Wednesday Chronicle
You Call That 'Tax Fairness'?
The Foundation
"Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands." --Thomas Jefferson
Editorial Exegesis
"So the 2013 tax cliff is a big enough economic problem that President Obama now wants to postpone it for some taxpayers. But it isn't so big that he's willing to curb his desire to raise taxes on tens of thousands of job-creating businesses. That's the essence of Mr. Obama's announcement Monday that he wants Congress to extend current tax rates for a year, but only for those making less than $200,000 a year. This is a political gambit designed to protect Democrats who are starting to feel queasy about opposing GOP plans to extend all of the Bush rates as the economy weakens again. ... If the Bush tax rates expire as scheduled on December 31, rates on the top two income brackets will jump to 39.6% from 35%, and 36% from 33%. Add the scheduled return of income phaseouts for exemptions and deductions, and the rates go up another two-percentage points -- to at least 41% and 35%. Mr. Obama claims this will merely return rates to what 'we were paying under Bill Clinton,' but that's not true either. It ignores his ObamaCare tax increase of 0.9% on top of the current 2.9% Medicare tax, plus a new 2.9% surcharge on investment income, including interest income. That's an additional 3.8% surcharge on investment income, and added to the Bush expirations would take the capital gains rate to 23.8% from 15% today, and the dividend tax rate to about 45% from 15%. ... Congress's Joint Tax Committee -- not a conservative outfit -- estimates that in 2013 about 940,000 taxpayers will have enough business income to meet Mr. Obama's tax increase threshold. And of the roughly $1.3 trillion in net business income, about 53% will get hit with the higher tax rates. This is because millions of businesses report their income as sole proprietors and subchapter S corporations that file under the individual tax code. So Mr. Obama wants these businesses to pay higher tax rates than the giant likes of General Electric or J.P. Morgan. Does that qualify as 'tax fairness'? ... Republicans can win this debate by stressing growth over fairness and jobs over income redistribution." --The Wall Street Journal
Upright
"Remember in August 2009, when Obama supported extending the Bush tax cuts because, as he then put it, 'The last thing we want to do is raise taxes during a recession'? Well, here we are with 8.2% unemployment (we haven't been below 8% for 3-1/2 years), meager 1.9% average GDP growth with a very real threat of recession on the horizon, trillion-dollar deficits extending as far as the eye can see, and this is a good time to raise taxes? Doubly confusing is the fact that Obama and his Democrat allies are on the record as saying that the Bush tax cuts did not work. Yet he wants to extend them for the middle class, but only for a year. Please tell us, Mr. President, why extend tax cuts you don't believe worked?" --Investor's Business Daily
"This continues to be the longest streak -- 41 months -- of unemployment of 8% or higher since the Great Depression. And recall that back in 2009, Team Obama predicted that if Congress passed its $800 billion stimulus plan, the unemployment rate would be around 5.6% today. ... And there are few signs the rest of the year will be any better. And given a) how the eurocrisis is AGAIN flaring up, and b) China continues to slow, it sure seems like 2% growth and 8% unemployment is a best-case scenario with plenty of downside risk -- for the economy and the Obama campaign." --American Enterprise Institute columnist James Pethokoukis
"Barack Obama believes that politics is a knife fight, and the only rule is that he must win. His conduct reflects the unholy mix of a messiah complex with the muscle of The Chicago Way. His goal, he tells us, is to 'transform' America, not fix it. This culture clash explains a presidential campaign operating in parallel universes. Romney is making a broad pitch to the nation as a whole, assuming jobs, the debt, deficit and a strong military are what people care about because they should. Obama knows that's no longer true for a big slice of the country. He gives lip service to those issues, but they concern him only to the extent they could be his undoing." --columnist Michael Goodwin
"Both employers and consumers are convinced that these are uncertain times, when money is better hoarded and protected rather than risked, given the uncertainty of administration policy and the certainty that profit-making is looked upon as suspicious. And just as many believe there will be no let up until the end of 2012, so, too, they trust that after that date, the long-term outlook -- energy-wise, tax-wise, technology-wise -- is pretty good, suggesting that they should weather the current storm to be poised for its passing soon. We are now at an impasse: The nation is shrugging, and will the president try to coax it to start lifting again, or in petulance, add more weight?" --historian Victor Davis Hanson
Insight
"The purpose of education is to make the choices clear to people, not to make the choices for people." --American writer Peter McWilliams (1949-2000)
"There should be a tax on every man that wanted to get a government appointment, or be elected to office. In two years that tax alone would pay our national debt." --humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)
The Demo-gogues
