Obama just said that he is going to raise taxes on the rich, no matter what. He will not allow them to get any more tax breaks.

The GOP and the rich can pout if they want to. They can cry if they want. They have raise all the hissyfits they want.

But they WILL be paying more in taxes. And there's not a damn thing they can do about it.

...first I would reduce state sales taxes across the board. It discourages consumption at a time when we need more of it. We should aim for 2% sales tax rate averages across the nation.

We should lower the FICA tax rate significantly, around 50%. And we should broaden the base by increasing the FICA cap. Start at half a million, and adjust things from there to make sure Social Security and Medicare remains solvant for the distant future.

I would eliminate every single loophole in the tax code, perhaps with the sole exception of the mortgage interest deduction, but only keep that for people who are already paying a mortgage. Eliminate it from all new home purchases, so the price of real estate isn't being distorted by gov't interference in the market.

I would eliminate capital gains taxes entirely, and just count all capital gains as income.

I would increase corporate tax rates to their historical levels as they were when we had the highest average growth of any time since the Great Depression. This would be the rates they were in the 60's.

50% corporate income tax rates, and 91% top marginal income tax rates.

That would mean that for every dollar you make over (about) 3 million dollars, the gov't collects 91 cents.

We don't need people hoarding cash the way crazy old ladies hoard cats. It's time to cut this shit out. Our country is falling apart, we're up to our necks in debt, and shit needs to be fixed. These assholes are sitting on trillions, and the only thing they're doing with it is using it to bribe politicians who end up losing elections.

The party's over boys. You've gotten a free ride for the last 30 years. Now it's time to PAY UP.

I think the president will have to cave on this , if he doesn't all of our taxes will go up including the middle class/poor.

If that happens we all lose

socialist income redistribution, which is LEGALIZED THEFT.

I understand we all have a stake in the needs and functions of government, so everyone should pay, but once you’ve removed huge sections of people from paying anything, what incentive do they have to demand controlled spending? None. After that, they’ll always vote for the candidate who gives them the most handouts — after all, they’re not paying for it.


So for those of you who believe the rich don’t pay their “fair share”, how much is enough? If "you" designed the tax system, who would pay what? With the top 40% shouldering 85% of the burden now, how much more would you ask them to pay? And how many in the lower brackets would you exempt?

Or may I ask, do those claiming the rich don’t pay enough,  really want socialist income redistribution?

J a thought

Boehner has made it clear Obama will have to offer up dollar for dollar cuts, and Boehner was re-elected and has his own mandate. I doubt Obama will be able to make himself do that.

WOW that sounds great Willy,  I to would love to lower sales taxes,  but tell me,  where would the states get their monies from for the police,  firefighters,  libraries,  parks etc,  because sales tax is used for state funding not Federal Funding.   Secondly,  we don't have enough money in SS right now,  because there are not enough people paying into it and a lot more taking out of it.  (I know you won't like this statement,  but the backstory to SS aka Old Age Survivor's and Disability Insurance  or OASDI was instituted by FDR not as an annuity to hard workers so they could retire in comfort,  but as part of a "forced retirement system" that was meant to make room for younger workers.  It was meant to be voluntary,  never to take more than 1% of pay,  never to be taxed and never to be commingled with the Federal Government).

I do agree with maybe dissolving some of the loopholes in tax codes,  but where to begin is certainly another story unto itself.  Personally I like some of those "loopholes"  I like being able to put each one of my assets into a different LLC,  its called "protecting my ass",  as there are certain people out there that would love to have a piece of my pie,  and ya know what Willy,  I earned those pieces of pie (by working) and I'll be goddamned,  if I'm going to let someone who choses not to work to sue my ass so they can make their ass fatter,  no siree.

Increase Corporate taxes,  hell their moving overseas now,  we won't have to worry about Corp taxes when their all gone.  I do understand that the Lobbyists of the GOOBER BIG Corp need to be cease,  as it the Lobbyist that are in control of Washington.

...........at that time tax rates for everyone will skyrocket upwards. Then the "real" deal making will begin.

The GOP have made it abundantly clear they don't understand MATH.  Any successful business person understands that you can't just cut your way to good health - you need to raise some revenue as well.  This mean taxes will go up.  As a guy in that targeted group, I'm not ecstatic, but there's also this - the top will be paying similar taxes to what they did 10 years ago, and still less than what they paid under Reagan (the GOP God).  I love my country, and I am ok with paying about an extra 4-6% to make sure it works.  I am not mad at "moochers"; because I know that is a GOP lie.  The GOP has always tried to blame someone else for their screwups.  For the longest time, it was the "welfare queen" mom, then it was immigrants, and now it's back to the welfare queens since the GOP has discovered they need the the Latino vote and have suddenly "evolved" to see maybe they should figure out immigration.  What a crock.  Anyways, Bush 1 promised no new taxes, but rose them to pay for a war.  Clinton had higher taxes then now also, but not terribly.  And look at what happened in that time frame.  guy even left a surplus for W; who quickly cut taxes to the rich (his donors) then spent on two unnecessary wars and sent the economy into a spiral.  More then 10 years later after the Bush tax cuts, our economy stinks but is showing recovery.  The filthy rich have gotten richer (See Sheldon Adelson's $17.1 Billion growth in net worth) while normal people lost jobs. If "trickle down" truly worked, then explain the last few years to me please GOP.  
Everyone seems to think that there's an abundance of people living off the government.  there isn't.  There are an abundance of STATES living off the federal government.  States like Alabama, Georgia, and heck, the rest of the SEC ALL receive way more money from the Fed than they pay in - but you'll never see that mentioned by the GOP.  Why?  A lot of those voters are white and ignorant, the way the GOP likes it.
Anyways, sorry I got off tangent, I just hate it when the GOP blames moochers for the country's issues all the well knowing they created them.  And I love it when people say they can't pay more taxes.  Billionaires just spent $400 Million to win take obama out of office.  Think about that.  They can blow $400 Million, but can't pay a little more in taxes to preserve THEIR country.  Just food for thought.

