks like QV. I know it's hard to get through a thick book like 'Wealth and Democracy' by Kevin Phillips or most treatises on economics in this country, but people should understand that the separation of wealth in this country between the rich and the rest of us is worse than it has ever been.
The fact of the matter is the wealthy do not pay as much as the rest of us do in taxes. They can afford accountants to find all the tax loopholes or re-invest the money in a corporation through which they, for all intents and purposes, have access to said cash.

I don't remember where I read the statistic, and it was about 5-8 years old, but it stated the highest paid 5% of the population pays about 65% of the taxes. That would seem to back up QV's argument, but lets look at that same 5% and how much of all the money they make. It comes out to be around 90% of the money. If they make 90% of the money, which they couldn't do without the rest of us, shouldn't they pay 90% of the taxes?

Things don't work the way they used to. It used to be great to not tax the rich because they would re-invest in the market and that money would trickle down to the rest of us people in the form of jobs. But we all know the jobs don't come here as often as they used to, they go overseas. The balance of the budget the government spends has to come from somewhere, and it sure as hell can't be the poor. The wealthy have been spending the last 200 years trying to find a way to keep more and more of their money away from the people who helped them make it, and they have the funds to do it. Who protects us? Who protects our money?

OK, seriously now, 5% of $500,000 income every year is $25,000. if 5% of your income in a year could pay for my school & living expenses in one year, I'm 100% sure you can afford to give a helping hand to those who you stand on top of.

Money is a river that only works when it flows. If it does not flow, the toilet backs up. A certain percentage of the flow has to reach someone besides the Rich.

Now you take the Commonwealth of Virginia where doctors & lawyers constructed a near-zero malpractice settlement payout. They thought they did something great but what they really accomplished is a massive toilet backup by stopping the proper flow of money to harmed patients who then suffered great loss of income, which then prevented them from sending their children to college.

Recently all the people at the top panicked because they saw the bottom coming up at them in the sudden recession, so they worked things where the Gov bailed them out, but the toilet flush happened to them just like Virginia because the flow of money went too much their way, just like Virginia doctors & their lawyers orchestrated to happen.

It isn't Capitalism at work, it's Survivalism. They all threw capitalism in the streets and ran it down like roadkill to save their hides, Paulson included being the vanguard of their mob. That's all it was, a mob of the Rich and Well-to-do. When their Great Society failed they threw all us peons under the bus wheels.

It's just that simple.

It's called The Diminishing Marginal Utility of Wealth people. Its a quite basic economic concept that says if a poor man has 100$ in his bank account and finds 20$ on the street he will be MUCH happier than a rich man with a multi million dollar home who finds that same 20$. So by that basic common sense doesnt it make sense to tax the rich more, pay in proportion to their wealth. Besides I feel no guilt because its gone down from the WW2 era tax rate for the top bracket of 95%, many rich people are only there because their parents worked hard on their behalf to send them to Harvard with Cs and Ds and also it doesnt matter if you cant afford your 4th car or your 2nd home.

I frankly do not care at all for the petty problems of the rich because they are either 100 percent invented or in all other cases, never a dire concern

Sounds crazy, but how about holding pharmaceutical and insurance companies accountable for making healthcare so expensive in the first place? This bill doesn't do that.

Yes tax the hell out of them!

I am laughing my ass off at the destitute, ignorant fools who worship the rich. The rich who you will never become, and who would as soon as grind you up for their dog's dinner as give the slightest of a shit about you. Wake up and stop working against your own interests!

Just for the people who don't know there are only about fifteen thousand households in the U.S. with incomes above ten million dollars a year and one half of one percent of the population owns ninety percent of the wealth. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Tax the rich, and over twenty five million tax that at even higher rates. People who say they can't make a difference, yes they can they own ninety percent of the wealth. They would never have the wealth they have if they didn't live in the U.S. with the lowest tax rates of any industrialized nations on earth.

The world should out law these insane outliers. no billionaires, no 100-millionaire if you want to make 99 million in your life time try me but i will doubt that your worth that much. Tax the hell out of these slimmy inherited-wealth leisure class. Tax the one !% who has 34 percent of the wealth. They can have 10 % but no more.

Once someone forms a company they come into many perks from the Gov plus a credit card break from Lowe's for being a "contractor". Forming a company then begins the process of pushing the person toward being the cream on the milk. So is the answer that we all incorporate?!

If everybody formed a corporation and got the same perks either the perks would be pulled back or newer better perks would suddenly appear, essentially "de-classing" the newly achieved cream people to again being lower people.

We all live on an economic treadmill from hell. However, the really really smart people recognize the marked deck when they know how smart they are and still cannot win, right?, so they drop out and play the bottom of the deck as Poor people collecting all the perks the system gives its poor.

It's not being lazy. It is a correct assessment of the treadmill they see in place. If you aren't one of those who controls the treadmill speed you're damned to have to run at the speed of whoever does set the speed, unless you smarten up and slow way down til you qualify for the perks at the low end.

How about just making the income tax a certain percentage and doing away with all deductions. It sure would make tax time easier, but would also put all the accountants out of a job.

Careful. Tax the rich too much, and they just might move to a more friendly country. Yes, they CAN do that!

In reality they should make those that think the bill is great pay more taxes. They believe so much....but that money where their faith in the party is.

i say - tax the rich. if they had to pay ss taxes like the rest of us , we'd have enough medicare until 2086! ty- michael moore- for that fact!!!! anyone making over $250,000. a year doesn't pay the same tax as we have to. if they did we would be in better shape.! it's time for the rich to pay their share- they benefit from our society & act like we owe them something. people- wake up- stop being used & use your brains!

So instead of a king doing the taxes it's the middle class.

Oh yeah....that's how it works now. Bitter middle class needs to exact revenge for not striving to get what they want by attacking those that have and got.