The BIG Lie: "[T]hese tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are also the tax cuts that are least likely to promote growth." --Barack Obama
Blame game: "Instead of creating more jobs, we had the slowest job growth in half a century, and instead of widespread prosperity, the typical family saw its income fall." --Barack Obama blaming the Bush tax cuts for the economy
Class warfare: "So we don't need more top-down economics. We've tried that theory. We've seen what happens. We can't afford to go back to it." --Barack Obama
"So I'm not proposing anything radical. I just believe that anybody making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under Bill Clinton. Back when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history, and plenty of millionaires to boot. ... At the same time, most people agree that we should not raise taxes on middle-class families or small businesses -- not when so many folks are just trying to get by. " --Barack Obama
"Millionaires are just as patriotic as poor people. The very wealthy are just as noble and patriotic as the middle class. But nothing has been asked of them in this horrendous recession. And it's time we just ask." --Joe Biden
Slip of the tongue: "We need to have a tax code where secretaries aren't paying a lower tax rate than their bosses." --Barack Obama getting his own argument about the Buffet Rule backwards
On partisan bickering: "I suspect that most people ... would acknowledge that I've tried real hard, and we just haven't gotten the kind of willingness on the part of Republicans to engage on a whole range of issues that I wish had happened. Part of what I think needs to happen in this election is the voters once again have to send a message, 'We want common-sense ideas. We don't want folks who are just sayin' no to everything.'" --Barack Obama explaining that it's all Republicans fault that he hasn't reached across the aisle
Unbelievable chutzpah: "What's important if you are running for president is that the American people know who you are and what you've done and that you're an open book." --Barack Obama calling on Mitt Romney to release various documents
Say what? "Republicans have changed the law so you get arrested if you do vote. ... No more compassionate conservatism, no more health care for everyone. ... They're saying exactly what they believe, and they mean it." --Joe Biden on Voter ID laws
Dezinformatsia
The wrong question: "All right, Congress is back to work ... after a Fourth of July recess. And in just two days, House Republicans plan to call a vote to repeal the president's health care overhaul law. ... I'm wondering, should Congress people be spending more time helping constituents comply with the law rather than continuing all of this uncertainty about it?" --CNN's Christine Romans
Government saves: "Many Americans say they're unhappy about the health care law, but the the popularity of the law is something of a red herring. Sometimes, government must lead. Sometimes, government must demand people accept change that they're not yet ready for. Those are the moments when leaders with vision can change society and create the crescendos of history. In freeing the slaves, desegregating schools, enacting Title IX, and legalizing gay marriage, government led America into a new world much of the country wasn't ready for -- but in time, we adjusted. And this too shall pass." --MSNBC's Touré
Totally backwards: "It speaks to a perception. And I don't know how fair it is, I'm not a business analyst. I don't know if Mr. Romney did good things at Bain Capital, but I do know that this is the wrong time to be running as a businessman. It has become something of a dirty word." --political commentator Keith Olbermann
Newspulper Headlines:
Out on a Limb: "Efforts to Implement ObamaCare Law Raise Concerns of Massive Government Expansion" --FoxNews.com
What Happened to the Eighth Amendment?: "Rand Paul Puts Forward Measure That Would Force the Senate to Read Bills" --TheHill.com
Longest Books Ever Written: "Delusional Thinking on the Left" --PowerLineBlog.com
We Blame Global Warming: "The Government: Mermaids Do Not Exist" --DailyCaller.com
The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations: "Likely Voters: Carter Was a Better President Than Obama" --TheWeeklyStandard.com
Bottom Story of the Day: "Exclusive: President Obama Asks Campaign Donors to Send Him More Money" --TheDailyBeast.com
(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)
Village Idiots
Several BIG Lies: "Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, national health spending is rising at a slower rate, health insurance premiums are rising at a slower rate, small-business coverage is holding steady and Medicare is on a stronger financial footing." --Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius making claims that are demonstrably not true
Revisionist history: "I don't think the car manufacturers would be manufacturing the cars they are manufacturing today as hybrids, if it weren't for what the president did in signing the executive order and what Lisa (Jackson, EPA Administrator) and I have done over the last three and half years about developing C.A.F.E. (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards for automobiles and light trucks that will get 54.4 miles per gallon by 2025." --Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (Lexus produced it's first hybrid SUV in 2004 -- when Obama was still a state senator from Illinois.)
