AP: Dems Look at Tax Cuts for Middle Class

[Eugene]

Dems Look at Tax Cuts for Middle Class

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Democrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help
pay for tax cuts for middle-income families, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

She spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in back taxes, eliminating
deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending.

"As we review what we get from ... collecting our taxes a reducing waste, fraud and abuse,
investing in education and in initiatives which will bring money into the treasury, it may be
that tax cuts for those making over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year, might be
more important to the American people than ignoring the educational and health needs of
America's children," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview aired Sunday.

-snip-

"What we're saying is Democrats propose tax cuts for middle-income families. And we want
to have 'pay-go,' no new deficit spending. We're not going to start with repealing tax cuts,
but they certainly are not off the table for people making over half a million dollars a
year," Pelosi said.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070107/ap_on_go_co/democrats_agenda

[theoldman]

1. ;Tax cuts are not a great idea when the government is

deeply in dept. The first thing on her agenda should be to eliminate the tax cuts for the very rich. Than she can introduce a moderate tax cut for everyone.

[electron_blue]

4. Yeah, or how about just going after the rich tax dodgers?

[FogerRox]

6. Tax cuts as an investment in people can be essential to spur

working class family participation in the economy.

[papau]

8. LOL :-) need for food/shelter spurs working class family participation in the economy

The tax rate defined as total tax divided by total income is quite low - and the vast majority of that tax is OASDI (Social Security/Medicare) - not Federal Income tax for most of the non-middle class and non-upperclass working class families.

Fedral Income Tax cuts for the non-poor are not as effective as simple social spending for stimulating the economy.

And we get back only 17 cents on each dollar from the economic stimulus of the income tax cut, so the cut runs straight to the bottom line national debt - forever, as in year after year.

But I do like the political phrase "an investment in people" and I think Democrats should use it for social spending on health , on education, etc.

[FogerRox]

10. tis not that revenue increases

Its the rate of participation of the mid class. Aka the "kind" of Government you end up with.

Progressive taxes, Education and Labor rights are the pillars of a Jeffersinian democracy.

http://rdanafox.blogspot.com/2006/11/tax-rates-middle-class.html

Tax cuts that benifit cap investment in infrastructure are great. What the CCC & WPA built in the 1930's is till bing used today. Tax cuts that went to the wealthy during the Reagan yrs yeilded cap investment in Chinese factories. Yada yada yada .. globalism.

[FogerRox]

11. tis not that revenue increases

Its the rate of participation of the mid class. Aka the "kind" of Government you end up with.

Progressive taxes, Education and Labor rights are the pillars of a Jeffersinian democracy.

http://rdanafox.blogspot.com/2006/11/tax-rates-middle-class.html

Tax cuts that benifit cap investment in infrastructure are great. What the CCC & WPA built in the 1930's is till bing used today. Tax cuts that went to the wealthy during the Reagan yrs yeilded cap investment in Chinese factories. Yada yada yada .. globalism.

[MissMillie]

23. Tax cuts for "everyone" is not the way to go

Clinton inherited a country in debt and instituted targeted tax cuts that actually INCREASED tax revenues and eliminated the debt, and created a surplus.

[jus_the_facts]

2. It'd be nice to get an exemption for not having kids and being single....

....instead of being gouged to supplement everyone else's way of life...I won't hold my breath. :eyes:

[Wcross]

22. We pay more for the privilege of NOT changing smelly diapers!

Given the small extra deduction for having a child over smelly diapers, temper tantrums & the general hassle of raising children I will gladly pay a little extra!

[pacalo]

3. I hope it's a tax cut for the middle class across the board.

Not just for the two-income families & those who use childcare facilities.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

20. If they want to be fair, just increase the standard deduction to $20.000,

[FogerRox]

5. The US needs to return to a progressive tax system

A Middle class is a rare thing, occurring only 3 times thru-out history. The first rising of a middle class occurred as a result of the Black Plague. The Black Plague killed about 30% of the worlds population, creating a labor shortage. This allowed that Trades & Craftsman to command a higher wage, which trickled down to the common yeoman, much as the unionization of US labor in the middle 1900's allowed non union labor to command wages akin to union labor. Some have written that the renaissance, without a middle class that had the liesure time to even consider art & music, let alone the time to paint, sculpt, write & perform music, would have never occurred.

The second rising of a middle class occurred in the US colonies in the middle 1700's. Once a few Indians were driven away from an area, there was free land available for farming. In an agrarian society this was a big deal in that you could own your own land, grow & sell your own crops & keep the profits, much as a family owned business does today.

The third rising of a middle class occurred during the Great Republican Depression of the early 1930's. FDR's New Deal brought forward tax progressivity, as well as labor rights earned thru the union movement, such as the Child Labor laws passed in 1937 & 1938, (Kids do belong in school afterall).




