47% of Households Owe No Taxes

[gonzo8402]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Most people think they pay too much to Uncle Sam, but for some people it simply is not true.

In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Some in that group will even get additional money from the government because they qualify for refundable tax breaks.

The ranks of those whose major federal tax burdens net out at zero -- or less -- is on the rise. The center's original 2009 estimate was 38%. That was before enactment in February of the $787 billion economic recovery package, which included a host of new or expanded tax breaks.

The issue doesn't get a lot of attention even as lawmakers debate how to pay for policy initiatives like health reform, whether to extend the Bush tax cuts and how to reduce the deficit.

The vast majority of households making up to $30,000 fall into the category, as do nearly half of all households making between $30,000 and $40,000.

As you move up the income scale the percentages drop.

CONT

Damn...so the tea parties definitely aren't about taxes. It must be only about gov't spending.

 

[redemption]

Damn...so the tea parties definitely aren't about taxes. It must be only about gov't spending.[/QUOTE]

Most of those tea party participants received a tax cut back in March as well. If this was a white President giving them all this shit, I have no doubt, they would be praising him

 

[Lamarr]

So is the conclusion 53% of households owe taxes? What exactly are we getting at?

 

[gonzo8402]

So is the conclusion 53% of households owe taxes? What exactly are we getting at?

I'm getting at most Americans owing little or no Federal income tax. Angry mobs of average income earners complaining about federal taxes makes no sense.

 

[Lamarr]

I'm getting at most Americans owing little or no Federal income tax. Angry mobs of average income earners complaining about federal taxes makes no sense.

Question: We just paid the bankers $800bn, over $85bn to AIG, nearly 100 banks have been seized since the beginning of the year & a $787bn stimulus that hasn't worked as proposed: Wouldn't that be enough to create / fuel an angry mob?

Could you imagine having your savings in one of those banks? How would you feel? I managed to get mine out a week early but some people was just clueless about what was goin on

 

[gonzo8402]

Question: We just paid the bankers $800bn, over $85bn to AIG, nearly 100 banks have been seized since the beginning of the year & a $787bn stimulus that hasn't worked as proposed: Wouldn't that be enough to create / fuel an angry mob?

Could you imagine having your savings in one of those banks? How would you feel? I managed to get mine out a week early but some people was just clueless about what was goin on

Sure it is. I'm just curious to know what the tipping point was.

And yes, I can imagine having my FDIC-insured money spread in those banks.

 

[QueEx]

Are too many paying nothing at all in taxes?​

​

​

​

The Kansas City Star
By DAVE HELLING
November 28, 2011


It’s a standard line in Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s stump speech.

“We live in a world where only 53 percent of Americans pay federal income tax, 47 percent pay nothing,” the Minnesota congresswoman recently said in Iowa.​

Bachmann’s figures are roughly correct: By most estimates, 46 percent of American households had no federal income tax liability this year, either because they didn’t make enough money or their credits, exemptions and deductions exceeded their tax bill. Some filers without an income tax bill even got refund checks from Uncle Sam.

Other Republicans and conservatives have echoed her concerns, suggesting tax reform that could include a required minimum payment from almost everyone.

“The poor need jobs, and they also need to share some of the responsibility,” Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said last July.​

Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, also insists:

it’s a mistake to allow some taxpayers to pay no federal income levy. “I do think you value what you pay for,” Blunt said. “Whether that’s a copay at the doctor’s office, or actually having a stake in the income tax system.”​

But Democrats and some liberal groups contend the GOP’s federal income tax claims are misleading. Even Americans who don’t pay income taxes pay a bucketful of other taxes and fees, they point out.

“All Americans pay taxes,” Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal public interest group, noted recently. “Everyone who works pays federal payroll taxes. Everyone who drives pays federal and state gas taxes. State sales taxes affect everyone who shops, and state and local property taxes affect everyone who owns or rents a home. … Most states have income taxes.”​

Presidential Election - Tax & Deficit Debate

The argument over the federal tax structure is expected to move to the center of the presidential campaign next year. It’s already part of the debate over the federal deficit, and GOP candidate Herman Cain rose in the polls after proposing major cuts in federal income taxes and a new national sales tax as part of his 9-9-9 proposal.