Longing for communism: "The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. ... In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don't do it that way in America." --Ray LaHood
Race bait: "Barack had a mama, and she was white -- very white American, Kansas, middle America. There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America's first black president hasn't arisen yet. He's not America's first black president -- he's America's first mixed-race president." --actor Morgan Freeman suggesting that the movement to call Obama "black" is a conspiracy to defeat him. (Memo to Morgan: That didn't work in '08!)
Tired metaphor: "When Barack Obama got the keys to the bus it was trapped in the ditch with three flat tires. We've changed the tires, we've pulled the bus out of the ditch, and we're starting up the road to strengthening the middle class. There's a different theory. Mitt Romney wants to take that bus -- probably a bus made in Switzerland or Bermuda – and he wants to turn that bus around, he wants to pick up some millionaires and billionaires and shower them with cash." --Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs (Mr. Gibbs apparently forgot that Obama's campaign bus was manufactured in Canada.)
Short Cuts
"Romney raised $100 million in June, and there is talk that Obama could be the first incumbent president to be outspent. I don't know why that's a big deal, though, because he gets lots of free coverage. Like with these job numbers that just came out, I hear his name mentioned constantly." --humorist Frank J. Fleming
"So, extreme heat broke 3,000 records. Out of how many? 3,000, 300k, or 3 million? How many records weren't broken -- is a good question." --meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue
"The Supreme Court kept intact the individual penalties written into the health care law. It teaches freeloaders a lesson. People who refuse to buy health insurance could go to prison for five years, where they'll receive free health care and complimentary meals." --comedian Argus Hamilton
"The Democratic Convention is $27 million in debt. They had to cancel the kick-off event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. A speedway is the perfect place for the Democratic Convention. You go around in circles, turn left every few seconds, and you end up right where you started." --comedian Jay Leno
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
74 Comments
Rick Nice in Vernon Hills, IL
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 11:37 AM
I wonder what successful economic model this administration is using to get us out of this disaster? Keynesian spending never worked and never will! Total incompetence!
Bill in Leawood, KS
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Total Incompetence has been the model for government intervention for years. They keep getting re-elected; why should they change. Maybe the model is Steal from Peter to pay Paul, as long as there are more Pauls that Peters.
Barry Payne in Merritt Island
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 11:51 AM
The question should be, "How does giving tax breaks to large donors help the Republican and Democratic Parties make payroll each month?".
KN in Arkansas
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:00 PM
"A speedway is the perfect place for the Democratic Convention. You go around in circles, turn left every few seconds, and you end up right where you started." --comedian Jay Leno"
If one is very lucky one will end up in the same place. More often than not one ends up much worse.
Nashville in Tennessee
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 8:29 AM
Kind of like voting to repeal health care 32/33 times? Round and round and round and round........
FED Up in Philly PA
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Does this surprise anyone?
He is a Communist.
Stop cowering behind political correctness and call him what he really is, a Communist. Not a Socialist anymore, a Communist.
Only communists redistributes wealth the way Obama has. Left unchecked, we would be a communist nation under Obama in a decade or less.
And as I always say, we are all talk and no action.
We have laid down and let this Communist do this to us and did nothing about it. Accept it or do something about it.
Too much talk and no real action.
Son of Liberty in Colorado
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 2:08 PM
I dunno about anyone else on here, but I have two boxes left - first is the ballot box. The next is a cartridge box, and I believe we're gonna be needing them. You can see the desperateness in this administration in the way it is going after the 2nd Amendment and our rights. But they are only our rights AS LONG AS WE'RE WILLING TO DEFEND THEM! If all people are going to do is talk and b*tch about the situation, then they are just as worthless as the people who are voting for the Commie a second time around.
Peterill in New York, NY
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 4:28 PM
Dat's rite, sport! Us teeeebaggers will go wriding intu woshingtun, a whoopin and a hollerin!!! YEEEEHAAAWW! christ you are stupid!
Jim in Alabama
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 6:04 PM
Peter , Bless your heart, you half-witted drooling moron. How stupid are you that you think using the cliche that hicks are stupid will ever get your IQ above 85? If all us yokels is sooo ignorant why is we be payin a TENTH of the Property taxes you foolish Liberals pay up in NY and NJ and CT? So you can send your kids to school where they learn they're the smart people. And so you can make some Mafia Don guy who controls the local unions so happy, while his clowns deliver services with a sneer that we get down here with a smile!