It's not socialist redistribution.  It's governing.  You paid higher taxes under reagan, but since he was a rightie, it's ok.  The "socialism" term didn't appear in most people's vocabulary until Faux news brought it up.  Also, please remember W borrowed to finance 3 wars, and no member of the GOP ever thought to say "think of the children" then.  But they're up in arms now over "burdening our children with debt".  It's as if the GOP never remembers anything they said past a few hours ago, but we all have the tape.  SMH...

"WOW that sounds great Willy,  I to would love to lower sales taxes,  but tell me,  where would the states get their monies from for the police,  firefighters,  libraries,  parks etc,  because sales tax is used for state funding not Federal Funding."

States would be better off using state income taxes and property taxes to fund these things. That's how most states actually do fund things. With property taxes.

In the 60's, the average national state sales tax was 2.3%. It's gone up so much because the Federal Gov't has deprived the states of funds. This happened because we just had to give the rich a 50% tax cut back in the 80's. It shouldn't come as a surprise that when you shift from a progressive tax code to a regressive tax code, you get unemployment rates that are 5 times higher and you see GDP growth rates cut in half.

"Secondly,  we don't have enough money in SS right now,  because there are not enough people paying into it and a lot more taking out of it."

I'll ignore your comments about why we have Social Security, since it's not worth arguing talking points, but let's clear something up about this doom and gloom that everyone says about Social Security.

Everyone says it's a huge problem that everyone's collecting social security and not enough workers are paying into it. Well, that's mostly bullshit.

See the graph below. The reality is that we've seen a MASSIVE increase in the percent of Americans joining the workforce. Even with this economy, those levels are still historically high.

Everyone says it's a problem because the baby boomers will be retiring. So? They say there's too many baby boomers to afford. Well, then why did Reagan double FICA taxes in order to save up for the baby boomers? Oh, that's right we werne't really saving up for the baby boomers. We let the federal budget borrow from social security's surplus in order to finance the rich getting a 50% tax cut.

So, tax the fucking rich. Cut FICA taxes back to where they were before Reagan fucked with it, and increase the FICA cap and make the rich pay for it. They're the ones who fucked it up, let them fix it. Republicans are always saying we should "broaden the base", well raising hte FICA cap would most certainly broaden the base.

But lastly, the baby boomers ain't gonna live forever. They're dying every day. Eventually they'll all be dead. So this is a short term problem, and we still have historically high labor force participation.

I think we should dissolve the entire tax cut and start new. Why go through 20,000 pages of bullshit and try to fix it? Burn it and start over. And no, that doesn't mean replace it with a flat tax, Snow. It means replacing it with a simple progressive tax code.

Why would anyone WIN a lawsuit against you, unless you've done something harmful to someone else?

Corporate offshoring has increased while corporate income taxes have gone down. If corporate income taxes are a causal agent for them going overseas, then the opposite of what you're claiming is true.

The reality is that corporations pay very low taxes in the USA. In most parts of the civilized world they also have to pay value added taxes, and we don't have a VAT in the USA. So the effective corporate tax rate in the USA is one of the lowest rates in the world.

Taxes have nothing to do with jobs going overseas. It has everything to do with companies being able to pay their workers for 5 cents an hour and then being able to import their shit here for free.

Laffy, I suspect you don't understand how top marginal tax rates work.

Let me break it down for ya.

Suppose you make 3 million and 1 dollars. The top marginal rate of 91% does not apply to that 3 million dollars. That's taxed at a lower rate.

The 91% tax rate is only applied to that 1 dollar. It's applied to every dollar you make AFTER you've already made 3 million dollars.

So, no, it's not taking almost everything a person earns.

By the way, this was the tax code from the early 30's until 1963.

The 39.6% tax rate already originated in the House, back in the 90's. Remember, the Bush tax cuts were only put into place on a TEMPORARY basis.

Since the Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, all Obama has to do is nothing. All the Senate has to do is nothing. Taxes on the rich go up if they just do nothing.

The Middle class gets hit hard and the AMT kicks in. Also, extended unemployment benefits are killed and it is projected by the CBO that unemployment will go up to 9.1%

Do you want to be POTUS during this? Obama has to now think of his legacy, not shoring up his base.
It's Boehner who can sweat him out and is in the better position.

Face it, folks-government workers are mostly useless, unproductive parasites. Every government job destroys 3 jobs within the private sector.   For every dollar they receive from us in the form of coerced tax payment, they render about 10 cents worth of half-assed services and the rest of the dough ends-up in the deep pockets of the fat cats supporting them with various bribes.  Why not select them as the "designated bad actors" instead of "the rich" who are mostly productive individuals?  

I would levy a 91% tax against every Federal employee and eliminate the income taxes on  everyone else.  The Federal Government is the sector of the economy that has expanded the fastest in recent memory, so the dough would come form their deep river of ill-gotten wealth.  A 91% Federal employee tax would also have the desireable effect of discouraging people from pursuing a career as a blot upon society.  These folks would have to do something that would be productive for a change.

91%-wuddya say, willy?

                 PEACE IS WAR-SLAVERY IS FREEDOM-tIC-tIC-tIC!

Obama can propose tax cuts for those who make under $250K, let Gop vote against that.

But what about unemployment benefits and all the spending cuts that go along with it? Remember, Unemployment benefits are gone if this kicks in, and no one will be in the mood to be generous knowing there is no election in the short term.