Obama's take on taxing the wealthy

someone has to uphold society, no?

people don't want the government to do it because that's 'socialism'

poor people can't do it because, well, they're poor

the middle class is quickly turning into the poor

so who's left? either the wealthy do it or we all collapse (except them of course, they have boats to sail away on once we all sink)

upholding society means generating a culture that values hardwork and self sufficiency.

Providing the means to do so is necessary.

Handing out freebies to encourage more dependence on government is what will ruin our economy.

Governments that will turn socialist in the future will do so step-by-step, never seeing it till it is here.

And believe me, I do help the poor. But I also know of the rule of enablement. Meaning one will keep taking without helping oneself if the giver doesn't withhold at a point.

I havent seen any policy issues from Obama accept raise taxes.The rich dont pay taxes they raise their product to pay it or layoff their employees to cover tax cost so middle class would still pay

the top 1% makes more money than the bottom 90%. The result is that millions suffer. Those of us without money have no upward mobility, and are held under the thumb of the rich. (who wouldn't dare change the status quo of what got them rich in the first place)

When the rich can only sell us something that we buy, and can only sell it at market value. Corporations are taxed on PROFITS, that means after every employee is paid and every bill is paid and every cost the company can come up with to write off, THAT is what is taxable. If a rich person is taxed more, all they can do is sit and bitch. Why do you think they lobby so hard to lower taxes? Trickle down wont work either, because instead of distributing wealth to their employees, they will distribute wealth in dividends to shareholders who are, in fact, rich people themselves.

The potential of the US economy is incredible. As a nation waste has become the status quo. Just think about the following examples:

1. Farmers are subsidized to drive down the price of corn. Result? Corn syrup (incredibly unhealthy) is pervasive throughout our food and other things like sugar aren't being used to sweeten anything. Cost: $20 billion/year. We are paying for this in taxes, when we should be paying the market value of the most effective and cheapest sweetener which is sugar, as well as the market value for all things derived from corn.

2. The government never seems to act when it comes to making more efficient energy available, and then when it is, they act in a heartbeat to stop it. (stopping public solar production to "study" the environmental effects) If we converted our energy consumption to home grown wind and solar, then our net exports would become negative. For those of you without an understanding of economics, that means that we are supplying the world, instead of taking from it. Result? Higher value of the USD, ALL energy expenditures would be to the US economy making us richer. Net effect: $900 billion/year in efficiency.

3. Regardless of what you say about government funded efforts, healthcare must be nationalized. If we ran a similar system as they have in the UK, EVERYONE would be covered at almost half the cost of what it costs the average american now. Net efficiency: $1 trillion/year

4. Im not sure how much money the automotive industry makes on repairing engines, but electric cars have something like 3 moving parts. If we adopted hydrogen cells or electric cars, these revenues would be saved, netting a huge efficiency to everyone.

You may argue that all of this stuff will cause people to lose their jobs, and that is completely true. One of my accounting professors in college put it this way: you can pay workers for a day's work of digging a huge ditch and then filling it back in again. There is a difference between productivity and work.

These points that I make are real solutions grounded in firm neumerical and philisophical bases. Creating a "culture" of something is a vague marketing slogan. There are people out there who would love to work, but can't because they have children at home and can't afford a nanny. Everyone wants the american dream of upward mobility, but that is impossible with all of this inefficiency in the US!

Socialism is never the ideal. Socialism has proven time and time again that it doesn't function. At the same time we need a blend of socialism/capitalism because, I don't care what you say, the government is the only entity that can provide services at COST.(i.e. libraries, healthcare, insurance) Just like we have a blend of a democracy and a republic we need a blend of socialism and capitalism.

If you plan on responding to this post, please use objective facts in your response so that I can take you seriously. I encourage discussion of concepts and the flow of ideas, so if you disagree, PLEASE disagree and back it up!

The 1% give the other 90% jobs

The so-called wealthy taxpayers pay the freight for the almost 50% that don't pay any due to income limitations. The "rich" pay a LOT of income tax. How much more will people have to be raped by the federal government before the "tax the rich" folk are happy? If Comrade Obama wants it to be fair he should make it so EVERYONE pays tax, not just 50%.
This is more liberal class warfare, something liberals are very good at.
Any more questions about why we should not elect Comrade Obama this year, or ever.