Peterill in New York, NY
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 6:14 PM
Hey Jimmy - Could you be paying less in property taxes because you live in a shed? You are from Alabama - 'nuff said!
mark in massachusetts
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 6:28 PM
You're from NEW YAWK! That automatically qualifies you as a load!
wjm in Colorado
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Enjoy your chains to your masters, you are a part of the problem, and paying more for NOTHING is not the solution. My "Shack" is 3100 sq ft on 40 acres. How big is your apartment? And by the way, I have every inch pre sighted when the excrement hits the fan. You will probably be a victim of a flash mob.
Nashville in Tennessee
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 8:23 AM
Christ. For how long and how many times are you going to post this comment? It's not witty. It's more of a reflection of your ignorance.
Peterill in New York, NY
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Yeac, c'mon jim and mark! Answer this persons question! I agree with you...I get soooo sick of comments from jim and mark,
Howard Last in Wyoming
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:01 PM
The only fair tax is for everyone to pay the same exact amount. The other schemes are same percentage or different percentages. Last time I checked Thomas Jefferson wrote something about all men being equal. How is taxing people different amounts making them equal? James Madison said the same. If everyone paid the exact same amount no IRS would be needed as a 1040 would not be required. It would have an added benefit, no free loaders and people would demand smaller government as they would see what the tax bite is. The other thing that must be done is end income tax withholding and estimated taxes. They were put in place by Joe Stalin's best friend FDR to pay for WW-II. Imagine if everyone had to write a check on April 15. Th great unwashed can no longer say I don't pay taxes I get money back.
Eugene Patrick Devany in Massapequa Park
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:18 PM
For individuals, taxation based on both net wealth and income (in equal measure) is the middle ground of the political ideologies of the extreme left (supporting progressive wealth taxation) and the extreme right (supporting a regressive flat tax on income). The combination of 2% net wealth tax (excluding $15,000 cash and retirement funds) and 8% individual income creates a mathematically progressive rate structure. It is similar to the tax credits and escalating tax brackets of the current code except that it uses net wealth rather than hundreds of other types of tax expenditures (i.e. deductions, credits and “loopholes”) to raise or lower one’s tax liability. Read more at www.TaxNetWealth.com
J Henry in USSA
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Eugene, are you out of your freaking mind?!?!?!
RedLizard64 in San Diego
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 1:09 PM
Howard...I hope you meant the same PERCENTAGE not the same amount...percentage is truly shared sacrifice...if you have little you give little if you have more you give more but it is always the same RATE. That way if you work and are more successful...the AMOUNT you keep is more albeit the same percentage.
Howard Last in Wyoming
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 6:19 PM
Red Lizzard - I certainly meant the same amount. Read the first sentence of my original post. Reread your second sentence, it is the same thing Karl Marx said but with slightly different words.
MNice - The 16th Amendment voided Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3. If this clause was still in effect the crooks and /or mental midgets in Washington could not put items into bills to benefit various organizations and individuals at the expense of the rest of us. They are bribing these groups and individuals with our money.
MNIce in Minnesota
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 2:25 PM
Howard, you and Eugene are proposing direct taxes. The Constitution says those MUST be apportioned by state. Practically speaking this means the Federal government cannot collect it, but must leave that to the states in order to ensure that the end amount collected is truly apportioned. The income tax is an exception made possible by the 16th Amendment, but this power has been abused by disguising illegal direct taxes as income taxes - first by the infamous payroll taxes, and most lately by the health insurance mandate/penalty/tax.
The withholding tax is another illegal direct tax. The Supreme Court even ruled in 1954 that it is essentially "The Current Payments Tax Act of 1944", which was a war tax set to expire at the end of 1945 or the cessation of hostilities with Germany, Italy and Japan, as required by the Constitution. The IRS never got its 1946 calendars, and they're sure we're still at war with at least one of those three nations - that's why we still keep troops there. Somehow the Supreme Court failed to get the message to the proper parties.
It makes much more sense to dump all the "tax-the-rich" schemes and collect a general sales tax on luxury items, that is, on items people do not need for a decent basic standard of living.
wjm in Colorado
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 11:26 AM
A sales tax would indeed tax everyone equally who buys the product. Rich would buy more, and pay more in taxes, but essentially pay the same percentage of the tax as the poor. A flat tax does the same thing, but earlier in the process at the point of remuneration from the employer.
