“Tax reform is sorely needed and should have been done years ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook told NBC News’ Lester Holt,” Anita Balakrishnan reports for CNBC.
“Apple has a deep understanding of the effects of taxes on business, Cook said, telling NBC that companies don’t bring cash back to the U.S. because of taxes,” Balakrishnan reports. “‘[T]his isn’t good for the U.S. There’s no tax receipts there,’ Cook said. ‘And it’s not good for investment in the U.S. And so this needs to be fixed. In my view, it should have been fixed years ago. But let’s get it done now.'”
Apple CEO Tim Cook and U.S. President Donald Trump at tech summit in June 2017“House Republicans are putting the ‘finishing touches’ on a tax reform bill, as President Donald Trump pushes for ‘massive tax cuts,'” Balakrishnan reports. “Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said in an August conference call that Apple ended last quarter with $261.5 billion in cash plus marketable securities, and $246 billion of that cash, 94 percent of the total, was outside the U.S… ‘If you sell globally, you earn money globally. If you earn money globally you can’t bring it back into the United States unless you pay 35% plus your state tax,’ Cook told CNBC in May. ‘And you look at this and you go, ‘this is kind of bizarre.’ You want people to use this money in the United States to invest more.'”
Should have been first thing on the agenda, no excuse, really. Everyone’s looking after their own interests and will be focused on keeping their cushy seat. SO, here’s hoping they make it the FIRST priority of the next Republican majority.
OK, here’s the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth on tax reform. It is a straw man. It is designed to divert attention from the unspoken truth.
What is needed in the U.S. is spending reform, as in downsizing of spending & debt set by the US Congress.
It is the same as the verbal obfuscation of talking about the “US health care crisis.”
We have fantastic health care with amazing new drugs and techniques and machines. What we really have is a “health crisis” where about 150 million adults have chronic illness and over 120 million have multiple prescription drugs and those numbers are rising.
As the Nat’l. Inst. of Health has stated ‘health costs can’t be controlled without prevention and early diagnosis.’
Prevention has to start with people reversing obesity which leads to many chronic illnesses. Over 2/3rds of retirees use over 93% of all Medicare expenditures.
I would give you 6 stars if I could. The other little known fact is that a sizable percentage of health care dollars are spent on futile care in the last month of life. i.e., an 85 year old nursing home resident who has a heart attack and is full code, going to spend the last days of life on a ventilator in the ICU (the most expensive place in the world). There was virtually no chance of making it out of the ICU in the first place. We need to educate people about what will really happen to them in these circumstances.
I would be the Nurse Practitioner trying to prolong your life, bantering with you as I pulled your blood, laughing about the things we used to think were so important before our bodies spoke up and declared otherwise. The hospital staff wouldn’t have known we had a history. At the end, politics and everything else vexatious would recede and a pleasant, warm glow would develop. That would be the morphine shot I just administered. Your last words would probably be along the lines of “Jane, you ignorant slut.” And I wouldn’t mind.
You’re in rare form tonight, Herself. Enjoy your enlightening posts … 😊
Jane, you ignora…I’m really sleepy.
I love everlasting life.
Education is the solution, Botty. People need to understand that when you have a heart attack from natural causes in your mid 80’s that your chance of surviving resuscitation and returning home is virtually nil. You will have the joy of broken ribs, intubation, ventilation, catheterization and likely spend your last few days in the ICU getting poked and prodded until organs start to fail or someone pulls the plug. Its not like CPR on TV when the patient’s eyes flutter open after a few seconds of CPR and a couple chest thumps and all is well. With education (and a living will), people can choose how they want their last few days to be- and most people presented with facts choose a peaceful, dignified death, without futile care… and by the way, will save billions in healthcare
uh, I’ve had two heart attacks…you should get that kind of an “education” yourself.
life is precious, my young friend, at any and all ages.
Except for gays, democrats, women, immigrants, muslims, Europeans, hooks, and anyone who disagrees w you — right, Botty ?
those are your words, not mine.
Except… no, I am channeling ☭botvinnik. Based on many comments you have posted here.
botvinnik has not indiscriminately denigrated any of the groups you list, except possibly for the last—and even there he’s been known to apologise or reverse himself, even recently. – It’s true his thundering against hypocrisy and his deliberate provocation of liberal defence mechanisms tend to alienate lily-livered, humourless champions of social Nirvana, in precisely the same way that Mark Twain raised boils on the skins of the noblesse oblige apologists for the ruthless and racist imperialists of his time.
To me, botvinnik is the last angry man.* In a functioning democracy you do not shut down such voices. You do not shout them down, or slow them down. You do not whine about decency being violated, or social norms being corrupted, you celebrate the system that allows a man to speak his mind, rather than try to twist the system into one that runs everbody’s speech through a filter conveniently designed by You.
* novel by Gerald Green, filmed in 1959
Looks like subject bias on your part. But I do agree w you on one point: his is not indiscriminate denigration. It is very discriminate …and discriminatory.
Except you do not know what I am talking about, do you?. Since you have never read anything by ☭botvinnik when he is hating on anyone who is gay, muslim, female, democratic, a civil servant, or anyone w opinions & beliefs contrary to his own narrow, intolerant views. I feel sorry for you. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
☭botvinnik is guilty of “poisoning the well of discourse”.
Mature people accept that others may hold contrary opinions. But I, perhaps like many, draw the line of tolerance at the point where people engage in hateful speech, including ridicule, discrimination, political intolerance, religious bias, and nastiness.
Another egregious offense, in my view at least, is that ☭botvinnik thinks he is clever and witty. Sad. The two of you. And let’s not forget GoeB while we are at it.
Suffice it say you are dead wrong and too sensitive. Oh, and thanks for not forgetting me …
I have offended you by defending what you think is indefensible. You can not resist doing it yourself—generalising, stereotyping, and making derogatory comments about the objects of your disapproval. You may think you are entitled to do so for assorted moral and philosophical reasons. If so, that applies to me as well, for the moral yardsticks you erect arouse emotions you show no signs of understanding.
No, you have not offended me by defending “what I think” is indefensible. You disgust me for your pandering to views such as those held by ✠botvinnik, which are antithetical to civilized society.
Over 93% of retirees have been paying taxes longer than anyone else too. You forgot that part.
of the man who knows his emojis. For a smart guy, some of his public statements don’t equate with Duke MBA mind.
In botvink’s warped world maybe.
Nobody gives a flying F how long you have paid taxes. Everyone pays some tax as soon as they buy anything. Which is fine because most people are nothing but a big economic drain from birth to age 18 and then from retirement until death. Some of us — not you, obviously — care about long term prosperity for everyone and that means society is well funded and managed for future generations as well as our own without running up crippling debt. Part of that means that the people who rigged the economy in their favor pay back. But being the pro-russia troll you are, you would love nothing more than for the usa to rack up even more debt and isolate itself behind a great wall.
hey, you must not have gotten the memo from Mount Soros, you guys aren’t doing the Russian thing anymore.
@ Wrong:
You are wrong again. In this era of near record corporate power and wealth, historical low unemployment, and longest run of low inflation, now is the time to RETIRE DEBT. Any talk of reducing taxes is stupid if you don’t balance the budget first.
One small matter, Obama proposed this as well, but since the Republicans in congress would have nothing labelled Obama, the Obama’s proposal never got out of the gate.
And both Hillary and Trump proposed the same thing in connection with their respective infrastructure spending bills.
Just about everyone has wanted this change. Only one group has blocked it.
Facts to a libtard is like splashing holy water on a demon…
it burns.
Every time assholes like you sling around juvenile labels like libtard, you show yourself to be the worst kind of scum sucking troll. You ARE the swamp.
man, you’re sizzlin’
“Let us speak with Captain Howdy.”
To bot sux: it burns, it burns.
“Burn baby burn …”
John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon), Grumpy Old Men, 1993
He was too busy working on the things he found important. Such as trying to force nuns to pay for birth control coverage, gay men to pay for gynecologist visit coverage, pressuring businesses to put urinals into women’s restrooms. Good to know he had priorities.
Obama did none of those things. You seem to be confusing state and local issues with federal matters.
You don’t suppose that any other legislation was passed at that time do you? DC was flooded with healthcare and insurance lobbyists during that time. In the end the ACA, a republican plan, was implemented. Dumbocrats wanted to stop the runaway healthcare costs of uninsured idiots flooding emergency rooms for preventable issues. So to do that, a big silver platter was handed to the insurance industry, normally a republican leaning industry. Then suddenly the republicans , incensed that insurers would require personal responsibility, lost their collective minds and switched their attention to repeal regardless of anything else. Since 2011 congress has done nothing but flounder in ACA hatred. With such incompetent and corrupt idiots from two useless parties fumbling away to undercut everything the other does regardless of Americans needs in congress, why would anyone expect any legislative reforms that benefit anyone except the puppeteers who control them?
Adding 1.5 trillion in debt with the sales pitch that trickle down magic will create a growth rate that the USA hasn’t seen in 2 decades is a non starter.
The proposed republican tax reform benefits wall st. at the expense of everyone else.
You do know that the money was Iran’s payment in 1978 for two destroyers and other military hardware that was never delivered, right? My guess is that you’d be a bit annoyed if you had been waiting almost 40 years for a refund.
Was there any charge to Iran for kidnapping American hostages for 444 days?
Was there any charge to the US for overthrowing their democratically elected government and installing the puppet Shah of Iran and then stealing all their oil for decades?
I will never defend the CIA, point taken.
Sorry for the error. There were four Kidd-class destroyers, not two. The US Navy got eighteen years of exemplary service from its free warships, and then sold them to Taiwan in 1995 for $732 million. They are all still in service. U
This is not tax reform. This a massive tax give away to the rich and corporations. The poor and middle class will have their taxes rise. Only the rich and corporations make it. Companies like Apple will benefit extremely well for this give away.
Problem is, any tax cut is going benefit proportionally to the people who pay the most tax: the “rich”. Not really a “give away”. More of a “give back”.
The top 20% pay 87% of federal taxes
The top 1% pay 43% of taxes.
The bottom 45% pay no taxes.