Republicans want to reform taxes for a variety of reasons, of course — lower tax rates, for example, would spur job creation, they say — but many also think requiring an income tax payment from everyone would make the system more fair.

But some who study the tax code are worried that major federal tax reform could upset the delicate balance among all the taxes Americans pay, potentially making the tax system less fair. That’s particularly true because states and cities also are discussing major changes in the way they collect the money needed to run their branches of government.

Among the states seriously rethinking their tax codes are Missouri and Kansas.

“There are substantial threats at both the federal and state level that, in combination, would really do a number on middle- and low-income families,” said Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.



Some Say Its Time the Poor, Elderly & Young Pay Too

The growing segment of taxpayers with no federal income tax liability is the product of many years of changes in federal law aimed at specific groups, particularly the poor, the elderly and young families with children. The expansion of popular programs such as the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit have not only eliminated income tax bills for millions of Americans, but — because the credits are refundable — they’ve actually meant government checks for millions of Americans who pay no taxes to begin with.

And that angers some groups.

“Exempting huge portions of the population from the primary source for the federal government’s discretionary budget effectively disguises the burdens it places on our economy,” said Andrew Moylan of the National Taxpayers Union.

But the credits and exemptions have made the federal tax system progressive: The more you earn, the more you pay, both in actual dollar amounts and as a percentage of your income. The top 1 percent of earners paid 37 percent of all federal income taxes in 2009, studies show.

That picture changes, though, when state and local taxes are added into the mix. In Kansas City, the Census Bureau reports, a family with two wage earners and one child, making $25,000, paid almost 13 percent of their income in state and local taxes in 2009. However, the same size family earning $150,000 paid just 9.6 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the study showed.

Because it has a flat 1 percent earnings tax, a state income tax and relatively high sales taxes, the state and local tax burden in Kansas City is considered regressive — that is, lower earners pay more taxes as a percentage of income.

“Nearly every state and local tax system takes a much greater share of income from middle- and low-income families than from the wealthy,” the Institute on Taxation and Ecomic Policy concluded in 2009.

As a result, the combined tax burden — federal, state, and local — only slightly tilts in favor of the poor and middle class, Citizens for Tax Justice recently concluded. “The tax system as a whole, including all the types of taxes that people pay, is just barely progressive,” it said.

Even some conservative economists maintain that the tax burden is flatter than some believe.

“Everybody does pay taxes,” said David Stokes of the Missouri-based Show-Me Institute, although he added “it’s a bad thing” that some federal taxpayers escape any income tax liability because it encourages them to support income tax increases for others.

Mayor Sly James’ Municipal Revenue Commission, now examining Kansas City’s tax structure, is expected to take a look at the fairness of the local tax burden.

It isn’t clear whether the argument at the local or federal level will have a dramatic impact on the income-for-sales tax swap now under discussion in Missouri, or the state income tax phase-out proposal widely expected in Kansas next year. Several groups have announced plans to organize opposition to the Missouri ballot measure, while the group proposing the swap has started gathering petition signatures to put the change on the ballot.

But plans for federal tax reform are likely to go forward in the 2012 presidential election year, from such candidates as Bachmann, Cain and others — regardless of the picture at the state and local level.

“To accomplish a fairer, flatter and simpler tax system will take a complete reform of the tax system,” Bachmann is telling her Iowa audiences. “It means abolishing what we currently have and starting over again.”


To reach Dave Helling, call 816-234-4656 or send email to dhelling@kcstar.com.




http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/28/3289453/no-federal-income-taxes-but-still.html

 

[QueEx]

Are too many paying nothing at all in taxes?​

​

​

​

The Kansas City Star
By DAVE HELLING
November 28, 2011


It’s a standard line in Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s stump speech.

“We live in a world where only 53 percent of Americans pay federal income tax, 47 percent pay nothing,” the Minnesota congresswoman recently said in Iowa.​

Bachmann’s figures are roughly correct: By most estimates, 46 percent of American households had no federal income tax liability this year, either because they didn’t make enough money or their credits, exemptions and deductions exceeded their tax bill. Some filers without an income tax bill even got refund checks from Uncle Sam.

Other Republicans and conservatives have echoed her concerns, suggesting tax reform that could include a required minimum payment from almost everyone.