Bob in TN
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:09 PM
Aren't GE and J.P. Morgan "friends" of obama ??? He gives all his friends a break.. Look at Unions, etc. on the obamacare bill.. They all get waivers and their costs will be covered by the government, which is code for Middle Class.. They have done nothing to help small businesses.. Best decision is for all small businesses to "go out of business" before they are forced.. At least now maybe they have a few options available to them to save some of their money.... Otherwise they and their families will be in the bread lines also....1920 &30's all over again !!! Keep your powder dry, boys !!!! It is acomin'....
MikeEcho in Orting, WA
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Small business is the backbone of the economy. Millions of small businesses paying small taxes, collecting state sales taxes. Millions more employed at small businesses far surpass any "big" corporations. When you wound or kill small business the whole economy will go down in flames. The free enterprise system works best when people are encouraged to be inventive. Obama and his like minded socialists have got it all wrong. Socialism/communism/progressive mindset has never worked where it has been tried and never will. The $200,000 amount probably falls right at the level of most small family business. What a sham!!
Eugene Patrick Devany in Massapequa Park
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:14 PM
The top 10% now have 75% of the wealth and 60% share less than 3%. The wealth gap has not been this bad since the Great Depression of 1929 (when the unemployment rate was also as bad). At the time there was a top tax rate of 24% and the well-to-do had so much fun they called it the Roaring 20′s. It is worth remembering that the depression was followed by tax increases to: 63%, 79%, 81%, 88% and finally to 94% in 1944.
Before the economy and the federal debt get much worse I expect my elected officials to stop the roar and save the rich from themselves. Our tax code has destroyed middle class consumers with regressive payroll taxes and each year an amount equal to all the payroll taxes is redistributed to the investment class in the form of tax expenditures. This massive redistribution of income has really been a redistribution of wealth because the well-to-do have already acquired too many assets to encourage further consumption.
We need to steer the ship away from the iceberg by eliminating payroll taxes and paying for Social Security and Medicare with a 2% net wealth tax (excluding $15,000 cash and retirement funds). That will save the middle class and most of the rich by giving middle class consumers more to spend and creating jobs and profits in the process.
We also need to really “punish” the wealthy by lowering the income tax rate to 8% and eliminating capital gains, estate and gift taxes. These changes will create the ultimate in business freedom and complement the negative reinforcement (“use it or lose it”) of the wealth tax. Businesses will have 7% more money to hire workers without payroll taxes. By enabling the “job creators” to buy and sell capital assets without being taxed and providing a 92% after tax return on investment, the new tax code would greatly help entrepreneurs and the idle rich will get what they deserve.
Completing the perfect tax reform plan would be a 4% value added tax (VAT) on business and an 8% corporate tax rate for the most competitive business rates in the world. The current 35% corporate rate would be eliminated and no longer prevent the return of foreign profits which could add trillions to domestic investment.
Imagine a sustainable economy that does not depend on government spending or tax expenditures. Imagine a stable economy based upon broad tax bases with the lowest rates possible.
Eugene Patrick Devany, JD, MPA Read more at www.TaxNetWealth.com
wjm in Colorado
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Punishing the wealthy is not the answer, and I would suggest you read the outstanding writings of Dr Thomas Sowell. Also read Walter Williams. What would be fair is everyone paying the same percentage, say 10%. Then everyone pays something. What is not fair is taxing someone for a lifetime of accumulated wealth. And a VAT tax is just another tax, something the Europeans can do and we can do without. I find you logic unsound sir.
MNIce in Minnesota
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 2:49 PM
A study of wealth disparity shows that it is correlated strongly with government corruption (look through the CIA World Factbook).
A stable economy is not based on tax bases; it is based on the availability of resources, honest money, and the confidence of the workers that their labors will be fairly rewarded and they will be permitted to keep those rewards as is their right. Instability results when people try to game the system, put up roadblocks in the way of the use of resources, or otherwise distort the market.
When an economy is dependent on government policies, the government is too big, too powerful, and too corrupt. "Government, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." - George Washington. "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one..." - Thomas Paine "That government governs best which governs least." - Thomas Jefferson
"[The government authority] is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil." - St. Paul. It is not government's job to redistribute wealth, but to protect the rights of both rich and poor so that the poor may be able to enrich themselves with honest labor. Redistributionist tax codes do not truly redistribute wealth, they only make it more difficult to become wealthy.
Merry Colin in Cave Creek, Arizona
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 1:50 AM
"Wealth gap"? "...save the rich from themselves"? A "VAT"? Are you kidding? Ever hear of MYOB and don't count someone else's money? I want freedom to use my talents/ingenuity to do business as I choose, with no one's hand in my pocket (or regulation against me). I'm fine w/ the shares owned by the "rich". I will have opportunity to earn money and KEEP IT or spend it as I choose. The "rich" don't live in a vacuum. In fact, the more they have the more they need from others for which they must pay, whether that is for services or paychecks.