Your mid-level civil servant, TxUser, pays too much in taxes so it is obvious we are paying the hired help way too much. I say we cut TxUser’s annual salary to the point where he won’t pay any federal taxes and we all can be happy.
we can do better, let’s deport him to Caracas.
Hey GoeB, you must be a mathematician for the federal budget committee… surely you jest!
Nobody comes here to make a ppsalient points. They come here to give wedgies.
Prodding for a pie chart …
It is called income tax. Income is taxed. Those w low income should not be taxed; they have all they can do to pay living expenses. As income increases, so should taxed. As the top marginal income tax rate is < 40%, people are always better off earning more income, even if taxed.
The real problem is that a lot of income of wealthy people — Wall Street Capital Tools — is sheltered from normal income taxes. Instead, they pay Long Term Capital Gains rates of 18%, rather than normal income tax rates of up to 39.6%. Plus the wealthy get all kinds of other Federal largesse, in terms of avoiding income taxes most other people must pay, like arcane "carried interest" and other tax dodges a whole industry is set up to take advantage of.
I am due Warren Buffet pays more in taxes than his secretary. But even he has pointed out it is unfair that he pays a lower rate of tax than his secretary, which he considers unfair.
To avoid confusion when discussing taxes, one must be sure to include both the AMOUNT of taxes paid as well as the applicable tax RATE, as the Warren Buffet story highlights.
Remove ALL tax avoidance incentives and let everyone pay a sliding scale of marginal tax rate, regardless of income source. Now this would be meaningful and fair tax reform.
Agreed, thanks.
The progressive tax curve needs to match the income curve. Those who are lucky enough to be gifted with extreme executive compensation for basically just showing up have acquired all the spoils, they are the only ones left who can pay for the accrued debts of the last 2 generations of wasteful spenders of both parties.
The tax code needs to be even more progressive than that. The richest few are almost exclusively rich because of inheritance or by skimming insane self compensation from the corporations they run. Labor income for the extreme rich looks low on paper. Taxes on their accumulated capital gains — about half of which is never taxed thanks to international avoidance games and semi-legal money laundering — has to be clawed back.
But the usual right wing dorks here disagree. They want to give people like the Waltons, Gates, Bezos, deVos, and Trumps of the world a big tax break. Do you really think the nation should go deeper into debt to fund their further enrichment?
If their enrichment trickled down to the peons, the peons would obviously not complain. But it doesn’t trickle down enough. The peons voted for Donald Trump hoping he’d change that. We’re waiting.
Funny, I never read any Tim Cook post nor heard Tim Cook criticize Obama for not improving the tax code. It didn’t take long for Cook to embrace Trump’s ideas.
Somehow Tim Cook’s influence was impotent with Obama. Perhaps Tim Cook will find a more receptive ear with Trump. So, I guess, things go better with Trump. Wouldn’t you agree?
Aww, that’s so sad. Well, if Tim Cook couldn’t get it done with Obama just give up, go to your safe space, grab a cup of cocoa, and a box of Kleenex, snowflake.
And if a Czech pastry gets caught in yet another lie, he goes straight to personal insults. Most 10-year-olds have outgrown that.
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. But they can easily tell if you have the mentality of a ten-year-old.
Ko-douche isn’t making any sense because he and his butt buddy botfuck don’t use facts at all. Their only principles are self enrichment and aggrandizement. As trolls for Trump, a proven serial liar who parrots back whatever Hannity barfs out, these two prove every day how lack of education and shared sense of duty is killing America.
The divisionism and winner-take-all rulemaking means that in the long run, everyone loses to Chinese imperialism. Even the trolls blogging from their gated retirement communities who don’t care about anyone else. Divided we fall.
I’d be happy to parrot anything Hannity says. You are a coward that can’t handle TRUTH and daily Sean, the most trusted newsman in the world, tells it like it is.
You can go back now to the honest people you listen to like Hillary, Donna, Debbie, et al. …
So you admit you’re a parrot for the entertainment division of the Murdoch wing of the RNC? That is all you need to say, snowflake. Your pathetic insulting does not distract anyone from seeing that you live a fact free existence.
Did you read the climate report that the Trump administration released? No? Why, are you still waiting for drudge or limbaugh or hannity to make up lies about it that you can repeat here on a mac blog?
When you grow up and learn to debate on facts you read directly from authoritative sources, without the insulting, then others might be willing to have a conversation with you. As it is, it’s quite clear you and bot are here to whine bich and moan because you have no friends in the real world. Obviously.
“When you grow up and learn to debate on facts you read directly from authoritative sources, without the insulting, then others might be willing to have a conversation with you.”
What makes you think I want to have a conversation with leftists spreading lies with no regard for reality because of party dogma, hmmm?
Conversations, ahem, with immature insult artists like yourself are off limits, as well. But keep trying, sonny …
YOU certainly are DIVIDED. And when you fall it might do you some good to land on your head …
Economics 101.
Every tax levied against a business is paid by the consumer or patron of said business in the form of higher prices. Yes, libtards, there is no free lunch. Everybody pays taxes.
State employee? Isn’t that a person who lives off the taxes of working citizens? So you work for me. What the f*ck are you posting here? Shouldn’t you be busy or at least finding something productive to do?
Kolache, you are now exposing yourself as a true douchebag.
If you get through life without using municipal services, you would be the only one. Denigrating those who maintain society for your benefit is pathetic.
Thank you, nurses, doctors, firemen, police officers, educators, regulators and scientists. Keep doing what you do while whiny dickheads with soviet online names continue to demonstrate unending self centered greed.
I have to confess. I once did work for the Feds for three years with UDSA-ARS. We used to say that ARS meant Almost Resembling Science. Any way, I saw so much government waste and excessive spending. Lord, have mercy. Now I am a proud citizen free of the horror of being a government slag.
Your personal experience seems appalling. It’s anecdotal evidence and only one data point, but as I’ve argued before, it’s still evidence to be considered. It helps your case that it deftly plays into a persistent stereotype of government waste. My experience with government bureaucracies tends to mirror yours, but I know there are countervailing viewpoints too. Maybe I’m overly cautious or just soft, but I prefer investigative panels to dynamite.
Libtards believed that hiring more government workers makes everything better. Unless, of course, you are a private citizen inundated with beaurocratic red tape and regulations, and having the wealth that you have earned confiscated by the government to feed, clothe, and house same beaurocrats.
those who can, do; those who can’t, teach…those who can’t teach are mid-level state employees.
Those who can’t work any more, or choose not to, or have an axe to grind, or enjoy being the mean kid on the block, or have all the answers and can’t resist smearing them in the faces of an idiot public, make gratuitous comments on MDN.
that was mean-spirited…you can take your morphine back, Nurse Ratched.
This is rich coming from the poster boy for mean spirited assholes.
I was merely expanding the aphorism to blanket MDN contributors, not needling you personally. 😏 No one could realistically accuse botvinnik of making gratuitous comments! 🙃 OK, maybe I resented your gratuitous comments about state workers. Right out of school I worked for the US Post Office. I tell you I was brilliant and hard-working, and kept my mouth shut when the other carriers made sexist comments, and played along with the Queeg-like supervisors and their silly rules. In a way you are right about civil servants, but in another way you are misguided.
One way to reduce the taxe burden is to eliminate unproductive government agents and paper pushers. Maybe TxUser will do the honorable thing and resign his position.
well, he espouses such nobility and character, I am sure he will do the honorable thing.
bwhahahahahahahahaha
Perhaps you can do the honorable thing, then, and stop consuming the government services you are unwilling to pay for. You can haul your own garbage across country (no government roads for you) to a landfill you dig for yourself. Be sure to purify the water from your well in case it has been contaminated by your sewage. You need to do that to avoid getting sick, since you are surely honorable enough not to use any hospital that has received government funding or any doctor who received a government-guaranteed loan.
Be safe, since you won’t have access to police, fire, or ambulance services. Be vigilant, since you can’t rely on prosecutors or judges to protect you from those who rip you off. Once the word gets around that you and your family have no legal protection, you’re going to be ever so popular. Why pay for what you can take? … like your house or your daughters, for example.
“Perhaps you can do the honorable thing, then, and stop consuming the government services you are unwilling to pay for.”
So, straight white male prosecutor you obviously have the evidence proving beyond the shadow of a doubt, Kolache is a deadbeat in the rears not paying his government fees and tax obligations.
Please approach the bench. You are a leftist and a FRAUD and everyone here knows it except YOU. Don’t waste our time with your tedious ridiculous hypotheticals. Thank you …
Not a hypothetical. The bunch of you have suggested that government employees should all be fired or banished to Caracas. Without them, you get your way—no government and therefore no taxes. The ultimate in tax reform! Welcome to Somalia.
no, not all government employees should be fired…
just you.
YOU LIE, gee, what a surprise. I never said any such thing.
But now that you mention it, government can indeed go into a hiring freeze immediately. Evaluate all the DUPLICATE SERVICE AGENCIES and or employees and streamline operations.
That would save a ton of tax dollars …
You assign too much credit to the State for infrastructural benefits to society that accrued over generational time, and that were (as often as not, and to a great degree still are) built and maintained by private enterprises… and not by State decree or State contract.
I live next door to a community (that in 10 to 15 years will become the third largest community in the state), and they literally have no (political) government there… and no intentions of incorporating. It’s not even 20 years old (most homes are not even 15) and has every modern amenity (with the exception of a large hospital which is being built)… police (furnished by the county), fire protection (furnished by a pre-existing volunteer group that also serves surrounding area), schools, etc., etc.
Obvious your reality is nowhere to be found in TXuser’s tired meme …
Your fantasy land where all public services are provided by volunteers for free doesn’t exist. You people are delusional.
Actually, Appleton, I would guess that leodavinci1 is referring to a planned community like the Del Webb Sun Cities, although apparently not age-restricted. A few points:
1. As you point out, there is simply no way that any community of more than perhaps 8 to 9000 people could function with a purely volunteer fire department. They would need at least a few paid firefighters and a budget for equipment and training that would require more than cupcake sales to finance. Any larger community that tried to go pure volunteer would find it impossible to obtain affordable fire insurance. This community’s fire service is undoubtedly subsidized by the county (see 2 below) or the community authorities (see 3 below).