“The poor need jobs, and they also need to share some of the responsibility,” Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said last July.​

Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, also insists:

it’s a mistake to allow some taxpayers to pay no federal income levy. “I do think you value what you pay for,” Blunt said. “Whether that’s a copay at the doctor’s office, or actually having a stake in the income tax system.”​

But Democrats and some liberal groups contend the GOP’s federal income tax claims are misleading. Even Americans who don’t pay income taxes pay a bucketful of other taxes and fees, they point out.

“All Americans pay taxes,” Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal public interest group, noted recently. “Everyone who works pays federal payroll taxes. Everyone who drives pays federal and state gas taxes. State sales taxes affect everyone who shops, and state and local property taxes affect everyone who owns or rents a home. … Most states have income taxes.”​

Presidential Election - Tax & Deficit Debate

The argument over the federal tax structure is expected to move to the center of the presidential campaign next year. It’s already part of the debate over the federal deficit, and GOP candidate Herman Cain rose in the polls after proposing major cuts in federal income taxes and a new national sales tax as part of his 9-9-9 proposal.

Republicans want to reform taxes for a variety of reasons, of course — lower tax rates, for example, would spur job creation, they say — but many also think requiring an income tax payment from everyone would make the system more fair.

But some who study the tax code are worried that major federal tax reform could upset the delicate balance among all the taxes Americans pay, potentially making the tax system less fair. That’s particularly true because states and cities also are discussing major changes in the way they collect the money needed to run their branches of government.

Among the states seriously rethinking their tax codes are Missouri and Kansas.

“There are substantial threats at both the federal and state level that, in combination, would really do a number on middle- and low-income families,” said Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.



Some Say Its Time the Poor, Elderly & Young Pay Too

The growing segment of taxpayers with no federal income tax liability is the product of many years of changes in federal law aimed at specific groups, particularly the poor, the elderly and young families with children. The expansion of popular programs such as the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit have not only eliminated income tax bills for millions of Americans, but — because the credits are refundable — they’ve actually meant government checks for millions of Americans who pay no taxes to begin with.

And that angers some groups.

“Exempting huge portions of the population from the primary source for the federal government’s discretionary budget effectively disguises the burdens it places on our economy,” said Andrew Moylan of the National Taxpayers Union.

But the credits and exemptions have made the federal tax system progressive: The more you earn, the more you pay, both in actual dollar amounts and as a percentage of your income. The top 1 percent of earners paid 37 percent of all federal income taxes in 2009, studies show.

That picture changes, though, when state and local taxes are added into the mix. In Kansas City, the Census Bureau reports, a family with two wage earners and one child, making $25,000, paid almost 13 percent of their income in state and local taxes in 2009. However, the same size family earning $150,000 paid just 9.6 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the study showed.

Because it has a flat 1 percent earnings tax, a state income tax and relatively high sales taxes, the state and local tax burden in Kansas City is considered regressive — that is, lower earners pay more taxes as a percentage of income.

“Nearly every state and local tax system takes a much greater share of income from middle- and low-income families than from the wealthy,” the Institute on Taxation and Ecomic Policy concluded in 2009.

As a result, the combined tax burden — federal, state, and local — only slightly tilts in favor of the poor and middle class, Citizens for Tax Justice recently concluded. “The tax system as a whole, including all the types of taxes that people pay, is just barely progressive,” it said.

Even some conservative economists maintain that the tax burden is flatter than some believe.

“Everybody does pay taxes,” said David Stokes of the Missouri-based Show-Me Institute, although he added “it’s a bad thing” that some federal taxpayers escape any income tax liability because it encourages them to support income tax increases for others.

Mayor Sly James’ Municipal Revenue Commission, now examining Kansas City’s tax structure, is expected to take a look at the fairness of the local tax burden.

It isn’t clear whether the argument at the local or federal level will have a dramatic impact on the income-for-sales tax swap now under discussion in Missouri, or the state income tax phase-out proposal widely expected in Kansas next year. Several groups have announced plans to organize opposition to the Missouri ballot measure, while the group proposing the swap has started gathering petition signatures to put the change on the ballot.

But plans for federal tax reform are likely to go forward in the 2012 presidential election year, from such candidates as Bachmann, Cain and others — regardless of the picture at the state and local level.

