Here’s Paul Ryan’s press release regarding the tax plan. I see references to the middle class and the lower class (many of whom don’t pay any income tax anyway), but I don’t see any mention of “the rich” in it.
Perhaps you can share some of those statements about how the plan lowers taxes for the rich, but also for the middle class.
Big f-ing deal! The Koch’s are a blight and a cancer on our society. And, the fact that they run the company doesn’t mean that they employ those people. Those people are employed by the people who buy stuff. The owners and CEOs are often just overpriced caretakers who have the misconception that they are actually God’s gift to the Universe.
“Main Street job creators” is Republican code language for “the filthy rich”. But, yeah, your point is well-taken. They use this code language to hide the fact that they are throwing handouts at the undeserving rich.
I read “main street job creators” as “small business owners”, not “the filthy rich”. But my decoder rings were never very good.
Seriously, though, if someone were to put forward the idea that “sure, the GOP talks about tax cuts for the rich-- they mention ‘main street job creators’”, I’d call a big, whopping BULLSHIT on that. No code words, no dog whistles I want to see where the GOP talks about this plan giving tax cuts to the rich, even if they follow that with “but the middle class gets a tax cut, too!!”.
In the case of the Koch brothers, I should also elaborate that they are basically just wealthy thieves who are buying Congressmen to support their thievery and keeping the economy dependent on their destructive products rather than more sustainable products.
Sure. Just the other day, VP Pence said this:
And my senator, Orrin Hatch, said this:
You didn’t really answer my question, but given the explosion of vitriol, I’ll assume that I hit the nail on the head when I got to the Koch brothers.
“… the fact that they run the company doesn’t mean that they employ those people …” is certainly an interesting spin on things. You don’t think Elon Musk ‘employs people’ at SpaceX? That’s a novel use of the word “employ”.
It’s also amazing how they can pack so much bullshit into such a small space. It’s fun to deconstruct it:
…While taking away the exemptions. So, in the end, depending on how many exemptions you could claim, it is probably basically a wash…except if you itemized, in which case you are screwed because now you will have to have more itemized deductions to get the same amount of deduction + exemption that you got before.
And, it also does not kill the first-born in each family so that families can continue to enjoy all of their children. I love how what they are not doing takes such prominence here. (And, again, the deduction for charitable contributions and mortgage interest is actually deceptive because, by turning exemptions into a larger standard deduction, way fewer taxpayers will be able to benefit from these itemized deductions.)
It’s an interesting spin because it is so different from the usual brainwashing. In some sense they employ those people, but not in a sense that should excuse the ridiculous amount of money they pay themselves and not in a way that is going to lead to an explosion of economic growth if we shower them with tax breaks. I may be a little over-the-top in my rhetoric here, but it is really to counter and challenge the sort of silly brainwashing that I think has occurred in our society.
Oh yes…The Orrin Hatch tantrum. If he’s your senator, you can have him…but please keep him to yourself rather than sharing him with the rest of the country. I think he is just too good for you Utahans to share with the rest of us unwashed masses.
Well, sure if someone else mentions the rich, they’ll say, “They are not just for the rich…” or they will say some nice stuff about it being across the board. But, most of the emphasis is that they are cutting taxes on the middle class or on “the Main Street job creators”.
And McConnell admitted he lied about the tax cuts.
Orrin Hatch is the one responsible for the non-regulation of supplements. Guess what industry his son worked in?
Well, you got one thing right.
Supplements?
Haven’t had my daily dose of herbal extracts. Supplements.
Though Hatch’s twisting and dodging is impressive.
Something that is often overlooked is that, when payroll taxes (including the employer portion) is included, workers earning $70k - $127k generally pay tax at a higher rate than the rich do! The effect is even greater when health insurance premiums are included, as needed to compare apples-with-apples to Europe.
Warren Buffett pointed this out a few years ago — his secretary pays a higher tax rate than Buffett does — and GOP apologists pretended not to understand. But isn’t it fair to include payroll taxes? Payroll benefits are certainly included when GOP wants to depict costs of government.
The bottom 75% of households (those making below about $75,000) earn about as much total as the top 1% (those making above $450,000), and pay almost as much in total tax. (Half of the money made by the top 1% is made by the top 0.1%: those earning $1.6 million plus. And remember that the earnings of the elite do not include unrealized gains and certain loopholes.)
That’s right: low-wage earners, even with zero income tax, never pay less than 15% or so (payroll tax) or much more when health insurance, etc. is included. Contrariwise, the payroll tax and premiums for a rich man will be negligible in proportion; and much of his income will be taxed at 20% capital gains rate.)
TL;DR: The tax rate already is nearly “flat” when payroll taxes are included. Real tax reform would be to increase the taxes paid by the top 1% by 5% (and by 10% for the top 0.1%) and use the proceeds to reduce the SocSec burden on employers and employees. That would stimulate job growth!
Are you going to respond to post #515?
Not to mention that 9 million people a year die due to pollution.Granted, the Kochs aren’t responsible for all of them, but they’re certainly responsible for buying elections nationwide to repeal legislation on pollution, which ensures the death rate stays high, and we’d probably be better off without 100,000 Koch jobs.
Alive in unemployed beats dead any day.
Not seeing the word “rich” there. Maybe I missed it. Can you quote it?
As I said, my decoder ring isn’t very good. I’d like to see where they talked about rich vs middle class.
Yes, but why would multi national companies want to bring back money to the states for taxation of any sort? Why not use it to invest in other opportunities around the world, especially where the opportunity is lucrative and the taxes lower? Why bring earnings back to the USA at all?