2. As leodavinci1 admits, the police are furnished by the county. So are the judges for several levels of criminal and civil courts, the prosecutors in those courts, the clerks who maintain the court files, deed records, and other public information, the health inspectors, and elections administrators. There are also government officers and employees who perform any number of other public functions that cannot lawfully be delegated to a private entity. All those people are traditional government employees supported by taxes.
3. Most importantly, the reason that this community can maintain infrastructure like streets, utilities, parks, schools, etc. without a traditional government is that it has central community authorities that are technically nongovernmental but that swim, walk, and quack exactly like a government. In most cases, these authorities have the authority to do almost anything that a city government could do, and even some things that a public entity could not do.
The community may call the central authority a “Community Association” rather than a “city council,” call the collections for infrastructure “dues” or “assessments” rather than “taxes,” and call the community rules “regulations” rather than “ordinances,” but all those things are functionally identical. The Association cannot prosecute someone who fails to pay an assessment or who fails to obey a regulation, but they can sue them and/or evict them from the community.
It is true that these are not “political” governments, but that just means that they face none of the legal or practical limits restricting a traditional government. For example, there is no requirement resembling “one person, one vote.” The Sun City (Georgetown) Community Association has three full voting members who are selected by the developer, Del Webb Corporation, and four members—with only a half-vote each—elected by property owners in the community. Other people who live and work in the community have no representation at all. That gives the developer the power to set all the fees and adopt all the rules it desires by a 3-2 vote. There is no opportunity for referendum or recall as there would be for excessive city taxes.
If anyone objects, well, the Bill of Rights (including freedom of speech, assembly, and petition for grievances) does not apply to a private entity. In many such communities, the residents cannot sue the Association or the developer because the regulations provide for binding arbitration (before an arbitrator selected by the developer, not before an elected judge).
Sun City is not a government, so it does not have public servants, but it does have 150 paid employees who carry out all the functions of a city staff, except that they are ultimately responsible to Del Webb Corporation and not to the residents of the community or their elected representatives. I assume that the community described by leodavinci1, one which is projected to be the third-largest “city” in his state, will be a similar example of private enterprise trumping the public interest in responsible government.
“…including freedom of speech, assembly, and petition for grievances…”
oddly, counselor, you failed to include “peaceable” assembly when listing three of the five rights guaranteed in the First Amendment…perhaps you should re-read it during your next three hour coffee break.
You work for me! I paid you through my taxes. I deserve an honest day’s work, no lip from some self-serving government slag. Get to work, boy. Make yourself useful. Be grateful that the citizens you serve allow you the privilege of living off their sweat and labor.
Starting with the biggest fattest ones, right?
#1 military
#2 health services/hospitals
#3 education
#4 infrastructure
So what is trumpet proposing? He demands to expand the military. He promised everyone great healthcare but doesn’t want to pay for it. He appointed a theological airheaded bitch to destroy public education only a decade after Bush attempted to establish national test standards — bithe he and trumpet not paying for it. And under trumpet, the only infrastructure that is getting done is trump hotels and golf courses. Trumpet whines that Puerto Ricans are the problem because they had the audacity to live in a hurricane region.
The disconnect between reality and today’s right wingnuts desire to push tax burden away from themselves and onto future generations is sick. The greed generation already put the USA in unsustainable debt. Stop the insanity. There is nothing stopping ultra rich from hiring people today right now. They don’t because they don’t give a shit about America, they are only in business to enrich themselves. US Corporate tax rates could be zero and US corporations would still relocate overseas for cheap labor. All taxation is passed to the consumer one way or another, income tax rate doesn’t affect corporate business planning as much as the trickle down idiots claim to.
Mid-level state employee…excess baggage, drain on the economy, desk jockey.
dead weight, tit-suckin’ bureaucrat.
Does it? You have no respect for a doctor, soldier, firefighter, or educator? You are a hideous POS. Go back under your rock if you don’t care about anyone else and have no respect for modern society. And take pastry puff with you.
” You are a hideous POS.”
So, that’s what you were just saying to me how you start a conversation by NOT insulting people?!?
Thanks again for the stellar example Libtards can’t help their own HYPOCRISY …
I thought you agreed with Tim Cook that corporations paid to much in taxes? WTF! Make up your mind, a$$hole.
All CEOs whine about taxes. It is written into their contracts by the Wall Street old boys club. Doesn’t make it right. With the exception of some old/dead companies walking (GE), corporations are so awash with cash right now, a tax break for them would do nothing. Absolutely nothing. The federal government could be streamlining itself and reducing spending but it seems the president is too busy tweeting.
Your understanding of how taxes flow down to the consumer is flawed. Most markets are not free and open. The race to the bottom in which every locality attempts to lure corporate jobs via tax incentives has only resulted in crumbling infrastructure in established democracies while emerging communist nations dominate the labor market.
If you want to make your country great again, balance your budget and pay off your debts. Simply letting corporations keep even more money than they have already hoarded with no regulation requiring them to invest, build, or hire means the past will be repeated: executives will give themselves huge raises, investors will get a small bump in dividend, and companies like Apple will spend billions more on its own stock buybacks. Just as always. Letting Apple become even richer willl not get you a new Mac desktop any quicker. This is the cooked Apple now. Pleasung Wall Street is all Cook cares about.
Does the US need tax reform? Yes.
Does the US need the Republican Partisan Plan? No
Will it reduce our national debt? No.
Will it increase the deficit and the debt? Yes.
Will budget cuts to cover part of the expense of the tax cuts hurt the poor, children the disabled, veterans and the elderly? Yes.
Will it be stimulative to the US economy? No.
Will it “Make America Great Again”? No.
Will it enrich the 1%? Yes.
Will it grow the economy? No.
Per Drudge Report…
“Brazile writes she was haunted by murder of DNC Seth Rich, and feared for her own life, shutting the blinds so snipers could not see her.”
Hillary’s biggest problem now isn’t Uranium One, it’s Murder One.
..that statement says that Brazile knew the Seth Rich murder was no “robbery gone bad.”
further, Medusa Debbie’s brother, Steven Wasserman, was the assistant DA handling the Rich investigation.
Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who still calls themselves a democrat in these days is without reason, principle or conscience. A democrat will never occupy the White House again..
ever.
Oh, no. It’s completely relevant. Had Obama been successful we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Now, it’s Trump’s turn.
Love how you dump on Obama, when everyone knows the Partisan Republican Party opposed anything he tried to do.
I just read that Obama wanted to publicized Russian political hacking in 2016 in a joint announcement, BUT Mitch McConnel absolutely refused …saying he would consider any such action an offensive partisan political action. This type of Republican Party idiocy is what Obama was up against for most if his 2 terms.
Mostly because Obama deserves the criticism he earned.
News flash: bills are written by the legislature. If the obstructionists sit on their thumbs instead of doing their jobs, there are no bills for Obama to sign. Just like there are no bills for blowhard tweeter Trump to sign.
Obama managed 8 years of steady growth and avoided war escalation or major manmade disaster. Trump makes every indication that he wants to do the exact opposite, no matter what the consequences.
Why again do $900 billion corporations need a tax break when the USA is running unsustainable debts? FIX THE SPENDING STUPID!!!!!
And Obama signed them into law. Obama could have vetoed any legislation he wanted and forced the Congress to over rule his veto. You really are stupid.
I am just trying to follow the conversation here and you are just throwing out what ifs here. Don’t you and your buddy goeb do any research of your own? After the ACA, the republican majority congress did absolutely nothing but collect unearned paychecks. Don’t blame the executive for the failure of a dysfunctional congress.
Stimulative? Increase the $$ supply in this concrete/real way, not printing) increases the $$ circulating. People with $$, spend/invest, increasing the velocity of $$ (stimulation in process). AAPL is the most obvious example. You can’t tell me Apple won’t hire more, build another solar farm, add a dozen Apple Stores, etc? Please! It’s a clear specific example of what happens broadly, when the $$ supply increases. Btw,, the tax bill isn’t the thing that actually increases/decreases deficit/debt…just like a person getting a raise doesn’t necessary keep them solvent/in debt. You’re mixing elements on the ledger. W/o spending control, we’ll continue the foolish ebb/flo I’ve seen “forever.”
Lowering taxes on the rich has never before stimulated labor. I don’t know why there remains a myth that more labor is hired when the rich have more money in their vaults. The rich gave themselves raises but everyone is still waiting for the trickle down. The richest of the rich make money gambling on Wall Street, not making new products and services.
That matches the myth that government spending does not trickle down as much as corporate spending. Washington and your state capital don’t bundle up tax receipts and shoot them into space. They use the money to purchase labor, goods, and services just like any private company does. Government workers and contractors buy food, housing, and other goods and services just like corporate employees, which has exactly the same multiplier effect on the economy. To the extent that cutting taxes stimulates more private spending (and does not increase the deficit), it cuts government spending, with no net change in total spending or its effect on nonwealthy individuals. One difference is that tax dollars are mostly spent here, while tax savings will go to stockholders who may live overseas. If Reagan’s cuts helped the economy, it wasn’t so much that the tax cuts increased private spending as that the deficits put more money in circulation.
What Obama did not pass with total control of government is irrelevant.
What Trump has the opportunity to pass with total control of government is NOW TOTALLY relevant.
Cook is absolutely right for years about corporate taxation. The Democrats in control could not get it done. Now the shoe is on the other foot.
All Cook has to do, is take off the SJW jacket, put on a business suit and do the right thing to PUBLICLY announce his support for the Republican tax plan. Easy as a morning tweet, done.
Trump has a much better chance than Obama did, given the alignment of the houses of congress and the presidency. It’s a perfect storm of Republicanism. Now, if it doesn’t happen, that’s a monumental failure. Who would be to blame then? Not Obama. Not Trump, not the weak democratic opposition. If it fails the Republican Party will have proved its unviability as a governing force.
