Obama's 2015 Budget May End Sequester

If you have some magical way to prevent American greed creating another bubble that will inevitably burst, please let the world know. The federal budget isn't going to do *** about Wall Street *** over everyone but the top 1% for the 10,000th time since its inception, though.

I wanted to make some quip about how the last time there was a wealth gap this oppressive it was France circa 1789. But who am I kidding? The slacktavist mentality means it's fun to ***, but if doing something means missing Game of Thrones tonight, *** that.

Ain't no magic way, unless you consider making everyone understand the importance of fiscal responsibility magic.

Hell I've been buying a lot of gold and silver for the past year, but I'm old fashion like that. >:D

To be fair though most of my money is safely stored at the PBOC.
I would have never even guessed that would happen 3 or 4 years ago. Just the way the world turns.

Pay your share, so really everyone should be taxed the same, so that regardless of how much you make you still pay your share. Just because someone is successful doesn't mean they should pay half their check when someone that wants to be lazy and not work as hard pays hardly any. If everyone was taxed the same everyone then would be adding their share of what they make.

I imagine the concept of capital gains tax eludes you, or the fact that the wealthy make their money off the backs of those who aren't, but try to keep up.

Also nice "lazy" myth, try harder next time.

*facepalm*

Oh no I know sometimes life doesn't play out to be fair and people get dealt crappy hands. But for example my buddies dad is a lawyer, and according to the government are apart of the top 10% of America because of how much he makes, but he has five kids and barely lives paycheck to paycheck because of how much he's taxed, they don't drive fancy cars or anything, their cars are 10 years old and live next to my family that makes a lot less than them. I don't see how it's fair that really the top "10%" talked about is really only 0.5%. It's easy to cry out about how the rich have all this stuff and I struggle, but really a lot of them struggle too. And my dad's a teacher and mom works a part time job. Life ain't fair plain and simple but the government will do what they can to keep themselves rich and not care about anything else. I fully understand everything being talked about. But regardless of what we think, the people making the decisions won't listen and keep themselves rich.

Yeah, 5 kids is nothing, he's living way beyond his means. Don't talk about the woes of the top 10% you're only going to be laughed at.

It's more like the top .01%

According to 2011 #'s, to be in the top 10% of income earners (taxable income, not really capital gains, which is a while different ball game) you'd have to make at least 120k, I'm sorry but 120k is nothing to gawk at, and really easy to live a comfortable life on even 1/3 of that.

***I wish my car was a 2004...

edit: most people are talking about the 1% though, not the 10%, and in that same graph, you'd have to make at least 388k a year, and I'm sorry, but that's a ridiculous amount of money for a single person to make, their disposable income is going to be insane, and they can easily afford to pay more in taxes, oh boohoo they can afford 1 less summer home...

again: that's not even taking into account capital gains, at least as far as I can tell based on this data...

so I don't really want to hear how people who benefit the most from society shouldn't pay the most back to the society.

basically this, it's not the people making 100-250K that aren't paying their share, it's the people making 10M+, especially if they don't count that as "income" but rather "capital gains" from increasing value of investments. If you put 20M in investments that yield 2% (lower than average, but for example), you're effectively making 200K per year, even though you're being taxed at a much lower rate than someone who actually draws a paycheck for that amount. That's where the issue lies, the ultra wealthy generally pay a far smaller percentage of their income because it's not wages.

Then there's the part about the capital gains, which is really what people are bitching about, not income taxes.

Basically people are taxed based on their disposable income (at least that's kind of the point of certain tax breaks) not so much on their gross income, although that's the bracket they fall into.

It could use a lot of tweaking to close certain holes, and to really give a break to those families who need it. But hey...

People on the other end are ripping the system as well, though, EITC is a negative balance for the government, considering many people are able to receive more in returns than they pay. Even if you are eligible for double the tax credit that you pay in, you should never be able to return more than you paid, period.

As far as taxes are concerned, I'd agree.

The system is borked, yet most are too worried about partisan crap to fix it, and so many people realize this, but yet can't do anything as we're the silent majority.

I'd be inclined to agree, except that I start paying my taxes to the feds on January 1 of 2014 and I won't get those taxes back 'til March or April of 2015. I'm effectively floating an interest-free loan for several months. It doesn't amount to much individually, but when, say, 100,000,000 are doing it, it's what keeps the government running.

EITC is basically just an interest payment. What ought to happen is to remove EITC eligibility from anyone who opts not to have taxes taken out every pay period. I'm no tax accountant (but I know which one will show up), but I doubt very many people who qualify for EITC are doing that, not least because most of us are living hand-to-mouth and wouldn't be prepared to foot a tax bill in April (which is, of course, a big part of why they take it out with every check).

I typically take 0 deductions out so I get a bigger check when taxes come back, mostly due to that it makes a nice check that I can use to catch up on bills and such, or put back for unexpected car repairs or the like. That and I'm not the greatest when it comes to budgeting, and I'd probably squander the extra bit each month...

I used a good chunk of this years to lower my CC debt.

Do what you gotta do that works for you.

My feelings as well. I dislike the politicized groups unions have become (including mine). But state governments are hell bent on destroying collective bargaining. It's really, really bad for the middle class if this happens.

Really bad.

In this day and age, having five kids is a luxury. He's lucky that we tax for public schools on a flat rate in most places and not a per-child basis.

Inversely, if he's paying for private school for those five children, he's got zero room to ***.

It's been happening, and I think we'll all agree that we don't particularly like unions. If only the government put in some regulations instead of the politicians being in the pockets of the corporations...

Exactly.

Take the situation in Pennsylvania. The governor is solidly in the pocket of industry, and the bloated state government (one of the only full-time state legislatures in the country), keeps trying to cut down education, public employees and collective bargaining as a whole in the state, all the while providing tax breaks to drilling and mineral extraction companies, and those companies in turn don't even create jobs for state citizens. They bring in their own traveling workers who move out again as soon as a well's run dry.

I don't want to even get into fracking...

Yeah, well. Neither did a lot of us that live here.

start taxing 'non-taxed' groups like the NCAA and NFL. That'll help the national budget as well.... How the hell can the NFL get tax-free status. They make $9 BILLION dollars every year

The teams themselves are taxed. It depends on how the entities that are the teams are formed (if they are an LLC/LP or Corporation). That determines how they are taxed, but they are taxed regardless.

The NFL is considered an "union" and because of union lobbies, they are considered "tax exempt" IRC 501(a) entities.

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My +'s, have all of them.

People really don't realize that passing on your DNA is a luxury nowadays, something that you need to afford in order to be able to do.

Also, a 2004 car? Most people are lucky to have one that's even 20 years old, and even then it can barely make it to and from work.

It could be a LOT worse.

My car is a 92 with 300k+ miles, and I don't even drive right now...

If you have a small group of people swimming in millions of $$$ and a big group trying to make ends meet then you need a good tax system. Your tax system need to put the guys swimming in millions into bath tubs of $$$ instead of swimming pools and give the the bottom feeder a tax cut so they can actually save money. Of course, try to keep the majority of the tax for other public goods like education, poverty reduction, infrastructures.

It is fair to the rich? No, but they are swimming in $$$ and they refuse to share properly.