“To accomplish a fairer, flatter and simpler tax system will take a complete reform of the tax system,” Bachmann is telling her Iowa audiences. “It means abolishing what we currently have and starting over again.”


To reach Dave Helling, call 816-234-4656 or send email to dhelling@kcstar.com.




http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/28/3289453/no-federal-income-taxes-but-still.html

 

[cheyisrameyah]

I find it funny that politicians blame the people who don't make enough money to be in a higher tax bracket without even paying lip service to the fact that the reason they aren't in a higher bracket has a lot to do with wealth redistribution upward and off shoring of middle class type jobs.

Its an old argument but this blame the victim schtick is getting old.

Why bother to change the argument when the re-election rate is so high.

 

[muckraker10021]

I find it funny that politicians blame the people who don't make enough money to be in a higher tax bracket without even paying lip service to the fact that the reason they aren't in a higher bracket has a lot to do with wealth redistribution upward and off shoring of middle class type jobs.

Its an old argument but this blame the victim schtick is getting old.

Why bother to change the argument when the re-election rate is so high.

The RepubliKlan slave-bitch politicians, leashed by their oligarch owners, have two major things going for them, as they doggedly obey their oligarch owners’ orders in this current attempt to turn the United States of America into a Corporatist (Fascist) State — (the merger of state and corporate power). —

Number-One, they correctly understand that the majority of the American populace are fucking idiots when it comes to understanding the political economy of the United States; —

Number-Two, they are Sociopaths , who don’t give-a-damn if the United States turns into a third world country, as long as they are millionaires and their twelve-foot tall iron fenced gated communities have beautiful mansions, cheap hired help and plush golf greens.
It is no accident that these sociopath RepubliKlans engage in cult-hero worship of the author Ayn Rand whose guiding precept is “the virtue of selfishness”; — in street language this means — ‘I got mine $$$$$$- Fuck You!!, If I can kill you and take yours $$$$$$ I will!!’.

This RepubliKlan attempt to deflect public attention away from the fact that millionaires and billionaires federal tax rates are lower than the bus driver driving the city bus is not new; its been going on for about two decades. This current 2011 RepubliKlan talking point about 47% not paying taxes is an old recycled bullshit canard.

In 2002 the Wall Street Journal published an editorial grumbling about the fact that low income people paid little or no federal income tax. The editorial called these people ”Lucky Duckies” — and argued that low income Americans should pay a higher tax rate than wealthy Americans —because?? — they said the poor use more government services e.g. Medicaid, Food Stamps, CHIP (Children's Medicaid), Social Security Child Support, etc.
In other words the Reich-Wing back in 2002 advocated raising taxes on the poor — ‘Screw The Poor’!
Read & download the original fascist Wall Street Journal November 2002 editorial HERE — they scrubbed it from most of the web.
In 2002 there was multiple sources of pushback against the hideous sociopathic idea that the poor should pay a higher tax rate than millionaires & billionaires
<blockquote>
……….Key conservative ideologues have now declared their support for tax increases -- but only for people with low incomes.
The public debut of this idea came, as such things often do, on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. The page's editors, it seems, are upset that some low-income people pay little or nothing in income taxes. Not, mind you, because of the lost revenue, but because these ''lucky duckies'' -- The Journal's term, not mine -- might not be feeling a proper hatred for the government.
The Journal considers a hypothetical ducky who earns only $12,000 a year -- some guys have all the luck! -- and therefore, according to the editorial, ''pays a little less than 4% of income in taxes.'' Not surprisingly, that statement is a deliberate misrepresentation; the calculation refers only to income taxes. If you include payroll and sales taxes, a worker earning $12,000 probably pays well over 20 percent of income in taxes. But who's counting?..............

Read full critique of 2002 Reich-Wing idea to tax the poor a higher tax rate than the rich HERE and HERE
</blockquote>
So now here we are in 2011 and the RepubliKlans are recycling their same tax the poor argument from 2002. They know that most Americans are more uninformed now than they were in 2002. They also know that todays “corporate news? media” — will not inform the American people why 47% pay NO federal income taxes; — and will NOT inform the American people that “unemployed” Willard Mitt Romney earned $39 Million dollars last year and paid 14% in taxes.