I too feel good about the chances of passage. And if it doesn’t pass like we have seen with healthcare reform, the petty Washington Swamp WINS and the American people LOSE …
…Sadly, the [withholding insults] Republicans have broken the GREED SCALE and turned their tax reform bills into diabolical fiascos of Neo-Feudalism and citizenry abuse. If only they could have erred on the side of sanity, as opposed to their usual mantra of:
FEED THE RICH
Way to go, dumbasses. What good you could have done is buried in 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Seriously. Is there lead poisoning in D.C water? [And no kiddies, you don’t have to be a ‘libtard’ to know stupid and deceitful when you see it.]
Seriously, the way to reduce the numbers of all the useless poor people sapping the vitality of this great republic is to deport them, employ them, jail them, or convert them (no one seriously considers empowering them). Sadly, the priority of the ruling class is to ignore them and continue to feather their own nests. The ruling class always had their heads up their asses. Some things never change.
I know! You’d think privilege would provide superior education and best development of one’s self. But OMFG are there profoundly destructive, clueless, lost, selfish, narcissistic, sociopathic loon-jobs wrecking my government.
This appears to be yet-another primitive instinct among we ‘sapiens sapiens’ apes: To degenerate all efforts to improve ourselves by way of restoring the MASTER and SERVANT attitude one way or another. The USA is a supreme experiment in mental evolution by way of flattening the field into a realm of productivity and creativity. But reversion back to LORDS and SERFS only does the exact opposite. This is a lunatic drive by the RULING CLASS back into a DARK AGE. Imbecilic.
The broken record line repeated over and over by the Democrats, “tax cuts for the rich.”
Just who are the rich? Possibly the limousine liberals in Beverly Hills?
You do KNOW the rich pay MOST of the taxes. Tim Cook has said time and time again the corporate tax rate is too high. Is he and Apple the rich you are referring to?
I’m tired of the daily incessant Democrat stereotypes. Define it precisely or stop …
I know Tim Cook’s point of view very well and he’s entirely intelligent and productivity oriented in his comments about US taxes. I’ve found nothing specific he’s said with which to disagree.
Meanwhile: What the dumbass ReTardlicans (I’m being intentionally mean and insulting at the moment) have perpetrated is the same old predictable:
FEED THE RICH
KILL THE POOR
It’s called LORD and MASTER ruling over the PEASANT and PEON. History is rife with exactly what that moronic system creates: NOTHING. It’s mankind stalled. The motor doesn’t run any more.
The USA was founded with the intention of the OPPOSITE attitude. History proves that as well.
IOW: If you want to go get lost, please do. Lost as in lost track of the entire point of the USA.
Meanwhile, we have the equally worthless DemoCraps. I’m extremely pleased to see them being raked over the coals and getting BURNED this week regarding the DNC. What a horror of a political party, equally as lost and FAILing as the ReTardlicans.
Third Parties! Step up NOW and recover my country from its determined decline into a new DARK AGE.
I enjoy a good horror show. It curdles the blood, slops hormones into a frightful cocktail, just short of toxic. Born on Halloween, I was. Here’s the trick to prevent madness: laughter
The usual postulation: Evil cowers in the face of humor.
Translation: People doing ‘evil’ suffer from some variety of internal insecurity. ‘Evil’ is an expression of need to control their inner world by way of controlling (or applying power over) their outer world.
Humor in turn is an expression of what I’ve learned to call ‘radical acceptance’ of some sort of craziness, changing a negative into a positive with ‘opposite action’ in the form of amusement. It is an establishment of control within one’s inner world by way of freeing one’s self from the Fight Or Flight response we naturally have to the frightening.
And now that my pedantry is done, let’s have an example:
Interesting new theory, I must think about this 🤔
OK, I’ve thought about it. No.
There is no difference between republicans and democrats except the millionaires who fund their campaigns. Stop cheerleading for the most corrupt of the two corrupt cancers.
The only good tax reform is one that raises enough money for debt reduction. All your dreams about future growth magically being sparked by more trickle down — even if the outlandish growth predictions from Trump were even remotely possible — are GUARANTEED to be undone by the additional debt burden that your stupid representatives will be adding to the national credit card.
Debt is killing the nation on all levels. So fix the budget already. Close the loopholes and raise capital gains tax rates equal to labor tax rates. The fat cats hiding cash overseas are the only ones who can pay up.
If the republicans wanted to spur employment and entrepreneurs, why are they fucking over the middle and working classes? Payroll taxes aren’t proposed to be adjusted. That’s why capitalists buy back their own stock rather than hiring employees. The Ryan tax plan rewards executives and gives zero incentives for businesses to invest in the USA.
That is such a compelling argument to support more corporate welfare disguised as a tax break. /s
Goeb, you are just embarrassing yourself again.
Lowering the highest tax on business on planet Earth, is not welfare.
It is common sense to make American companies compete fairly.
Anything else, brainless? …
Total taxes in the US (as a percentage of GDP) are lower than in 142 other countries. We do have high nominal income tax rates, but hardly anybody pays the full rate. America does not have a value added tax, which is the largest source of revenue in most other countries. Suggesting that we have particularly high taxes is simply incorrect. That is not to suggest they can’t be lower, but let’s all be truthful about the facts.
I REPEAT since you are the master of deflection and denial and can’t answer a simple post and go off concocting some other specious argument that has NOTHING to do with my post. Here it is again:
“Lowering the highest tax on business on planet Earth, is not welfare. It is common sense to make American companies compete fairly.”
Repeating the Trickle Down Lie doesn’t make it true. Here in the UK industry has been gutted while banks get all the tax favors. Growth and wages outside London are depressing.
In America, you know damn well that your corporations and large stockholders have also lobbied to get tons of loopholes with which to avoid paying the published book rate. Many of the largest corporations pay zero income taxes. Apple pays at least 10% less than the book rate that you cite ad nauseum by playing games with Value of goods sold and internal cost transfers.
Slashing the nominal book tax rate without closing loopholes would be a disaster just as it was in 1986.
Stop listening to the outrageous promises the current administration makes and learn some history:
Bruce Bartlett, Republican tax advisor and senate staffer who helped write the Kemp/Roth tax bill of 1981, just released a book explaining why tax cuts are not the answer. They didn’t work in the Reagan years, they directly caused Black Friday in 1987. Reagan balooned the deficit and had to raise taxes repeatedly because the growth he promised never came. US Gdp grew faster in the 1970s and also in the 1990s than it did in your imaginary halcyon days of the 1980s. Wages stagnated in the 1980s because banks were busy gambling while corporations outsourced. No major companies took their big tax breaks and built new factories to employ lots of people. The 1980s were tough on the working class. Why do you want to repeat that?
If you would look at reality instead of repeating pointless propaganda that Trump pushes, you’d understand that simple solutions have been tried before with very poor results. Making the rich richer does not make America great.
” … explaining why tax cuts are not the answer. They didn’t work in the Reagan years, they directly caused Black Friday in 1987. Reagan balooned the deficit and had to raise taxes repeatedly because the growth he promised never came.”
I have read dozens and dozens of articles in the 1980s and since that time the Reagan years was the greatest peacetime economic period in history. JFK was also successful with tax cuts.
I guess you don’t remember the term “yuppie” or its history born in the 1980s.
Early in the Reagan years the money was coming in hand over fist. Later in Reagan’s term he cut a deal with Democrats and THEY INCREASED SPENDING. For every tax dollar they took in the Democrats spent two dollars. So naturally that raised the deficit for a couple years later in Reagan’s term. Gee, what a surprise the Reagan false narrative is still alive and well.
So, I have some advice for you. Stop cherry picking facts that support only your narrative from Democrat news stories. When you look at the WHOLE PICTURE, fair and square — only then will the truth emerge …
GeoB,
My response was not deflection or denial, and it had EVERYTHING to do with your “simple post.” You stated that America has “the highest tax on business on planet Earth.”
I just said that was incorrect, which it was. America ranks about #143 in the world in taxation as a proportion of GDP. We can’t carry on a reasonable debate on tax policy based on false assumptions.
When you repeated the statement, it stopped being merely “incorrect.”
You lied.
Please step back into the fact-free zone under the bridge with the other trolls.
My “simple” statement was based on numerous news articles and opinion pieces in WSJ. Not the cherry picked argument you present.
You can go back to work for the DNC now with all the other Libtard trolls …
Well as an independent, I am not stupid enough to play your parisan game. If someone identified themselves as a democrat, you and your buddies would object to every word he said and pile one personal insults to deflect from the reality that republicans have held a majority in congress long enough to pass tax reform many times over. Still they can’t get anything done. Why?
FYI, there are plenty of official statistics to define the rich. Most reasonable people would agree that the top few percent of people holding over 80% of the wealth is a bad way to run a society. It was one of reasons patriots escaped Europe over two centuries ago. Now there is a bizarre push in popular media for trolls to cheer on oligarchy. That is the most unamerican thing i can think of.
If as you claim all corporations just pass on taxes to consumers and you believe that corporations are unbureaucratic streamligned paragons of efficiency, then you would agree that corporate taxation should be entirely loophole free and set with marginal rates equal or greater than personal income taxes. To save paperwork, taxes should be levied only on gross revenue and not on the so-called profits that companies like Pepsi or Amazon never have , on paper at least. What say you?
The corporate tax rate is too high, right Tim and Donald? …
This won’t work long term for a very good reason. This tax “reform” package, like everyone I’ve ever seen is simply a shell game. They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The State (or more correctly, those [regardless of party] running it) is simply not going to decrease the amount of money they take in. If they don’t take it from me, they’re going to take it from you. And vice-versa.
And if you’re fine with that because of a “better-you-than-me, particularly-if-you’re-better-off” mindset, it won’t matter in the long run since your taxes will go up any way.
Because they aren’t going to decrease military spending. Not really. And when saving money on reduced social program spending doesn’t cover the increase (and it won’t), they’re going to increase taxes.
Real tax reform is has to have spending reductions. All around.
Should have been first thing on the agenda, no excuse, really. Everyone’s looking after their own interests and will be focused on keeping their cushy seat. SO, here’s hoping they make it the FIRST priority of the next Republican majority.
OK, here’s the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth on tax reform. It is a straw man. It is designed to divert attention from the unspoken truth.
What is needed in the U.S. is spending reform, as in downsizing of spending & debt set by the US Congress.
It is the same as the verbal obfuscation of talking about the “US health care crisis.”