Your comments reek of class envy. Your proposed solutions are exactly what this country does not need and the reason we are in the mess that we are now. It's all convoluted-- your ideas and the current code. Business and assets shouldn't be taxed at all! Government has no place in equalizing ANYTHING except treatment under the law. The ONLY thing that would truly be fair is for adults between the ages of 18 and 65 to be required to pay the exact same AMOUNT (not rate) to run the federal govt. ONLY as the Constitution provides for. Exceptions ought to be for those below a certain threshold, determined in the State; the States would make up the difference determined locally. DC won't pass a budget so we will give them one! Any adjustment to this budget would be annual and affirmed by a special vote of ONLY those subject to the tax and/or their State reps.
A "rich" person should not pay more for the federal roads and public amenities than anyone else! That is while keeping in mind that airports etc. ought to be funded locally and by the beneficiaries of such via privatization and/or State and Local taxes. That way government will be forced into returning control to the citizens. I am sick to death of manipulation of society (families) via deductions for kids, different rates for married/unmarried, and on and on. And I am married a mother of two. No one should pay more than me because they choose not to be. Do away with ALL federal welfare programs and return power to the States. One-size-fits-all gubmint does not work! People in FL have different populations, geography, natural resources (and hazards) than those in MT or AZ. This Union was founded on the "laboratory" theory because it is what keeps the Republic strong, resilient, and viable. Anything else is goobledygook. Fat chance citizens, States, or the bozos in DC will ever go for this!
Daryl Bowling in Gravette
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:23 PM
ok Mr Obama, put your money where your mouth is. Donate all of your pay back to the government, yield all of your benefits once your out of office back, forgo your retirement, give up all income outside the current job also, and your wife too! in fact demand that all of your czars and cabinet return and forgo all income, show us the way!!! instead of we sacrifice so you can benefit! oh and those taxpayer paid golf trips, no more....what we need here is a defined employment contract between the people and the president...you will do this and this and this, you will not do this and this and this...show us the way or get the h out of the way!.
James Pogue in Idabel, OK
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:34 PM
The "Simpleton's" speak.
wjm in Colorado
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 11:30 AM
To whom do you refer? Seems to me the comment of a Simpleton.
Ernest Wilson in Maryland
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:36 PM
Raising taxes on anyone in this weak economy makes no sense to me. I wish however, that a better argument was communicated on why..........I think Many people do not get the current Republican argument on this issue. Romney & his supporters need to bolster the argument by telling people why giving government more money is a bad idea. It would help to add that leaving resources in the hands of the job creators helps the economy because they will use it more effectively than government who wastes it on poor investments like green energy.
The Texas Cooke in Lockhart, Texas
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Barry may think politics is like a knife fight...but I'm hoping that, come November, he's bringing a knife to a nucleur exchange.....but I'd settle for a landslide.....
Bill in Leawood, KS
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 1:12 PM
Given the geniuses guiding Romney's campairn, it sounds as though Romney is being armed with pacifist tracts for a knife fight.
Alton in Central Florida
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:50 PM
Great cartoon guys. A picture that surely speaks a thousand words. An empty cheap suit--how apropos. I have to wonder what Obama is really qualified for, His presidency is a disaster, no plan except raising taxes and spending. No concern about the debt, deficit or what another tax increase will do. To Obama everything is based on amateurish political expedience. The actual gain from raising taxes on $250k and above might last just long enough to get him thru the election. But isn't that what his entire term has been about buying time to get thru the next electiion. Just like the healthcare bomb, when it finally explodes Obama will be gone or re-elected, Very cleverly crafted again for Obama's expedience. Short sighted, short of experience and we better hope that the remainder of his Presidency is short as well.
Michael J Donnelly in Hamilton Square
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:51 PM
You seem to ignore that the president is out to destroy the America we have always been and replace it with his model for government.
The tax arguments ae all true of course but are very weak in todays populace who still like the idea of soaking the rich and could care less about the results for their own children!
Steve Egbert in Cherry Hill, NJ
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:58 PM
I take a different view of taxes than many people. God only wants 10% of our annual production (money, in the case of wage earners, which is most of us). Any government that wants a greater percentage than God has set itself up in opposition to God. The issue isn't fairness. The issue is why does the government need 33% of someone's income? It's utterly outrageous. It is evil.