I don’t know why the issue of 47% not paying any federal taxes is so incomprehensible for some. According to United States Government statistics, the IRS & CENSUS — we know that 35% of all American households earn LESS THAN $33,000 per year. There are 114,000,000 (114 Million) households in the US; so, 35% would be 40 Million households.

US household incomes have remained stagnant for the past 40 years even as US productivity has soared. The huge wealth represented by the productivity gains have all gone to the top 2% of US households and particularly to the top half of 1%. Millions of American households have sunk into the working poor because their real wages were not going up at all, even as their cost of living was going up every year (inflation).

To compensate for employers refusing to share productivity gains with their employees by raising their wages, congress and presidents starting with Gerald Ford in the 1970’s added deductions to the tax code such as the Earned Income Credit (EIC) and Child Tax Credit and others which eliminated many working poor households federal income tax burden. It’s not coincidental that these credits phase out once your household income goes much above $36,000. If you want to scream 'class warfare' and make the argument that these tax credits for the working poor be eliminated , which would significantly increase their federal tax burden — and at-the-same-time argue that millionaires like Mitt Romney who earned $39 Million last year should continue to pay less than 15% in taxes— then you are indeed supporting class warefare against the working poor.

Among the 47% who pay no federal income tax are 7,000 households who earn more than $1,000,000 ($1 Million) per year; the media never mentions these households. The RepubliKlan politicians and <s>FOX</s> FAKE News which perpetually regurgitate the mantra that 47% pay no federal taxes are correctly, confident in the reality that their brain addled audience would not understand the few paragraphs and charts that are in this post.

What we are witnessing is the destruction of the American middle-class which was once the envy of the world. Figures just released (OCT. 20, 2011) but barely mentioned on corporate television media (CBS, NBC, ABC, <s>FOX</s> FAKE, CNN) revealed that <SPAN style="background-color:yellow">30% of all Americans are earning less than $15,000 a year!!.......and 50% of all Americans are earning less than $26,364 a year!!!...... </SPAN> the lowest levels since 1999, after adjusting for inflation.......and...<SPAN style="background-color:yellow">the number of people making more than $1 million increased by 20 percent over 2009</span> Read: REUTERS- David Cay Johnston-Oct.20.2011


The American middle-class is disappearing.
Despite years of enduring a massive US Government sanctioned, corporate media sponsored “Black PSYOPS” operations, designed to convince middle class American citizens that their living standards was not declining,— even as from 2002 thru 2007, 66% of all income gains went to the top 1 percent of households, —— American citizens are finally waking up to the deception!
Is it too late????
Watch Important Video Below from British owned REUTERS, you won’t see facts like this broadcast on CBS, NBC, ABC, <s>FOX</s> FAKE, CNN.


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During the massive Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) campaign waged against American citizens by the corporate media led by <s>FOX</s> FAKE News; a campaign successfully deceiving most middle class American citizens into believing that their living standard, if it was going down, was solely their fault and had nothing to do with their pockets being picked by the top 1% and the corporate oligarchs who were sending, their jobs overseas; — <SPAN style="background-color:yellow">the media made sure you NEVER SAW Senator Bernie Sanders in 2003 confronting then Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan with the truth that the middle class was being destroyed.</span>

[FLASH]http://www.youtube.com/v/rPh-qGcYruw&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1[/FLASH]




<hr noshade color="#0000FF" size="8"></hr>

The American People -have been repetitively inculcated by modern RepubliKlan propaganda (talking points). ... it is quite effective propaganda especially since most Americans have NO memory and critical understanding of America’s brief 235 year history since the 1776 revolution. RepubliKlan propaganda is pervasive 24/7 on <s>FOX</s> FAKE, 24/7 on talk radio, 24/7 in thousands of Christian fundamentalist churches nationwide. What is the goal of this propaganda onslaught, and who is funding it? The goal is to turn as many people as possible into Sheepple; clueless dolts who accept authority without questioning the validity or truthfulness of those giving the orders. The goal is to have non-critical thinkers or as Rush calls them ditto heads who will worship & idolize anyone who has “made it”; judging them solely on how many millions or billions of dollars they have accumulated. The goal is to have them surrender their minds, their will, and their future and place them in the hands of an authority figure. We see the most blatant manifestation of this phenomenon in these huge mega Christian churches where thousands gather and give 10% of their income to the pimp pastor; Creflo Dollar, ‘Too Big Jakes’, Eddie Long, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren etc.