We have fantastic health care with amazing new drugs and techniques and machines. What we really have is a “health crisis” where about 150 million adults have chronic illness and over 120 million have multiple prescription drugs and those numbers are rising.
As the Nat’l. Inst. of Health has stated ‘health costs can’t be controlled without prevention and early diagnosis.’
Prevention has to start with people reversing obesity which leads to many chronic illnesses. Over 2/3rds of retirees use over 93% of all Medicare expenditures.
I would give you 6 stars if I could. The other little known fact is that a sizable percentage of health care dollars are spent on futile care in the last month of life. i.e., an 85 year old nursing home resident who has a heart attack and is full code, going to spend the last days of life on a ventilator in the ICU (the most expensive place in the world). There was virtually no chance of making it out of the ICU in the first place. We need to educate people about what will really happen to them in these circumstances.
what is your solution then, Dr. Mengele?
I would be the Nurse Practitioner trying to prolong your life, bantering with you as I pulled your blood, laughing about the things we used to think were so important before our bodies spoke up and declared otherwise. The hospital staff wouldn’t have known we had a history. At the end, politics and everything else vexatious would recede and a pleasant, warm glow would develop. That would be the morphine shot I just administered. Your last words would probably be along the lines of “Jane, you ignorant slut.” And I wouldn’t mind.
You’re in rare form tonight, Herself. Enjoy your enlightening posts … 😊
Jane, you ignora…I’m really sleepy.
I love everlasting life.
Education is the solution, Botty. People need to understand that when you have a heart attack from natural causes in your mid 80’s that your chance of surviving resuscitation and returning home is virtually nil. You will have the joy of broken ribs, intubation, ventilation, catheterization and likely spend your last few days in the ICU getting poked and prodded until organs start to fail or someone pulls the plug. Its not like CPR on TV when the patient’s eyes flutter open after a few seconds of CPR and a couple chest thumps and all is well. With education (and a living will), people can choose how they want their last few days to be- and most people presented with facts choose a peaceful, dignified death, without futile care… and by the way, will save billions in healthcare
uh, I’ve had two heart attacks…you should get that kind of an “education” yourself.
life is precious, my young friend, at any and all ages.
Except for gays, democrats, women, immigrants, muslims, Europeans, hooks, and anyone who disagrees w you — right, Botty ?
those are your words, not mine.
Except… no, I am channeling ☭botvinnik. Based on many comments you have posted here.
botvinnik has not indiscriminately denigrated any of the groups you list, except possibly for the last—and even there he’s been known to apologise or reverse himself, even recently. – It’s true his thundering against hypocrisy and his deliberate provocation of liberal defence mechanisms tend to alienate lily-livered, humourless champions of social Nirvana, in precisely the same way that Mark Twain raised boils on the skins of the noblesse oblige apologists for the ruthless and racist imperialists of his time.
To me, botvinnik is the last angry man.* In a functioning democracy you do not shut down such voices. You do not shout them down, or slow them down. You do not whine about decency being violated, or social norms being corrupted, you celebrate the system that allows a man to speak his mind, rather than try to twist the system into one that runs everbody’s speech through a filter conveniently designed by You.
* novel by Gerald Green, filmed in 1959
Looks like subject bias on your part. But I do agree w you on one point: his is not indiscriminate denigration. It is very discriminate …and discriminatory.
Except you do not know what I am talking about, do you?. Since you have never read anything by ☭botvinnik when he is hating on anyone who is gay, muslim, female, democratic, a civil servant, or anyone w opinions & beliefs contrary to his own narrow, intolerant views. I feel sorry for you. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
☭botvinnik is guilty of “poisoning the well of discourse”.
Mature people accept that others may hold contrary opinions. But I, perhaps like many, draw the line of tolerance at the point where people engage in hateful speech, including ridicule, discrimination, political intolerance, religious bias, and nastiness.
Another egregious offense, in my view at least, is that ☭botvinnik thinks he is clever and witty. Sad. The two of you. And let’s not forget GoeB while we are at it.
Suffice it say you are dead wrong and too sensitive. Oh, and thanks for not forgetting me …
I have offended you by defending what you think is indefensible. You can not resist doing it yourself—generalising, stereotyping, and making derogatory comments about the objects of your disapproval. You may think you are entitled to do so for assorted moral and philosophical reasons. If so, that applies to me as well, for the moral yardsticks you erect arouse emotions you show no signs of understanding.
No, you have not offended me by defending “what I think” is indefensible. You disgust me for your pandering to views such as those held by ✠botvinnik, which are antithetical to civilized society.
Over 93% of retirees have been paying taxes longer than anyone else too. You forgot that part.
of the man who knows his emojis. For a smart guy, some of his public statements don’t equate with Duke MBA mind.
In botvink’s warped world maybe.
Nobody gives a flying F how long you have paid taxes. Everyone pays some tax as soon as they buy anything. Which is fine because most people are nothing but a big economic drain from birth to age 18 and then from retirement until death. Some of us — not you, obviously — care about long term prosperity for everyone and that means society is well funded and managed for future generations as well as our own without running up crippling debt. Part of that means that the people who rigged the economy in their favor pay back. But being the pro-russia troll you are, you would love nothing more than for the usa to rack up even more debt and isolate itself behind a great wall.
hey, you must not have gotten the memo from Mount Soros, you guys aren’t doing the Russian thing anymore.
@ Wrong:
You are wrong again. In this era of near record corporate power and wealth, historical low unemployment, and longest run of low inflation, now is the time to RETIRE DEBT. Any talk of reducing taxes is stupid if you don’t balance the budget first.
One small matter, Obama proposed this as well, but since the Republicans in congress would have nothing labelled Obama, the Obama’s proposal never got out of the gate.
And both Hillary and Trump proposed the same thing in connection with their respective infrastructure spending bills.
Just about everyone has wanted this change. Only one group has blocked it.
Obama had a Democratic Senate and House of Representatives from 2009 to 2011 and failed to reform the tax system..that’s what your saying, right.
Facts are inconvenient truths …
Facts to a libtard is like splashing holy water on a demon…
it burns.
Every time assholes like you sling around juvenile labels like libtard, you show yourself to be the worst kind of scum sucking troll. You ARE the swamp.
man, you’re sizzlin’
“Let us speak with Captain Howdy.”
To bot sux: it burns, it burns.
“Burn baby burn …”
John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon), Grumpy Old Men, 1993
He was too busy working on the things he found important. Such as trying to force nuns to pay for birth control coverage, gay men to pay for gynecologist visit coverage, pressuring businesses to put urinals into women’s restrooms. Good to know he had priorities.
Obama did none of those things. You seem to be confusing state and local issues with federal matters.
You don’t suppose that any other legislation was passed at that time do you? DC was flooded with healthcare and insurance lobbyists during that time. In the end the ACA, a republican plan, was implemented. Dumbocrats wanted to stop the runaway healthcare costs of uninsured idiots flooding emergency rooms for preventable issues. So to do that, a big silver platter was handed to the insurance industry, normally a republican leaning industry. Then suddenly the republicans , incensed that insurers would require personal responsibility, lost their collective minds and switched their attention to repeal regardless of anything else. Since 2011 congress has done nothing but flounder in ACA hatred. With such incompetent and corrupt idiots from two useless parties fumbling away to undercut everything the other does regardless of Americans needs in congress, why would anyone expect any legislative reforms that benefit anyone except the puppeteers who control them?
Adding 1.5 trillion in debt with the sales pitch that trickle down magic will create a growth rate that the USA hasn’t seen in 2 decades is a non starter.
The proposed republican tax reform benefits wall st. at the expense of everyone else.
Just google, Obama Proposes One-Time 14% Tax on Overseas Earnings.
Was that before or after The Muslim Usurper gave Iran $33B in cash?
You do know that the money was Iran’s payment in 1978 for two destroyers and other military hardware that was never delivered, right? My guess is that you’d be a bit annoyed if you had been waiting almost 40 years for a refund.
Was there any charge to Iran for kidnapping American hostages for 444 days?
Was there any charge to the US for overthrowing their democratically elected government and installing the puppet Shah of Iran and then stealing all their oil for decades?
I will never defend the CIA, point taken.
Sorry for the error. There were four Kidd-class destroyers, not two. The US Navy got eighteen years of exemplary service from its free warships, and then sold them to Taiwan in 1995 for $732 million. They are all still in service. U
that’s okay, mid-level state employee, it’s time for your three hour break anyway.
Bot has no clue why this transaction took place. But damn he is good at towing the Putin banner.
This is not tax reform. This a massive tax give away to the rich and corporations. The poor and middle class will have their taxes rise. Only the rich and corporations make it. Companies like Apple will benefit extremely well for this give away.
Problem is, any tax cut is going benefit proportionally to the people who pay the most tax: the “rich”. Not really a “give away”. More of a “give back”.
The top 20% pay 87% of federal taxes
The top 1% pay 43% of taxes.
The bottom 45% pay no taxes.
87% + 43% = 130%?
87% + 43% + 45% = 175%?
None equal 100%. 🤔
Your mid-level civil servant, TxUser, pays too much in taxes so it is obvious we are paying the hired help way too much. I say we cut TxUser’s annual salary to the point where he won’t pay any federal taxes and we all can be happy.
we can do better, let’s deport him to Caracas.
Hey GoeB, you must be a mathematician for the federal budget committee… surely you jest!
Nobody comes here to make a ppsalient points. They come here to give wedgies.
Prodding for a pie chart …
It is called income tax. Income is taxed. Those w low income should not be taxed; they have all they can do to pay living expenses. As income increases, so should taxed. As the top marginal income tax rate is < 40%, people are always better off earning more income, even if taxed.
The real problem is that a lot of income of wealthy people — Wall Street Capital Tools — is sheltered from normal income taxes. Instead, they pay Long Term Capital Gains rates of 18%, rather than normal income tax rates of up to 39.6%. Plus the wealthy get all kinds of other Federal largesse, in terms of avoiding income taxes most other people must pay, like arcane "carried interest" and other tax dodges a whole industry is set up to take advantage of.
I am due Warren Buffet pays more in taxes than his secretary. But even he has pointed out it is unfair that he pays a lower rate of tax than his secretary, which he considers unfair.
