This is why I love being a democrat

[Juche]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/apo6hrw_x85a

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for more troops sent to Afghanistan and NATO should provide half of the new soldiers, said Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

An “additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000” a year, could fund more troops, Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.




I'm fairly liberal, and upset by the fact that in the last 30 years virtually all of the economic growth has gone to capital (aka the wealthiest 5%), while they have seen their taxes cut in half (capital gains, dividend, income, luxury, corporate, estate). At the same time labor has seen its income stagnate and their taxes go up (higher payroll, fuel, sin, sales, property, etc).

It seems that now that the democrats have been in control a whopping 1 year they/we are already trying to fund everything with taxes on the wealthy.

Granted, raising taxes during a recession is a bad idea, but once the recovery starts go for it.

Social security going bankrupt? Raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year
Trouble funding universal health care? Raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year
Trouble funding the war in Afghanistan? Raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year
Trouble with the deficit? Let Bush's tax cuts on people making over $250,000 a year expire





LOL! I fucking love it.

[napi21]

1. I'm with you & Thom Hartman on this one. When taxes on those

earning over $1 million a year were 90% businesses invested in company expansion and making better products. When they were lowered to 35% or less, the greed took over and the sttitude of mine, mine, mine rules!

However, I suspect it's impossible to ever get a bill like that passed EVER!

[Juche]

2. I agree

Warren Buffet was on Charlie Rose recently saying he never remembers a time when wealthy people stopped working because of tax rates in his entire career which began when tax rates were still 70%+.

Confiscatory tax rates, if done properly (in my non-expert opinion) could lead to higher investments in noble causes (charity, medical research) and reinvestment back into companies.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

9. war tax on owners of war industries

no more war windfalls

[NecklyTyler]

10. Two trillion dollars spent on an illegal war

There has been a huge profit made on conducting the wars. Find out who is making money from conflict, and tax them until it hurts. When there is no longer any money to be made on the wars, the rich will lose interest in lobbying for them. The troops will be home in short order

[liberal_at_heart]

3. They talk a good talk but it will never get passed

[MannyGoldstein]

4. 91% top tax bracket under Ike

Inconceivable these days.

[Juche]

5. Yup

[patrice]

6. "Wealth", especially "wealth" that does not PRODUCE anything except more bits & bytes

flowing from one computer to another, places a higher demand on all infrastructure and all systems and sub-systems in an economy. Higher "wealth" has higher costs.

It's time to remove the cap on FICA, which is at $150K (I think).

[patrice]

7. P.S.Those bits & bytes, what we call money, are PRIVATE bits & bytes processed in private processes

by privately owned computers and they produce nothing of Real Value, yet the costs and stresses that they place on the system further handicap those who are at a disadvantage.

[dysfunctional press]

8. raygun SLASHED the top marginal rate, and we've been living on credit ever since...

the rich have had a fantastic ride- but it's over, the meter's been running, and it's time to pay up.