My Parents got thru the Depression with a progressive income tax, we won WW2 with a progressive income tax. The 12 million men & woman that served in the military in WW2 came home, the GI Bill sent vets to college, and they started families. This created the largest, most vigorous and the best educated middle class, in the history of the planet. Labor unions were at the zenith of their power, our eductaional institutions were the envy of the world, corporations made money, the wealthiest made money. The American Dream was born.



From:

http://rdanafox.blogspot.com/2006/11/tax-rates-middle-class.html

[NYC]

7. Very informative.

Thank you.

[papau]

9. I totally agree :-)

:-)

[tblue37]

12. The GI Bill also included provisions that made it possible for vets to

own their own homes. Home ownership is still a major (perhaps the major) form of wealth for middle-class and working class people.

[FogerRox]

19. Yes it brings stability to families

Stable families are more likely to support a stable government, more likely to see their kids into college. I think Thomas Jefferson would have loved the GI bill, ya know.....

[ananda]

13. Cognitive Dissonance: is the middle class..

.. really getting smaller???

when all I see around me is the huge growth of development and neighborhoods of the middle class!!!

I can't get my head around it. It looks to me as if there are a LOT of people who live in nice homes in
nice mc areas. AND I MEAN A LOT!

[Heywood J]

18. That's being financed by a hell of a lot of debt and paper money.

How many families, with the current real-estate bubble, have a mortgage amount >= four or five times annual family income? It would seem to me that a number of those nice houses were paid for by flipping real-estate, stock-market games, and corporate pay manipulation. I would be curious to know how many were the result of an increase in take-home pay from primary industry, production of goods, or rendering of essential services.

Sure, house construction is booming, no doubt about that. But you have to look at how that's financed now, versus how it was financed thirty, forty, and fifty years ago. What percentage of average income was consumed by housing expenses? How expensive was average or moderate housing in comparison to other goods and services? What fraction of an average family's income was disposable? How much debt did the average family hold, and what did it finance (e.g. mortgage, car loan, credit card balance)? Is new housing accessible and desirable to all, with respect to location, community, how long the commute is, etc? Is the market sustainable?

Finally, the big question: what effect would a market crash and/or housing bubble pop have on home-ownership now?

There are many questions that have to be answered to reconcile what's seen now vs. then. The terms of home-owning and being "middle-class" are not the same as they were.

[mvd]

14. I dare Bush to veto those

Repukes would be exposed for what they are - protectors of the wealthy. I'm not crazy about pay-go, but at least it shows that these right wing Repukes are corporate right-wingers and not true conservatives.

[underpants]

15. Well for God's sake I hope so

Geesh what is wrong with these people that this wasn't the very first thing that they did?

[DollyM]

16. And they say . . .

"How can you ever expect to get to a balanced budget if you're spending $100 billion a year on Iraq borrowing the money to do it, if you're giving $50 billion a year in tax cuts to people who make over a million bucks a year and paying for that with borrowed money?" Obey said.

Americans are more in dept and living more on credit cards than ever before. It sounds like we have not had a very good example in this area from our "parent." We once lived on "pay as we go" and then my hubby lost one of his part time jobs and ended up in the hospital. Between putting medical bills and groceries on the credit card, we are in a very scary place. But we feel that we don't have a choice at this point. Oh add to this that our heating bill skyrocketed last year and this year, in Illinois, Ameren Power Company increased our electric bills by 50 percent as of January first. We are literally sleeping with gloves and clothes on at night in order to keep from turning on the heat. Why should will have to live like this simply to keep a war we can't afford, going on seemingly forever? We need to take care of our own people in our own country first.

[hogwyld]

17. Bring back the progressive tax

People certainly don't need a million dollars to survive, and should be taxed a minimum of 50% rising to 75% as the millions and billions pile up. And tax the hell out of those golden parachute stock options at 50% or more. First thing is to retire the national debt so we can take that budgetary line item off. Future revenue spent on making our educational system second to none, Universal health care for all, and if there's anything left over, a Manhattan project for alternative, clean energy. That's my American Dream.

[MadHound]

21. With an 8.6 trillion dollar debt looming over us, this is a bad move.

Rather, go ahead an eliminate Bushboy's tax cuts, reinstate the capital gains tax at 1990 rates, reinstate the estate tax, and one we have the budget balanced and our debt eliminated then we can talk about a middle class tax break. Until then, all we're doing is spending money we don't have.

Oh, and I would suggest that you go after the upper income tax cheats rather than the poor and middle class. I realize that this will require more effort on your part, but it seems to me that it is much more fair to go after the people who owe a hundred thousand to a million in back taxes rather than the guy who owes a couple thousand:shrug:

[donkeyotay]

24. Cut the Social Security payroll withholdings

Since the money just goes into the general fund to pay for the general corruption, I don't see why Social Security should be untouchable. We gave the investing class tax cuts, and what did they do with it? Ran Google up over $500/share? Working people deserve, as the Bankrupter in Chief once said, to keep more of their money, too.