To avoid confusion when discussing taxes, one must be sure to include both the AMOUNT of taxes paid as well as the applicable tax RATE, as the Warren Buffet story highlights.
Remove ALL tax avoidance incentives and let everyone pay a sliding scale of marginal tax rate, regardless of income source. Now this would be meaningful and fair tax reform.
Agreed, thanks.
The progressive tax curve needs to match the income curve. Those who are lucky enough to be gifted with extreme executive compensation for basically just showing up have acquired all the spoils, they are the only ones left who can pay for the accrued debts of the last 2 generations of wasteful spenders of both parties.
The tax code needs to be even more progressive than that. The richest few are almost exclusively rich because of inheritance or by skimming insane self compensation from the corporations they run. Labor income for the extreme rich looks low on paper. Taxes on their accumulated capital gains — about half of which is never taxed thanks to international avoidance games and semi-legal money laundering — has to be clawed back.
But the usual right wing dorks here disagree. They want to give people like the Waltons, Gates, Bezos, deVos, and Trumps of the world a big tax break. Do you really think the nation should go deeper into debt to fund their further enrichment?
If their enrichment trickled down to the peons, the peons would obviously not complain. But it doesn’t trickle down enough. The peons voted for Donald Trump hoping he’d change that. We’re waiting.
Funny, I never read any Tim Cook post nor heard Tim Cook criticize Obama for not improving the tax code. It didn’t take long for Cook to embrace Trump’s ideas.
Cook has been criticizing the tax code since before he became CEO. Sorry you missed it.
Just one among hundreds of possible links:
http://amp.timeinc.net/time/4452336/apple-ceo-tim-cook-corporate-tax-reform
Somehow Tim Cook’s influence was impotent with Obama. Perhaps Tim Cook will find a more receptive ear with Trump. So, I guess, things go better with Trump. Wouldn’t you agree?
White Cook man speak with forked tongue.
Doesn’t matter how clearly he speaks if his detractors choose not to hear.
Aww, that’s so sad. Well, if Tim Cook couldn’t get it done with Obama just give up, go to your safe space, grab a cup of cocoa, and a box of Kleenex, snowflake.
And if a Czech pastry gets caught in yet another lie, he goes straight to personal insults. Most 10-year-olds have outgrown that.
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. But they can easily tell if you have the mentality of a ten-year-old.
Ko-douche isn’t making any sense because he and his butt buddy botfuck don’t use facts at all. Their only principles are self enrichment and aggrandizement. As trolls for Trump, a proven serial liar who parrots back whatever Hannity barfs out, these two prove every day how lack of education and shared sense of duty is killing America.
The divisionism and winner-take-all rulemaking means that in the long run, everyone loses to Chinese imperialism. Even the trolls blogging from their gated retirement communities who don’t care about anyone else. Divided we fall.
I’d be happy to parrot anything Hannity says. You are a coward that can’t handle TRUTH and daily Sean, the most trusted newsman in the world, tells it like it is.
You can go back now to the honest people you listen to like Hillary, Donna, Debbie, et al. …
So you admit you’re a parrot for the entertainment division of the Murdoch wing of the RNC? That is all you need to say, snowflake. Your pathetic insulting does not distract anyone from seeing that you live a fact free existence.
Did you read the climate report that the Trump administration released? No? Why, are you still waiting for drudge or limbaugh or hannity to make up lies about it that you can repeat here on a mac blog?
When you grow up and learn to debate on facts you read directly from authoritative sources, without the insulting, then others might be willing to have a conversation with you. As it is, it’s quite clear you and bot are here to whine bich and moan because you have no friends in the real world. Obviously.
“When you grow up and learn to debate on facts you read directly from authoritative sources, without the insulting, then others might be willing to have a conversation with you.”
What makes you think I want to have a conversation with leftists spreading lies with no regard for reality because of party dogma, hmmm?
Conversations, ahem, with immature insult artists like yourself are off limits, as well. But keep trying, sonny …
YOU certainly are DIVIDED. And when you fall it might do you some good to land on your head …
Economics 101.
Every tax levied against a business is paid by the consumer or patron of said business in the form of higher prices. Yes, libtards, there is no free lunch. Everybody pays taxes.
For example, as a mid-level state employee, I paid more income tax in some years than General Electric. Look it up.
State employee? Isn’t that a person who lives off the taxes of working citizens? So you work for me. What the f*ck are you posting here? Shouldn’t you be busy or at least finding something productive to do?
Kolache, you are now exposing yourself as a true douchebag.
If you get through life without using municipal services, you would be the only one. Denigrating those who maintain society for your benefit is pathetic.
Thank you, nurses, doctors, firemen, police officers, educators, regulators and scientists. Keep doing what you do while whiny dickheads with soviet online names continue to demonstrate unending self centered greed.
I have to confess. I once did work for the Feds for three years with UDSA-ARS. We used to say that ARS meant Almost Resembling Science. Any way, I saw so much government waste and excessive spending. Lord, have mercy. Now I am a proud citizen free of the horror of being a government slag.
Your personal experience seems appalling. It’s anecdotal evidence and only one data point, but as I’ve argued before, it’s still evidence to be considered. It helps your case that it deftly plays into a persistent stereotype of government waste. My experience with government bureaucracies tends to mirror yours, but I know there are countervailing viewpoints too. Maybe I’m overly cautious or just soft, but I prefer investigative panels to dynamite.
Libtards believed that hiring more government workers makes everything better. Unless, of course, you are a private citizen inundated with beaurocratic red tape and regulations, and having the wealth that you have earned confiscated by the government to feed, clothe, and house same beaurocrats.
“as a mid-level state employee…”
man, that says it all.
AKA, someone who can’t hack it in the real world.
those who can, do; those who can’t, teach…those who can’t teach are mid-level state employees.
Those who can’t work any more, or choose not to, or have an axe to grind, or enjoy being the mean kid on the block, or have all the answers and can’t resist smearing them in the faces of an idiot public, make gratuitous comments on MDN.
that was mean-spirited…you can take your morphine back, Nurse Ratched.
This is rich coming from the poster boy for mean spirited assholes.
I was merely expanding the aphorism to blanket MDN contributors, not needling you personally. 😏 No one could realistically accuse botvinnik of making gratuitous comments! 🙃 OK, maybe I resented your gratuitous comments about state workers. Right out of school I worked for the US Post Office. I tell you I was brilliant and hard-working, and kept my mouth shut when the other carriers made sexist comments, and played along with the Queeg-like supervisors and their silly rules. In a way you are right about civil servants, but in another way you are misguided.
One way to reduce the taxe burden is to eliminate unproductive government agents and paper pushers. Maybe TxUser will do the honorable thing and resign his position.
well, he espouses such nobility and character, I am sure he will do the honorable thing.
bwhahahahahahahahaha
Perhaps you can do the honorable thing, then, and stop consuming the government services you are unwilling to pay for. You can haul your own garbage across country (no government roads for you) to a landfill you dig for yourself. Be sure to purify the water from your well in case it has been contaminated by your sewage. You need to do that to avoid getting sick, since you are surely honorable enough not to use any hospital that has received government funding or any doctor who received a government-guaranteed loan.
Be safe, since you won’t have access to police, fire, or ambulance services. Be vigilant, since you can’t rely on prosecutors or judges to protect you from those who rip you off. Once the word gets around that you and your family have no legal protection, you’re going to be ever so popular. Why pay for what you can take? … like your house or your daughters, for example.
“Perhaps you can do the honorable thing, then, and stop consuming the government services you are unwilling to pay for.”
So, straight white male prosecutor you obviously have the evidence proving beyond the shadow of a doubt, Kolache is a deadbeat in the rears not paying his government fees and tax obligations.
Please approach the bench. You are a leftist and a FRAUD and everyone here knows it except YOU. Don’t waste our time with your tedious ridiculous hypotheticals. Thank you …
Not a hypothetical. The bunch of you have suggested that government employees should all be fired or banished to Caracas. Without them, you get your way—no government and therefore no taxes. The ultimate in tax reform! Welcome to Somalia.
no, not all government employees should be fired…
just you.
YOU LIE, gee, what a surprise. I never said any such thing.
But now that you mention it, government can indeed go into a hiring freeze immediately. Evaluate all the DUPLICATE SERVICE AGENCIES and or employees and streamline operations.
That would save a ton of tax dollars …
You assign too much credit to the State for infrastructural benefits to society that accrued over generational time, and that were (as often as not, and to a great degree still are) built and maintained by private enterprises… and not by State decree or State contract.
I live next door to a community (that in 10 to 15 years will become the third largest community in the state), and they literally have no (political) government there… and no intentions of incorporating. It’s not even 20 years old (most homes are not even 15) and has every modern amenity (with the exception of a large hospital which is being built)… police (furnished by the county), fire protection (furnished by a pre-existing volunteer group that also serves surrounding area), schools, etc., etc.
Obvious your reality is nowhere to be found in TXuser’s tired meme …
Your fantasy land where all public services are provided by volunteers for free doesn’t exist. You people are delusional.
Actually, Appleton, I would guess that leodavinci1 is referring to a planned community like the Del Webb Sun Cities, although apparently not age-restricted. A few points:
1. As you point out, there is simply no way that any community of more than perhaps 8 to 9000 people could function with a purely volunteer fire department. They would need at least a few paid firefighters and a budget for equipment and training that would require more than cupcake sales to finance. Any larger community that tried to go pure volunteer would find it impossible to obtain affordable fire insurance. This community’s fire service is undoubtedly subsidized by the county (see 2 below) or the community authorities (see 3 below).
2. As leodavinci1 admits, the police are furnished by the county. So are the judges for several levels of criminal and civil courts, the prosecutors in those courts, the clerks who maintain the court files, deed records, and other public information, the health inspectors, and elections administrators. There are also government officers and employees who perform any number of other public functions that cannot lawfully be delegated to a private entity. All those people are traditional government employees supported by taxes.
3. Most importantly, the reason that this community can maintain infrastructure like streets, utilities, parks, schools, etc. without a traditional government is that it has central community authorities that are technically nongovernmental but that swim, walk, and quack exactly like a government. In most cases, these authorities have the authority to do almost anything that a city government could do, and even some things that a public entity could not do.
