Buffett demands to pay more tax? An alternative view!

[vetbass]

typical repub to say that a billionare only paying 17% is fair and someone working at mcdonalds making $10000 dollars a year needs to pay !0%--the facts are that you are right that 50% of people dont pay directly into the irs but they do pay taxes--property taxes, state taxes,gas taxes,food taxes,city taxes, taxes on their pay checks--the vast majority of these 50% of folks live below the poverty level and you want them to pay more in taxes than warren who pays 17% unbelivable--geo your exactly right there are a percentage of folks who sit on their butts not working and milk the system and dont contribute one thing to our society accept being a parasite however its not right to punish the entire 50% for a few freeloaders--when those 50% do get their "tax payday" as you call it us business folks love it because the poor and middle class actually pump this money back into our businesses which benifit us all--thats called trickle up economics which actually works--when the wealthy keep their tax dollars it trickles nowhere except their bank accounts

[RoadToad]

Thank you Geo for illustrating just how intransigent Tea Party Republicans really are. There is just no reasoning with any of you on this issue, and that's one of the main reasons the US credit rating was just downgraded.

[FlyLie]

Thank you Geo for illustrating just how intransigent Tea Party Republicans really are. There is just no reasoning with any of you on this issue, and that's one of the main reasons the US credit rating was just downgraded.

O my God, I'm not the only one! Times 2

[GeoFisher]

Thank you Geo for illustrating just how intransigent Tea Party Republicans really are. There is just no reasoning with any of you on this issue, and that's one of the main reasons the US credit rating was just downgraded.

THERE is reasoning with me.......We have an entitlement mentality.....People who pay no taxes feel ENTITLED to government handouts......

I am perfectly fine paying the taxes I pay and would be perfect fine with a raising of my taxes...IF and ONLY IF those freeloaders at the bottom of the pile were held accountable and paid some taxes.

So, yea, those in lower income brackets do pay

* city tax
* sales tax
* locality tax
* fuel tax

BUT....if they don't pay ANY payroll tax and if the don't pay any medicare tax.....WHO THE HELL will pay for their social security and medicare benefits.......ME.

Look, I know we are going to have to make some very hard decisions in the future. I want the decisions to effect everyone. NOT just the rich, not just the poor, not just the middle, but until we have some entitlement reform at the bottom, I simply don't TRUST government to do anything promised. NOTHING.

Don't RAISE my taxes until you've made serious headway in entitlement reform......then come talk to me about raising taxes.

[RoadToad]

This isn't about raising YOUR taxes. This is about raising taxes on people making over a million a year. But in typical Tea Party fashion, your knee-jerk reaction is to reject it out of hand. And while you have a point about entitlement reform, which by the way Buffett also makes, at least there has been SOME compromise from the left on spending cuts, and I know of nobody who has signed any pledges regarding spending cuts. There has been absolutely ZERO compromise from Republicans when it comes to generating more revenue, and the deficit will always be a fact of life until that changes.

[GeoFisher]

This isn't about raising YOUR taxes. This is about raising taxes on people making over a million a year. But in typical Tea Party fashion, your knee-jerk reaction is to reject it out of hand. And while you have a point about entitlement reform, which by the way Buffett also makes, at least there has been SOME compromise from the left on spending cuts, and I know of nobody who has signed any pledges regarding spending cuts. There has been absolutely ZERO compromise from Republicans when it comes to generating more revenue, and the deficit will always be a fact of life until that changes.

Do you REALLY think it would stop there. Everything I've seen so far from the current admin starts at 250k. While I don't make that, that is a FAR CRY from a millionaire......

NO, you cannot believe for one single SECOND that they really mean the millionaires and billionaires....

We don't have a revenue problem..we have a SPENDING PROBLEM. Fix it first...........then come and talk to me.

Later,

Geo

[RoadToad]

Do you REALLY think it would stop there. Everything I've seen so far from the current admin starts at 250k. While I don't make that, that is a FAR CRY from a millionaire......

NO, you cannot believe for one single SECOND that they really mean the millionaires and billionaires....

We don't have a revenue problem..we have a SPENDING PROBLEM. Fix it first...........then come and talk to me.

Later,

Geo

So now you're throwing up a strawman. Buffett can't mean what he said, because of what Obama said!

I'll say it again. There's just no reasoning with you on this subject.

[vetbass]

roadrunner you are right in that we have a spending problem--http://zfacts.com/p/318.html---watch the youtube video at the bottom of the page and it will lay out the debt problem and were it came from and what we need to do to get out of it

[roadrunner]

The Washington Post babbled again today about Obama inheriting a huge deficit from Bush. Amazingly enough, a lot of people swallow this nonsense. So once more, a short civics lesson.

Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for FY 2008 and FY 2009 as well as FY 2010 and FY 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For FY 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the FY 2009 budgets.

And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete FY 2009. Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period: (below)


If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the FY 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th

[GeoFisher]

So now you're throwing up a strawman. Buffett can't mean what he said, because of what Obama said!

I'll say it again. There's just no reasoning with you on this subject.

So does Obama's tax plans call for raising taxes on everyone above the 250k mark or not.

If NOT then I'm an unreasonable man.

[RoadToad]

So does Obama's tax plans call for raising taxes on everyone above the 250k mark or not.

If NOT then I'm an unreasonable man.

Yes it does, but that's OBAMA's plan, not BUFFETT's! This thread was started to discuss the merits of Buffett's idea, not Obama's. But rather than discuss the idea on its merits, you're substituting an argument about another subject. You refuse to even consider his idea, simply because it entails somebody, somewhere in America, paying more taxes. Never mind that he also said, "job one for the 12 [committee members] is to pare down some future promises that even a rich American can't fulfill." You do understand what he means, right? The first thing the super committee needs to work on is spending cuts!

Like I said before, BOTH sides need to listen to this guy; he knows what he's talking about.

[GeoFisher]

OK.....so Buffett talks about his extremely low taxes.....fine.....He pays a low rate due to capital gains taxes.......

Lower CAPITAL gains taxes is just that......LOWER TAXES on Capital.....MONEY in the system....Do you suppose taxing MONEY in the system is going to help grow our economy NO.

Next. Buffett chooses to take his income in Capital Gains, instead of a salary....HIS CHOICE. He could pay himself a hefty salary instead, and pay 10 craploads more in taxes.....instead, he uses the system to pay lower taxes. FIX the system so he cannot take primary income as GAINS.

I think personal income should be taxed as personal income.........he's cheating and loves the fact that everyone is up in arms about it. He is being very, VERY dishonest about the issue if you ask me.

Raising the amount you pay on capital gains will hurt anyone who is currently in the market....and if you DON'T think folks will pull their money out of the market TODAY at a lower gains rate......you are kidding yourself.......I WILL, and everyone else I know WILL. We're talking about 10 or 15 percent in additional taxes.......

Later,

Geo