jcboy3

Trump and his sycophants, of course.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

[quote=Angmo]Yep. No kidding. I loved the part were he says he feels little or no govt in his life.

Certainly never looked at his paycheck. That’s government stealing your money to give to someone else.

******

Name a right wing country that doesn't have any taxes, or for that matter, name a right wing country. I bet you can't because no one wants one.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

You said it , now prove it!!

mwalsh Loc: Houston

There is no telling if LilWompWomp is liberal or conservative as LWW never stakes out any credible thesis...just takes cheap pot shots at others.

Generally shots at the left, so one might assume LilWompWomp is a right winger...but you just can't know for sure.

RixPix Loc: Miami, Florida

Well put

cwp3420

It's ok. He's already been reported.

Tex-s

I have to ask a few questions about your defense of liberal ideals.

You said "for example, miners," when referencing those underappreciated, yet Obama made it a distinct goal to eliminate coal. Explain please, if liberals defend miners.

You also expressed a desire for a " fair tax on wealth accumulated by people that dont produce anything." Who does less than government (without the money of others) to produce viable goods or services?

And thirdly, you mentioned " the Bush recession." Do you agree that 90% of " the Bush recession." fell at the feet of a crashed housing bubble? (hint: essentially EVERY economic scholar does) Funny though, that the primary source of the toxic / predatory lending policy was a Clinton era mandate that all government related lending agencies lower the qualification bar and lend to minority applicants even if they fell short of basic credentials. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and every bank who wanted to retain FDIC protections, were MANDATED to make bad-risk loans in an attempt to not be 'racist' (translation: market viable) and the end result was people who knew they were about to lose money sold loans to other entities in a chain of investment-protecting sales until there were no buyers. That the piper demanded payment in 2008 makes it a Bush recession?

Liberals in today's America, in general, propose all solutions (to government created problems, of course) be government-centered and that individual liberty and responsibility be forfeit. I can't support that, ever, and if I have to vote for Trump in 2020 to oppose the leftist agenda, I will, gladly.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

No, I know what words mean though.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

Good questions. You actually read and thought about what I wrote. Thanks. I will answer your first two questions in this post and the last question in a separate post since it could be quite lengthy..

Question One.
Yes, Obama approved regulations to reduce emissions from coal burning power plants. Owners of plants had two choices: 1. They could install equipment that would reduce pollutants like mercury and CO2, or 2., they could convert their plants to burn cleaner burning, abundant and competitively priced natural gas. It was a no brainer for most operators, especially those that used dirty burning eastern coal, such as West Virginia coal. Many of the plants that burned cleaner burning western coal (primarily from Wyoming's Powder River basin) continued to burn coal as if required fewer controls. Some of these also converted to gas.

However, West Virgina coal is still needed for metallurgical purposes. It was and still is used in the production of iron. It is needed to reduce iron oxide or to pure iron.

Question two.
You asked: "You also expressed a desire for a " fair tax on wealth accumulated by people that dont produce anything." (I don't understand the second part of your question) I am just saying that those people that don't produce anything such as hedge fund managers, stock traders etc. Currently pay taxes at the following rates:

A 0% long-term capital gains tax rate applies to individuals in the two lowest (10% and 15%) marginal tax brackets. A 15% long-term capital gains tax rate applies to the next four brackets -- 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35%. Finally, a 20% long-term capital gains tax rate applies to taxpayers in the highest (39.6%) tax bracket.

What it is saying is that people that receive long term capital gains ( it used to be called unearned income) pay taxes at a lower rate than people that pay taxes on on the same amount of earned income. For example: If you made $500,000 in earned income, part of it would be taxed at the39.6% rate. If you made the same amount in unearned income (capital gains), you would pay at the maximum rate of 20%. I'm saying all income, earned and unearned income, should be taxed at the same rate. Very simple. No favorable rate for non-productive income.

Twardlow Loc: Arkansas

AND...having cut certain rates in half as you show, and the low rates generally (tax rates used to go as high as 90%) what is the result, you ask?

What we are doing is creating a two-tier society of haves versus have-nots.

Take Jeff Bezos, now worth $160 Billion! Most of this monkey is useless to him; you can’t possibly spend $160 Billion in your lifetime. Impossible, even if you buy skyscrapers.

When Jeff passes, as we all do, he will leave his wealth to...someone. Whom and How Many doesn’t matter. Those people will never have to work, never have to study, never have to contribute to society, and will spend their lives moving between their various homes, traveling the world, and buying $20 thousand stereos for each of their homes.

Unless they are financial idiots, they will leave more to their heirs than they inherited.

One hundred and sixty billion dollars is a lot to leave, so we may assume Jeff will divide his wealth among several people, family members, friends, colleagues, etc. It will not be an easy decision to spread the occasional billion dollars to various people.

There are now 540 billionaires in this country—including several multi-billionaires. Sam Walton left, I think, 100 billion among his five children.