The community may call the central authority a “Community Association” rather than a “city council,” call the collections for infrastructure “dues” or “assessments” rather than “taxes,” and call the community rules “regulations” rather than “ordinances,” but all those things are functionally identical. The Association cannot prosecute someone who fails to pay an assessment or who fails to obey a regulation, but they can sue them and/or evict them from the community.
It is true that these are not “political” governments, but that just means that they face none of the legal or practical limits restricting a traditional government. For example, there is no requirement resembling “one person, one vote.” The Sun City (Georgetown) Community Association has three full voting members who are selected by the developer, Del Webb Corporation, and four members—with only a half-vote each—elected by property owners in the community. Other people who live and work in the community have no representation at all. That gives the developer the power to set all the fees and adopt all the rules it desires by a 3-2 vote. There is no opportunity for referendum or recall as there would be for excessive city taxes.
If anyone objects, well, the Bill of Rights (including freedom of speech, assembly, and petition for grievances) does not apply to a private entity. In many such communities, the residents cannot sue the Association or the developer because the regulations provide for binding arbitration (before an arbitrator selected by the developer, not before an elected judge).
Sun City is not a government, so it does not have public servants, but it does have 150 paid employees who carry out all the functions of a city staff, except that they are ultimately responsible to Del Webb Corporation and not to the residents of the community or their elected representatives. I assume that the community described by leodavinci1, one which is projected to be the third-largest “city” in his state, will be a similar example of private enterprise trumping the public interest in responsible government.
“…including freedom of speech, assembly, and petition for grievances…”
oddly, counselor, you failed to include “peaceable” assembly when listing three of the five rights guaranteed in the First Amendment…perhaps you should re-read it during your next three hour coffee break.
You work for me! I paid you through my taxes. I deserve an honest day’s work, no lip from some self-serving government slag. Get to work, boy. Make yourself useful. Be grateful that the citizens you serve allow you the privilege of living off their sweat and labor.
Starting with the biggest fattest ones, right?
#1 military
#2 health services/hospitals
#3 education
#4 infrastructure
So what is trumpet proposing? He demands to expand the military. He promised everyone great healthcare but doesn’t want to pay for it. He appointed a theological airheaded bitch to destroy public education only a decade after Bush attempted to establish national test standards — bithe he and trumpet not paying for it. And under trumpet, the only infrastructure that is getting done is trump hotels and golf courses. Trumpet whines that Puerto Ricans are the problem because they had the audacity to live in a hurricane region.
The disconnect between reality and today’s right wingnuts desire to push tax burden away from themselves and onto future generations is sick. The greed generation already put the USA in unsustainable debt. Stop the insanity. There is nothing stopping ultra rich from hiring people today right now. They don’t because they don’t give a shit about America, they are only in business to enrich themselves. US Corporate tax rates could be zero and US corporations would still relocate overseas for cheap labor. All taxation is passed to the consumer one way or another, income tax rate doesn’t affect corporate business planning as much as the trickle down idiots claim to.
Mid-level state employee…excess baggage, drain on the economy, desk jockey.
dead weight, tit-suckin’ bureaucrat.
Does it? You have no respect for a doctor, soldier, firefighter, or educator? You are a hideous POS. Go back under your rock if you don’t care about anyone else and have no respect for modern society. And take pastry puff with you.
” You are a hideous POS.”
So, that’s what you were just saying to me how you start a conversation by NOT insulting people?!?
Thanks again for the stellar example Libtards can’t help their own HYPOCRISY …
I thought you agreed with Tim Cook that corporations paid to much in taxes? WTF! Make up your mind, a$$hole.
All CEOs whine about taxes. It is written into their contracts by the Wall Street old boys club. Doesn’t make it right. With the exception of some old/dead companies walking (GE), corporations are so awash with cash right now, a tax break for them would do nothing. Absolutely nothing. The federal government could be streamlining itself and reducing spending but it seems the president is too busy tweeting.
Your understanding of how taxes flow down to the consumer is flawed. Most markets are not free and open. The race to the bottom in which every locality attempts to lure corporate jobs via tax incentives has only resulted in crumbling infrastructure in established democracies while emerging communist nations dominate the labor market.
If you want to make your country great again, balance your budget and pay off your debts. Simply letting corporations keep even more money than they have already hoarded with no regulation requiring them to invest, build, or hire means the past will be repeated: executives will give themselves huge raises, investors will get a small bump in dividend, and companies like Apple will spend billions more on its own stock buybacks. Just as always. Letting Apple become even richer willl not get you a new Mac desktop any quicker. This is the cooked Apple now. Pleasung Wall Street is all Cook cares about.
Pleasing Wall Street is what every corporation cares about.
Does the US need tax reform? Yes.
Does the US need the Republican Partisan Plan? No
Will it reduce our national debt? No.
Will it increase the deficit and the debt? Yes.
Will budget cuts to cover part of the expense of the tax cuts hurt the poor, children the disabled, veterans and the elderly? Yes.
Will it be stimulative to the US economy? No.
Will it “Make America Great Again”? No.
Will it enrich the 1%? Yes.
Will it grow the economy? No.
This plan was analyzed by the non partisan Tax Foundation and you can see it here:
https://taxfoundation.org/details-tax-cuts-jobs-act
It is not a good bill.
Good enough for Rand Paul, it’s good enough.
Rand Paul has less economic sense than the man on the moon.
Why don’t you run it by your manager in St. Petersburg to see if he approves?
lol…you’re laughable.
maybe I should run it by Donna Brazile instead…
Per Drudge Report…
“Brazile writes she was haunted by murder of DNC Seth Rich, and feared for her own life, shutting the blinds so snipers could not see her.”
Hillary’s biggest problem now isn’t Uranium One, it’s Murder One.
..that statement says that Brazile knew the Seth Rich murder was no “robbery gone bad.”
further, Medusa Debbie’s brother, Steven Wasserman, was the assistant DA handling the Rich investigation.
Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who still calls themselves a democrat in these days is without reason, principle or conscience. A democrat will never occupy the White House again..
ever.
Oh, no. It’s completely relevant. Had Obama been successful we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Now, it’s Trump’s turn.
Love how you dump on Obama, when everyone knows the Partisan Republican Party opposed anything he tried to do.
I just read that Obama wanted to publicized Russian political hacking in 2016 in a joint announcement, BUT Mitch McConnel absolutely refused …saying he would consider any such action an offensive partisan political action. This type of Republican Party idiocy is what Obama was up against for most if his 2 terms.
Mostly because Obama deserves the criticism he earned.
News flash: bills are written by the legislature. If the obstructionists sit on their thumbs instead of doing their jobs, there are no bills for Obama to sign. Just like there are no bills for blowhard tweeter Trump to sign.
Obama managed 8 years of steady growth and avoided war escalation or major manmade disaster. Trump makes every indication that he wants to do the exact opposite, no matter what the consequences.
Why again do $900 billion corporations need a tax break when the USA is running unsustainable debts? FIX THE SPENDING STUPID!!!!!
And Obama signed them into law. Obama could have vetoed any legislation he wanted and forced the Congress to over rule his veto. You really are stupid.
I am just trying to follow the conversation here and you are just throwing out what ifs here. Don’t you and your buddy goeb do any research of your own? After the ACA, the republican majority congress did absolutely nothing but collect unearned paychecks. Don’t blame the executive for the failure of a dysfunctional congress.
Stimulative? Increase the $$ supply in this concrete/real way, not printing) increases the $$ circulating. People with $$, spend/invest, increasing the velocity of $$ (stimulation in process). AAPL is the most obvious example. You can’t tell me Apple won’t hire more, build another solar farm, add a dozen Apple Stores, etc? Please! It’s a clear specific example of what happens broadly, when the $$ supply increases. Btw,, the tax bill isn’t the thing that actually increases/decreases deficit/debt…just like a person getting a raise doesn’t necessary keep them solvent/in debt. You’re mixing elements on the ledger. W/o spending control, we’ll continue the foolish ebb/flo I’ve seen “forever.”
Lowering taxes on the rich has never before stimulated labor. I don’t know why there remains a myth that more labor is hired when the rich have more money in their vaults. The rich gave themselves raises but everyone is still waiting for the trickle down. The richest of the rich make money gambling on Wall Street, not making new products and services.
That matches the myth that government spending does not trickle down as much as corporate spending. Washington and your state capital don’t bundle up tax receipts and shoot them into space. They use the money to purchase labor, goods, and services just like any private company does. Government workers and contractors buy food, housing, and other goods and services just like corporate employees, which has exactly the same multiplier effect on the economy. To the extent that cutting taxes stimulates more private spending (and does not increase the deficit), it cuts government spending, with no net change in total spending or its effect on nonwealthy individuals. One difference is that tax dollars are mostly spent here, while tax savings will go to stockholders who may live overseas. If Reagan’s cuts helped the economy, it wasn’t so much that the tax cuts increased private spending as that the deficits put more money in circulation.
What Obama did not pass with total control of government is irrelevant.
What Trump has the opportunity to pass with total control of government is NOW TOTALLY relevant.
Cook is absolutely right for years about corporate taxation. The Democrats in control could not get it done. Now the shoe is on the other foot.
All Cook has to do, is take off the SJW jacket, put on a business suit and do the right thing to PUBLICLY announce his support for the Republican tax plan. Easy as a morning tweet, done.
Let’s get moving …
Again, Obama had his opportunity to reform the tax laws and didn’t. I say give Trump a chance.
Agreed …
Trump has a much better chance than Obama did, given the alignment of the houses of congress and the presidency. It’s a perfect storm of Republicanism. Now, if it doesn’t happen, that’s a monumental failure. Who would be to blame then? Not Obama. Not Trump, not the weak democratic opposition. If it fails the Republican Party will have proved its unviability as a governing force.
