[spence]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Oh, I see. So "tens of millions of people" deduct $10,000 for food expenses like Bernie did? Because lord knows, there's no "grey area" when it comes to deciding whether or not a lunch is a 'business lunch'.

I would think for someone who's on the go as much as a US Senator is coming up with 10k in qualified business meals wouldn't be that hard. I'd wager a lot of home office, self employed and small business owners go well beyond that.

One of his loudest complaints is that CEOs pay a lower effective rate than employees. That's bullsh*t, and you know it. The reason for that, is that wealthy people commonly receive a large share of taxable income from capital gains, which is taxed at a rate lower than wages (and for good reason). There is absolutely nohting grey, murky, or ambiguous about it. The IRS currently works for Chairman Barack, and they have decided that capital gains are to be taxed at a lower rate than wages. In case you can't connect the dots, that necessarily means that someone who gets their income from capital gains, will therefore pay a lower rate than someone who gets all their income from wages.

You're mixing up your outrages. The CEO gripe is primarily that they earn 300x of their workers. The effective tax rate gripe is about large corporations and hedge fund managers.

I think the CBO has studied earners above 700K and found their effective tax rate averages around 30%. It's the mega rich that are going further out of their way to avoid paying.

Is that going sufficiently too fast for you, that you can't grasp it, so you call it "grey"? It's pretty straightforward and intended.

Spence, I seem to recall a President in the late 1990's slashing capital gains tax rates significantly, and if memory serves, he had a (D) after his name, correct? Remember him, a gray-haired pervert? He was married at the time, and sure as hell, I don't recall his wife ever once bitching about her husband cutting capital gains tax rates. I also seem to recall that the economy took off, after those capital gains tax rates were cut. To the point that my golden retriever could have followed his nose into the local Wendys and walked out as an assistant manager. How about that?

The economy took off well before Clinton cut the capital gains rate due to the tech boom. It was the surge in revenues that afforded the opportunity combined with the pressure from the '94 House. If the tax cuts had such a magical impact you'd have thought they would have insulated the economy from the oncoming recession but...