As far as who is funding this propaganda onslaught; the answer is corporate America. These are the people who have been <s>lobbying</s> bribing politicians for years to do things like remove ingredient labels from food sold in supermarkets, eliminate the minimum wage, eliminate child labor law restrictions, end collective bargaining (unions), end any corporate income taxes, radically speed-up the FDA (Food Drug Admin.) drug approval process, end the EPA (environmental protection agency), eliminate FEMA (privatize it), allow oil drilling anywhere in the US, kill-before-it-gets-started the Consumer Financial Protect Agency, end any affirmative action goals & timetables, end the ability to sue a corporation if your microwave oven blows up in your face (tort reform), etc, etc. All of the proposals above have been 90% supported by one major political party and 90% not supported by the other major political party. We all know which major political party supports all the retrograde ideas above.

On many of my threads I end with civilization or barbarism — why?? — because in the final analysis when you study the history of mankind on this planet earth, we are either moving toward civilization or sinking into barbarism. Let’s keep it simple. There is NO excuse if you are serious not to thoroughly know the brief 235 year history of the United States of America. In the final analysis it is not about political party labels. It’s about monopoly capitalism versus the words that were written in the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution & the Bill of Rights. The white slave owners —the so-called founders of the United States knew this. The war for US independence was to break away from the stifling monopoly capitalism imposed on the colonies by the English crown (The King). The famous Boston tea party was a revolt against English monopoly capitalism being imposed on the tea business.

Fast forward to today.

The trans-national corporations (monopoly capitalist) in an unprecedented manner are taking over the government of the United States of America and many State & local governments also.

If you disagree with the sentence above then don’t read any further, you can’t be reached.

The battle going on in this country right now, which is a Cold Civil War, is between the citizens of the United States versus the oligarch owned and controlled trans-national corporations. The citizens are losing this battle. They have been losing this battle for 31 years. Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, BuShit, Obama, the people continue to loose. US citizens median wages have declined over the last 31 years. To maintain their living standards US citizens have used debt (credit cards, home equity) and extended payment plans (5 & 6 year car loans and leases). Meanwhile as the CNN Money article I provided the link to points out those with accumulated capital, the top 2% and the mega corporations have seen their wealth exponentially increase.

The corporate media presents the two major political parties to the public in the same manner as they broadcast a NFL football game. Red versus Blue. Such bullshit. No discussion of the destruction of the middle class. No discussion of outsourcing. Just incessantly chattering talking heads spouting bullshit.

With the SCOTUS Citizens United ruling the oligarchs can now see complete victory within their grasp. Complete victory is the complete corporate takeover of the entire government of the United States of America. Using unlimited and now secret money, the oligarchs can buy $$$$$ almost any politician in the US or they can spend unlimited secret $$$$$ money against that politician that they perceive as a foe aginst their agenda. In the recall elections in Wisconsin the oligarchs spend $17,000,000 ($17 Million) to support republiklans in local State Senate races. $17 Million!!!! on state senate districts that have less total people than a ten city block radius around my apartment.

We’re further along this road to corporate takeover (Fascism) than most citizens realize. The $1,200,000,000,000 ($1.2 Trillion) dollars the US Military and National Security Apparatus spends every year is now virtually completely privatized. Private companies charge the US military 47 cents for a twelve ounce can of Coke soda; despite the fact that millions of cans are bought per year. A complete rip-off. The US Military can’t account for a missing $2,000,000,000,000 ($2 Trillion) dollars.

If US citizens continue to view politics like they are watching a NFL football game the megatrend of declining US standard of living will continue. Those wearing the RED republiklan jerseys will oppose anything President Obama proposes despite the facts. If he proposes fixing a crumbling bridge in your neighborhood, NO!!! If he directs the US treasury to loan GM and Chrysler money to save 3 Million jobs, Hell NO! If Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic congress passes a law ending tax breaks for companies that outsource American jobs overseas the RepubliKlans in the Senate kill the bill, the RepubliKlans sitting at home in their RED jerseys cheer and high five, YES YES YES!! Why are they cheering??? They are cheering because they surrendered their minds, their will, and their future and placed them in the hands of an authority figure; they are NON critical thinkers. These are the tea baggers that stand outside of Democratic town hall meetings holding signs saying Keep You Hands Of My Medicare.