I too feel good about the chances of passage. And if it doesn’t pass like we have seen with healthcare reform, the petty Washington Swamp WINS and the American people LOSE …
…Sadly, the [withholding insults] Republicans have broken the GREED SCALE and turned their tax reform bills into diabolical fiascos of Neo-Feudalism and citizenry abuse. If only they could have erred on the side of sanity, as opposed to their usual mantra of:
FEED THE RICH
Way to go, dumbasses. What good you could have done is buried in 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Seriously. Is there lead poisoning in D.C water? [And no kiddies, you don’t have to be a ‘libtard’ to know stupid and deceitful when you see it.]
Seriously, the way to reduce the numbers of all the useless poor people sapping the vitality of this great republic is to deport them, employ them, jail them, or convert them (no one seriously considers empowering them). Sadly, the priority of the ruling class is to ignore them and continue to feather their own nests. The ruling class always had their heads up their asses. Some things never change.
I know! You’d think privilege would provide superior education and best development of one’s self. But OMFG are there profoundly destructive, clueless, lost, selfish, narcissistic, sociopathic loon-jobs wrecking my government.
This appears to be yet-another primitive instinct among we ‘sapiens sapiens’ apes: To degenerate all efforts to improve ourselves by way of restoring the MASTER and SERVANT attitude one way or another. The USA is a supreme experiment in mental evolution by way of flattening the field into a realm of productivity and creativity. But reversion back to LORDS and SERFS only does the exact opposite. This is a lunatic drive by the RULING CLASS back into a DARK AGE. Imbecilic.
Yes, I’m shouting folks.
The broken record line repeated over and over by the Democrats, “tax cuts for the rich.”
Just who are the rich? Possibly the limousine liberals in Beverly Hills?
You do KNOW the rich pay MOST of the taxes. Tim Cook has said time and time again the corporate tax rate is too high. Is he and Apple the rich you are referring to?
I’m tired of the daily incessant Democrat stereotypes. Define it precisely or stop …
I know Tim Cook’s point of view very well and he’s entirely intelligent and productivity oriented in his comments about US taxes. I’ve found nothing specific he’s said with which to disagree.
Meanwhile: What the dumbass ReTardlicans (I’m being intentionally mean and insulting at the moment) have perpetrated is the same old predictable:
FEED THE RICH
KILL THE POOR
It’s called LORD and MASTER ruling over the PEASANT and PEON. History is rife with exactly what that moronic system creates: NOTHING. It’s mankind stalled. The motor doesn’t run any more.
The USA was founded with the intention of the OPPOSITE attitude. History proves that as well.
IOW: If you want to go get lost, please do. Lost as in lost track of the entire point of the USA.
Meanwhile, we have the equally worthless DemoCraps. I’m extremely pleased to see them being raked over the coals and getting BURNED this week regarding the DNC. What a horror of a political party, equally as lost and FAILing as the ReTardlicans.
Third Parties! Step up NOW and recover my country from its determined decline into a new DARK AGE.
I like yelling when the subject demands it.
I enjoy a good horror show. It curdles the blood, slops hormones into a frightful cocktail, just short of toxic. Born on Halloween, I was. Here’s the trick to prevent madness: laughter
The usual postulation: Evil cowers in the face of humor.
Translation: People doing ‘evil’ suffer from some variety of internal insecurity. ‘Evil’ is an expression of need to control their inner world by way of controlling (or applying power over) their outer world.
Humor in turn is an expression of what I’ve learned to call ‘radical acceptance’ of some sort of craziness, changing a negative into a positive with ‘opposite action’ in the form of amusement. It is an establishment of control within one’s inner world by way of freeing one’s self from the Fight Or Flight response we naturally have to the frightening.
And now that my pedantry is done, let’s have an example:
Interesting new theory, I must think about this 🤔
OK, I’ve thought about it. No.
There is no difference between republicans and democrats except the millionaires who fund their campaigns. Stop cheerleading for the most corrupt of the two corrupt cancers.
The only good tax reform is one that raises enough money for debt reduction. All your dreams about future growth magically being sparked by more trickle down — even if the outlandish growth predictions from Trump were even remotely possible — are GUARANTEED to be undone by the additional debt burden that your stupid representatives will be adding to the national credit card.
Debt is killing the nation on all levels. So fix the budget already. Close the loopholes and raise capital gains tax rates equal to labor tax rates. The fat cats hiding cash overseas are the only ones who can pay up.
If the republicans wanted to spur employment and entrepreneurs, why are they fucking over the middle and working classes? Payroll taxes aren’t proposed to be adjusted. That’s why capitalists buy back their own stock rather than hiring employees. The Ryan tax plan rewards executives and gives zero incentives for businesses to invest in the USA.
Don’t tell me what to do, BRAINWASHED LIBTARD.
Now, get off my lawn! …
That is such a compelling argument to support more corporate welfare disguised as a tax break. /s
Goeb, you are just embarrassing yourself again.
Lowering the highest tax on business on planet Earth, is not welfare.
It is common sense to make American companies compete fairly.
Anything else, brainless? …
Total taxes in the US (as a percentage of GDP) are lower than in 142 other countries. We do have high nominal income tax rates, but hardly anybody pays the full rate. America does not have a value added tax, which is the largest source of revenue in most other countries. Suggesting that we have particularly high taxes is simply incorrect. That is not to suggest they can’t be lower, but let’s all be truthful about the facts.
I REPEAT since you are the master of deflection and denial and can’t answer a simple post and go off concocting some other specious argument that has NOTHING to do with my post. Here it is again:
“Lowering the highest tax on business on planet Earth, is not welfare. It is common sense to make American companies compete fairly.”
Got it?
https://americansfortaxfairness.org/tax-fairness-briefing-booklet/fact-sheet-corporate-tax-rates/
Repeating the Trickle Down Lie doesn’t make it true. Here in the UK industry has been gutted while banks get all the tax favors. Growth and wages outside London are depressing.
In America, you know damn well that your corporations and large stockholders have also lobbied to get tons of loopholes with which to avoid paying the published book rate. Many of the largest corporations pay zero income taxes. Apple pays at least 10% less than the book rate that you cite ad nauseum by playing games with Value of goods sold and internal cost transfers.
Slashing the nominal book tax rate without closing loopholes would be a disaster just as it was in 1986.
Stop listening to the outrageous promises the current administration makes and learn some history:
Bruce Bartlett, Republican tax advisor and senate staffer who helped write the Kemp/Roth tax bill of 1981, just released a book explaining why tax cuts are not the answer. They didn’t work in the Reagan years, they directly caused Black Friday in 1987. Reagan balooned the deficit and had to raise taxes repeatedly because the growth he promised never came. US Gdp grew faster in the 1970s and also in the 1990s than it did in your imaginary halcyon days of the 1980s. Wages stagnated in the 1980s because banks were busy gambling while corporations outsourced. No major companies took their big tax breaks and built new factories to employ lots of people. The 1980s were tough on the working class. Why do you want to repeat that?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/09/28/i-helped-create-the-gop-tax-myth-trump-is-wrong-tax-cuts-dont-equal-growth/?utm_term=.7657cffa5207
If you would look at reality instead of repeating pointless propaganda that Trump pushes, you’d understand that simple solutions have been tried before with very poor results. Making the rich richer does not make America great.
” … explaining why tax cuts are not the answer. They didn’t work in the Reagan years, they directly caused Black Friday in 1987. Reagan balooned the deficit and had to raise taxes repeatedly because the growth he promised never came.”
I have read dozens and dozens of articles in the 1980s and since that time the Reagan years was the greatest peacetime economic period in history. JFK was also successful with tax cuts.
I guess you don’t remember the term “yuppie” or its history born in the 1980s.
Early in the Reagan years the money was coming in hand over fist. Later in Reagan’s term he cut a deal with Democrats and THEY INCREASED SPENDING. For every tax dollar they took in the Democrats spent two dollars. So naturally that raised the deficit for a couple years later in Reagan’s term. Gee, what a surprise the Reagan false narrative is still alive and well.
So, I have some advice for you. Stop cherry picking facts that support only your narrative from Democrat news stories. When you look at the WHOLE PICTURE, fair and square — only then will the truth emerge …
GeoB,
My response was not deflection or denial, and it had EVERYTHING to do with your “simple post.” You stated that America has “the highest tax on business on planet Earth.”
I just said that was incorrect, which it was. America ranks about #143 in the world in taxation as a proportion of GDP. We can’t carry on a reasonable debate on tax policy based on false assumptions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_to_GDP_ratio
When you repeated the statement, it stopped being merely “incorrect.”
You lied.
Please step back into the fact-free zone under the bridge with the other trolls.
My “simple” statement was based on numerous news articles and opinion pieces in WSJ. Not the cherry picked argument you present.
You can go back to work for the DNC now with all the other Libtard trolls …
Well as an independent, I am not stupid enough to play your parisan game. If someone identified themselves as a democrat, you and your buddies would object to every word he said and pile one personal insults to deflect from the reality that republicans have held a majority in congress long enough to pass tax reform many times over. Still they can’t get anything done. Why?
FYI, there are plenty of official statistics to define the rich. Most reasonable people would agree that the top few percent of people holding over 80% of the wealth is a bad way to run a society. It was one of reasons patriots escaped Europe over two centuries ago. Now there is a bizarre push in popular media for trolls to cheer on oligarchy. That is the most unamerican thing i can think of.
If as you claim all corporations just pass on taxes to consumers and you believe that corporations are unbureaucratic streamligned paragons of efficiency, then you would agree that corporate taxation should be entirely loophole free and set with marginal rates equal or greater than personal income taxes. To save paperwork, taxes should be levied only on gross revenue and not on the so-called profits that companies like Pepsi or Amazon never have , on paper at least. What say you?
The corporate tax rate is too high, right Tim and Donald? …
This won’t work long term for a very good reason. This tax “reform” package, like everyone I’ve ever seen is simply a shell game. They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The State (or more correctly, those [regardless of party] running it) is simply not going to decrease the amount of money they take in. If they don’t take it from me, they’re going to take it from you. And vice-versa.
And if you’re fine with that because of a “better-you-than-me, particularly-if-you’re-better-off” mindset, it won’t matter in the long run since your taxes will go up any way.
Because they aren’t going to decrease military spending. Not really. And when saving money on reduced social program spending doesn’t cover the increase (and it won’t), they’re going to increase taxes.
Real tax reform is has to have spending reductions. All around.