This doesnt look so good...it's probably just pandering to the ''raise taxes on the rich crowd''. If the 1% is being drowned with taxes, THEY ARE GOING TO RAISE THE PRICES UP.

If this is class warfare, all I can say is - you motherfuckers better watch your back.

Don't forget if the Bush tax cuts expire in a few years, like Obama wants it to, it will raise taxes on everybody down to 30,000 dollars or so.

Here is another one, the rich pay most of the taxes. They are also not only the business owners, but some of them are employees themselves as well. Why are we punishing people who work hard to do well for themselves?

i was under the impression his stance was to "repeal the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy." The gap between the rich and the poor is growing, despite the slumping economy. I'm not pro tax, but i do feel the people whose net worth is in the millions and billions should pay more taxes than they do currently. People are taxed on income, not on money in the bank, its not like obama is going after the 7,8,9,and 10 digit bank accts of the super elite, merely the money their adding to the stash. I dont think they have to worry about going hungry...just might have to decide whether they need 10 or 20 multimillion dollar houses. Thanks to wall street hedgefunds and globalization, America is entering a second guilded age. Unfortunately, I havent seen this generation of wealthy elite step up as Carnegie did saying "the man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced." Bill gates is doing some good stuff, but considering how the number of billionaires has grown exponentially in 15 years, while the middle class is shrinking speaks to a problem. Its never popular to tell people they owe more money to do their part to make society better, but in this instance i feel its the right decision.

I like Obama's idea.

Hey! It'll be like Ancient Athens! They tax the rich more than the poor. The more rich you are, the more taxed you will be. The wealth usually lasts about four generations or less. But, I hope he goes through with what he says :/

I hate to sound so negative but you really cant trust anything any politician does, im sure they would have to pay higher taxes but there has to be loop holes that they already know about and dont mention, no way any politician would cast off the wealthy... i mean they are all part of the same class.

The Bush tax cuts were for the rich. Those rebates you think were middle class tax cuts were only an early refund that came out of the refund you would have gotten in April or May anyway. I know because I do my own taxes and just for fun not for filing I used the tax program from the year before the tax "cuts" and the refund was the same including the tax cut. We gained nothing. How much is enough? Why shouldn't the rich pay a larger share of taxes, their income is higher? They don't begin to pay anywhere near the percentage of their personal income in taxes as we do?

The simple fact of the matter is that renters will have to pay onwers. Therefore, money will always move and accumulate in an upward manner. Taxing the rich is the best way to redistribute wealth and it does need to be redistributed. During WW II, the income tax on the rich was over 90% at times. The heroes of WWII, that we so often reference, were willing to pay for the war at the time it was waged. The Iraq war is a war for billionaires so this is the first war that America is borrowing to pay for. The rich own the republican party lock, stock and barrel, and are basically returning the country to the way it was in the pre-progressive era. The country is moving backwards, and that is the republican agenda.

Then why are the Neo Cons the ones implementing it? This is the same kind of mess we were in before the stock market crash. That is where we are headed in a hurry if we don't get some people in the White House that understand the economy. You know people that actually care about working people.

15% of one dollar will be felt far more than 30% on a hundred. What makes this nation great is the fact that we do have a middle class, where a hard worker can find a way to a decent living. The funny thing is, the richer you are, the more likely you'll know about every loophole there is. Share the wealth. Being stingy doesn't help us as a nation.

I am having trouble believing anything coming out of Sen. Obama"s mouth. I am a southern Democratic for 36 years. Someone please tell me why he did not resign from his church , given what Wright has spoken and tried to defend, when he became a caretaker of the public trust. It still makes me think of my younger days and what some people talked about on the courthouse lawn, But, then it was the Klan they were talking about.
Now, refusing public funds after saying he would take them. With a quarter of a billion dollars being spent to elect the next President I want to know where the money is really coming from?

Tax the rich, redistribute wealth...people like my parents who make 100k each can afford to pay more taxes..we may not want to but we can...