Lowering or eliminating corporate taxes does not create jobs.

Lowering our eliminating personal income taxes does not create jobs.

We had NO personal income tax in this country until 1913. How did the US treasury collect revenue? Tariffs on imported goods.

The American middle class was created by careful planning (Government Intervention) in conjunction with American business. So called free markets don’t create a middle class. Complete laissez faire free market economies give you Somalia, Pakistan, Sudan, Haiti, Burma, Jamaica, Panama, etc. — all countries with no significant middle class. The rich rule; everyone else is a landless poor peasant. Rent or buy the Ken Burns DVD New York, or watch it again if you have it. It shows you how America’s greatest city was built, how it was planned block-by-block, the parks, the largest subway system in the world, the university system, the water system, the harbors, the health department, the housing authority, etc etc. Looking out my Manhattan apartment windows on the 35 floor I can many of the things Burns’ documentary shows being built. It wasn’t laissez faire economics that built New York City. Let’s jump down to Atlanta, Georgia. Are you old enough to remember Atlanta Georgia before the end of American apartheid, and before Dr. King’s death in 1968? Atlanta was a hick town compared to todays modern Atlanta. You could not book a direct flight from New York to Atlanta on a big jet…..because…….Atlanta’s airport was too small to handle them. Large fortune 500 firms outside of Coca-Cola were not located in Atlanta due to the apartheid laws. Who wants to have their corporate headquarters located in a place where Black people can’t enter the front door of a restaurant or book a hotel room. Atlanta’s first Black mayor Maynard Jackson built that city into the southern powerhouse that it is today, starting with the airport. City regulations required that Blacks not be excluded from the massive city-wide construction projects that transformed Atlanta from a hick town to what it is today. As a result a Black middle class was created and a small black millionaire class was created in less than 25 years. It wasn’t laissez faire economics that built Atlanta.

Americans need to stop the mindless cheering for their favorite political team; take off the RED or BLUE jerseys and focus on those corporate forces who are determined to circumvent one man (women) – one vote by any means necessary. I agree with much of what Obama is trying to do not because I’m a mindless cheerleader in the gallery. No, not at all. I agree with much of what he’s trying to do because I have analytically examined his proposals and the proposals of his opponents. His opponents want to “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate.” If this sounds familiar then you are a student of American history. This was the advice Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon gave President Hoover after the oligarch capitalists crashed the US economy in 1929. Hoover said :
<blockquote> the “leave it alone liquidationists” headed by [my] Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, who felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate.” He insisted that, when the people get an inflation brainstorm, the only way to get it out of their blood is to let it collapse. He held that even a panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people”...</blockquote>
In other words social Darwinism. Let the weak starve and die. Let the affluent swoop in buy everything that survives at 10 cents on the dollar. That is today’s modern RepubliKlan party led by the tea baggers policy prescription for American citizens. End Social Security (privatize it & give the money to Wall street) end Medicare & Medicaid, cut all federal programs except the military, close the EPA, close the Department of Education, cut corporate income taxes to 0%, cut personal income taxes to a maximum of a 25% flat tax or even better the ’pizza man’ Cain says 9%. Lower corporate income taxes means increased shareholder value. I’m intentionally using corporate ‘bullspeak’. Increased shareholder value means more money for shareholders via increased stock prices & dividend payouts. Corporations hire people when there is demand. No demand for their products or services, no jobs created.