Suppose those 540 billionaires leave their fortunes to four heirs; that’s over 2000 nobles, 2000 do nothings, 2000 members of a new aristocracy in this country.

Remember the inheritance law, the “death tax” as the Republican like to call it, is eliminated in the last tax bill.

In the next generation, the 2000 nobles leave their wealth to four again, and we now have eight thousand nobles.

Each generation the wealthy grows by perhaps 400%, and soon we have an inequality among our society that cannot be tolerated. Can you say French Revolution?

America has functioned well as a Middle Class society, everyone works, everyone participates, everyone shares.

We no longer have that kind of society.

Things will get worse, not better.

In the longer run, we are faced with profound inequality, racial and class rancour, division, class was, and eventually Revolution.

The only antidote is progressive taxation with a high tax rate on the wealthy.

Otherwise, we have revolution simmering on the back burner.

Tex-s

Thanks for the civil reply. Truthfully, with my sister-in-law from central WV, my coal inquiry was based more on the abject outrage those in her, and neighboring, communities had with, not Obama policy and effects really, but with his public persona, his 'preaching to his base', his public disdain for the coal industry, and therefore her community's heritage, and pride. Obama RHETORIC assured that her geographical homeland would NOT vote Democrat, even if Satan ran of the opposing ticket.

And my government question stems from my having been involved in public education for 30 years and watching government extort behaviors and 'Robin Hood' tax funds away from successful communities and schools into other communities and schools with the result being an overall negative. More cash in lower performing schools found in lower achieving communities produces, at best, a minimal gain, but removing up to 80% of the taxation revenue in a higher performing school has an easilly observable negative effect in these schools. Programs get cancelld, specialist staff are released, and kid get a less complete education, even if they pass the State Mandated Testing.

Government CAN'T produce any product without taxation, the involuntary usurpation of the work and product of another. So, on a sliding scale that runs from "worked his ass off and earned every penny from the toils of manual labor" on one end to "lazy SOB never earned a penny in his life. Inherited his money" on the other, government is clearly in the second category.

I find that hedge funds, investment vehicles, and the stock market all have inherent risk, and that people who do earn money in these ways have the potential to lose money, and have to pay the entities that actually do the trading, the speculation, and the sales. Funny, too, is that government, who does nothing but restrict these money making businesses and who should have no claim to the efforts of others, ends up taking taxes from both the fund holder and the fund management group. The percentage at which the taxation occurs is essentially irrelevant to me. I still see it as theft.

I small divergence: Death and inheritance taxes should be banned by Constitutional Amendment. Giving your money to another is not a net 'income' to the population. It's merely a transfer from one account to another. The money has been taxed already, and, counting funeral costs and future income possibilities of the deceased, wealth actually decreases 99% of the time. (The death of a drug addict, for example, or a life-support-dependent patient, might be a overall 'plus' in a strictly financial analysis.....)

And my final rant on government taxation and what government 'deserves' from us. Gas taxes.

The link below is a tax analysis of state by state taxation on gas.

https://taxfoundation.org/state-gas-tax-rates-july-2018/

The lowest rates by state are 20 cents per gallon and a few states exceed 50 cents per gallon. The original graphic also gives the caveat that the indicated totals don't include the 20 cent national tax (per gallon) or local ad state sales taxes. These are just the excise taxes. So an average cost, PER GALLON, in takes is something like 55-60 cents. The government in all its forms collects 60-ish cents per gallon. Yet, turn on any TV news, listen to any Democrat politician, and they'll be happy to decry the gas companies as over sized, over-paid, under-regulated and under-taxed. (Granted my original numbers are taxes paid by consumers, but take that money AND taxation paid by the producers.....) It's the 'overpaid' or 'greedy' monikers that piss me off. On average, these companies earn 5-7 cents per gallon sold. 5-7 depending on which web site you look at, and the variance usually is seen based on the year of analysis.... the government earns 60+..... 10 times as much profit for government as private company and the COMPANY is greedy?

I'm sorry to say it, but I see government as about 50 times too big, too bloated, and too involved in my day-to-day private affairs, and as I said, I'll vote for ANY candidate who opposes policy to expand government. To steal from Pink Floyd, I greatly prefer my country allow me a life that is a 'walk-on part in the war' to a 'leading role in a cage'. And more importantly, I don't want to pay for both my cage and the cages of others.

Angmo

Government taxation is unearned income. They need to start justifying every penny they spend. Just like business. Otherwise they are just thieves. It’s the people’s money not the governments.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

As the saying goes, " Freedom is not free". That's the way it goes. Learn to deal with it.

wooden_ships

Then it’s simple for you - stop lying and trying to pass off your pseudo-intellectual misrepresentation as truth. You offer shaded sound bites and think others will believe you instead of dismiss you.

Sometime try not to accuse others of using tactics you yourself criticize.

wooden_ships

Inbecilic response even for you.

You made the statement; it’s on you to back it up, not on him to disprove it.