People have a civic duty to help those that need help, i am not religious so its not any book that i am referring to if your thinking that

I am referring to the fact that people these days are greedy and selfish..
The people that are rich today are MOSTLY rich because their families came to America earlier...the ones that earned their wealth should still give more because they know how hard it was to make it and should give others the opportunity to have a chance to climb up the ladder...i am not referring to handouts but i am talking about a fair and just system where the more you make the more you pay, the less you make the less you pay...if your rich you wont go hungry nor will your kids, you may have to downgrade from a maserati to a bmw 7series but you won't go hungry and your kids will always have a good education, health insurance, clothes, and safety

You take the tax money and invest it back into America through nationalized health insurance, education, true education not this BS bush end of the year test crap, rebates to the poor, infrastructure, etc...the only way america will progress is if we move as a whole and bring the ones that are on the bottom end up, if we dont we will rip ourselves apart like the chinese...they have billion dollar skyscrapers overlooking slums, thats how bad the gap is

Kids in china on the whole are much more hard working and deserving than many of the people here who have all the opportunities in the world but squander them because they know their mommy and daddies bank account has them covered...

Wealth should be shared and given to the ones that need it so they have an easier time to better themselves, when they better themselves they help America as a whole, even the rich know that

Warren Buffet a multi millionare who should know, says he and others like him don't pay their fair share of taxes. I believe him.

cortanderson wrote to me about the untapped billions of bad contracts paid to Hailiburton. That possibily Obama could get his funds from there..My response is no one will see profit from that but Dick Cheney. You can even leave Bush out this time. From what I have seen of Cheney's actions. HE DOES NOT SHARE.

the wealthy already pay the majority of taxes to our government anyways. i'd say lower the taxes on the middle class and impoverished and leave the wealthy were they are

Ive got an idea that none of you have thought of...lets do away with the IRS...and make it fair to everybody...10% income tax across the board and let (free enterprise) do its capaitalist job...after all its good enough for GOD! (Tithes) it should be good enough for government. This is not a joke!

Let the church help the poor. Let the middle class work for and keep their money. Let the rich have their money and expect them to be charitable with it.

This is bad big businesses could close down and move more jobs out of the country why would you penalize people for being successful this is a capitalist country we are not communists

my guess is that no one here is in the top 2% of wage earners so the rallying cry of class warfare is ludicrous. It is just the right wingers who are repeating what they are told and not really thinking about the numbers.

Obama would restore the top two income tax rates to their pre-2001 levels of 36% and 39.6%. Currently they're 33% and 35%. That's 3% and 4.5% difference, respectively. So how much money does a family need to live on?

My question is that who among the top wage earners didn't get rich by using the tax money invested into infrastructure in the first place? That restaurant owner wouldn't have customers if there were no roads. I am betting they couldn't get fresh produce, either. Imagine Bill Gates with no internet. The rich have already benefited from the investment in infrastructure we ALL make. It won't hurt for them to spend more than the rest of us because they are the ones benefiting the most.

A flat tax is something that is currently being implemented by several other countries, except ours. You see if we done that there would be no reason for the left to use the class warfare thing.
Besides I for one like the fact that we live in a country where it is possible to get rich with hard work and perseverance.

Denmark and other successful European countries, have high taxes, happiness, privatization, and many social programs including free health, educational, and maternity leave. Any seriously ill person gets treated immediately. They pay high taxes and even their conservatives agree with their social programs. Thus, their society and their government value the condition of their citizens over money. They see their people as their best investment. Note, Denmark used to be a warmongering country.

That’s very true but lets not forget we out populate that country in California alone 8 to 1

Obama speaks for me on this issue.

Pay scales will just change to circumvent this socialist act. . .

I'll just ask my employer to pay me $249,000 when my next raise comes around, and instead of my company truck, I'll request a V12 mercedes as compensation.

Hussien is a dumbass socialist who does not understand a free market, get ready for the dark ages folks.

God bless big oil
God bless america
God bless Mr. Smithers

@CarolynGillis.... "In fact, both senators said they would favor extending those tax cuts, save for the ones applying to households with incomes of $250,000 or more per year (a figure that encompasses roughly 2% of U.S. households)."

and how is "letting tax cuts expire for households with incomes over $250k" NOT "increasing taxes on the rich"??????

did i fail a math or logic class AGAIN, somewhere???

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