Henry Ford founder of the Ford Motor company understood this. In economic language it’s called — the velocity of circulation of capital —. Henry Ford in 1914 decided that he would overnight start paying his workers $5.00 per day. The prevailing wage at Ford was $2.00 per day, and most non-auto manufacturers were paying $1.00 a day . The outrage against Ford from his fellow capitalist was intense. They thought he was crazy, the sued him in court to try to stop him. In other words just like today GREED RULES. Ford realized that by paying his worker $5.00 per day that he would increase the sales of his cars. How So? If the workers double and triple their pay they can buy the cars that they are assembling. Furthermore the entire Detroit area benefits as the Ford paycheck money is circulated through the entire Detroit economy— the velocity of circulation of capital —. Ford’s idea worked brilliantly as the entire auto industry had to match his $5.00 per day wage structure and all of Detroit benefitted. Contrast with today’s mega employers. At Wal-Mart when you get your employee package into includes an application for food stamps & Medicaid, because they know you are earning so little money that you will qualify for those programs. A race to the bottom, that’s all it is. At Wal-Mart and Target no overtime is permitted, in fact your lucky if you can get more than 30 hours per week @ $8.00 - $10.00 per hour. At the other side of the labor force you have non-management personal who have been working at Fortune 500 companies (Honeywell, Hewlet Packard, Oracle, General Electric, DuPont etc.) for 10 -20 years, earning $125,000 - $180,000, graduates from America’s top universities, now being fired and being replaced by non employee H1-B consultants or having their jobs outsourced to India where their replacement workers earn $35,000. In the name of the free market RepubliKlans support both the Wal-Mart race to the bottom and the outsourcing of good high paying jobs with benefits to India. Take off your partisan jersey and hatred for Obama and realize what’s going on in this country. We are in a second Great Depression right now. It’s not as steep or look exactly that same as the 1930’s because of the safety nets that we have today; (food stamps, unemployment insurance) that are being used at record levels. Crashing the US economy down into a pile of rubble, which is what republiklan prescriptions would do will not create demand. US sales at Wal-Mart down for nine consecutive quarters; that’s your canary in the coal mine. I’ll stop here.

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[yureeka9]

Ok, I need some clarification on this. Does this article say that these households pay nothing in taxes meaning when they get their paychecks no federal income tax is taken our or at the end of the year when they do their taxes they usually don't owe because they have had enough taken out throug the year?

 

[muckraker10021]

Ok, I need some clarification on this. Does this article say that these households pay nothing in taxes meaning when they get their paychecks no federal income tax is taken our or at the end of the year when they do their taxes they usually don't owe because they have had enough taken out throug the year?

If you earn about less than $36,000 and you have dependents then you qualify for Federal tax credits that when you file your tax return will make your taxed owed ZERO; and may even get you a tax credit check, putting some money in your families pocket. Taxes are withheld from your check based upon how many dependents you put on your W-4 form. Everyone pays FICA on income up to $106,000.

.....Let’s use real examples. An elementary school teachers assistant earning $24,000 a year. She is a single mom with a daughter. She’s going to community college at night to advance her education. She is “the working poor”. Under current IRS code she will be part of the 47% of Americans who earn so little and qualifies for child credit and EIC deductions that she pays NO federal income tax. Do you despise her because she is a poor working class woman trying to move up the economic ladder? The 47% of Americans who pay no federal income taxes, pay no federal income taxes because they earn so-little money.....

 

[muckraker10021]

There are millions of other Americans who have some income but not enough to be required to file a tax return. The Tax Policy Center has estimated that when these people are added to the 52 million nonpaying filers, some 47 percent of all households pay no income taxes at all

Southern States Have Highest Percentages of "Nonpayers"


<img src="http://i.minus.com/ibswlmFDosuRM4.jpg" width="500">

The map shows the percentage of tax filers in each state who have no income tax liability as well as the state's rank among the other 50 states. Nine of the ten states with the largest percentage of nonpayers are in the South and Southwest. In Mississippi, 45 percent of federal tax returns remit nothing or receive money with their federal tax returns; that is the highest percentage nationally. Georgia is next at 41 percent, followed by Arkansas at 41 percent, and Alabama, South Carolina, and New Mexico at 40 percent.

All of the top 10 ranking states have among the lowest median family incomes in the country. Of this group, Georgia has the highest median family income at $60,268. Mississippi has the lowest at $46,668.



http://taxfoundation.org:81/article/states-vary-widely-number-tax-filers-no-income-tax-liability

 

[thoughtone]

Southern States Have Highest Percentages of "Nonpayers"

All of the top 10 ranking states have among the lowest median family incomes in the country. Of this group, Georgia has the highest median family income at $60,268. Mississippi has the lowest at $46,668.



http://taxfoundation.org:81/article/states-vary-widely-number-tax-filers-no-income-tax-liability

All of those states are except New Mexico and Florida regularly vote republican.

No, there is no difference between the political parties!

 

[QueEx]

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[QueEx]

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