Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmy
It has to do with credibility. These guys would go out and complain about a 35% tax rate on the highest bracket. Once they have to show that they really don't pay that rate, the conversation changes. The question of " what do you actually pay matters to the people listening. Under Gingrich's plan, Romney who makes 40 million or whatever would pay 0% on pretty much his entire income, while a person making 75,000 would actually pay 15%. Just because it doesn't matter to you doesn't mean it is irrelevant.
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By the same token someone who is paying 28% would bitch about someone who is paying 15%. So does that make the 28 percenter more credible? And in which direction--that the 15 percenter should pay more, or that the 28 percenter should pay less? And by the same token, should that nearly half who don't pay any federal income tax now have a say, and would they have any credibility if they demanded that everyone else should get their rates raised. And by the same token, would those that do pay 32% now have more credibility in the discussion than those who pay less? It sounds like if you are to have credibility in making tax proposals under your logic you should be in the highest bracket, and actually pay it, otherwise it might be perceived that you are for a tax code that makes OTHER people pay the burden.
And what is relevant to me is not some complex tax code concocted by actuaries who figure various percentages for different earners on some undefined, subjective standard of "fairness," but what the money is spent for. When figures like 15 trillion, and 30 trillion, and 50 trillion dollars, AND MORE are projected to be a national debt, then there is no tax bracket that is adequate. We are playing out a tragicomedy about a nation that boasted a glorious revolution of individual rights over a tiny tax on tea, that has now descended into squabling among ourselves over what size of our personal incomes should be confiscated to pay an impossible amount spent on an ever expanding transfer of wealth into a bottomless pit of mystery. And rather than revolting against that, we point fingers at each other and argue who should pay more.