.......End the reccession......Raise taxes on the over $250k

[.... callchet ....]

Investors horde and stockpile money in a recession. It is a fallacy to say that raising taxes will stop investors from spending money. They have already stopped spending money, that is why we are in a recession. You have to raise taxes to spend on money on programs. At the same time you are not adding to debt. You also tell the rest of the world, look we are getting tough about our problems. If you look at the tax rates over the past ninety years, you will see that cutting tax rates has led to economic downturns. Not upturns. Cutting taxes has led to economic downturns. Cutting taxes has always been popular, but never right. LIke he promised. Raise taxes on the over $250k.

[Joanne98]

1. K&R

[ixion]

2. yeah, just what the government needs: more of my money

I disagree that raising taxes will solve anything.

A better solution would be to spend more wisely the tax revenue generated. Right now, billions are wasted that could otherwise go to provide services.

Let's just spend the money we do have more wisely. Just my two cents.

[.... callchet ....]

13. We have

a 10 trillion dollar debt.

[dkf]

3. You mean tax the income away so the Government can spend

what the people are unwilling to? I guess that is one way to force spending.

I don't know what that will do for saving though, because most people's nest eggs have been decimated in the housing and stock market collapse. They are cutting back to replace what they lost.

If its our goal to keep everyone working til we are like 80 years old we seem to be doing a good job.

[rangersmith82]

4. Yea take more of my money...

For handouts to failed companies and welfare....

FU&& that!!!

[dkf]

6. So Thain can pay off his 90,000 rug too.

[.... callchet ....]

7. Raise his taxes

and he can pay for his own $87,000 rug.

[dkf]

8. Is he getting a huge severance?

That would be the icing on the cake.

[.... callchet ....]

10. Do you think that is even

questionable ? THey did turn down the bonus he asked for.

[.... callchet ....]

5. That is right.

We are not in a healthy economy. We are in a disaster. Raising taxes on the oe $250k will put money in the economy. They are putting money in the economy now that we don't have. that is just a bigger disaster.

[.... callchet ....]

9. The reason

the nest egg is gone is because it was stolen. Brokers talked investors into spending your money on junk. They took the word risk to its true meaning. You can lose money.

[dkf]

11. More people lost money in their house than in the stock market.

I don't understand expecting to use your house to live on anyway. Where are you supposed to live for goodness sakes?

[.... callchet ....]

12. I didn't think

there would be people against raising taxes in this forum. I thought it was us and the President against the Republicans.

[.... callchet ....]

14. taken out of Bloomberg post

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is forcing companies to " hoard cash "

[On the Road]

15. We Do Need to Raise Taxes at the Top

and there need to be more brackets with higher cutoffs. An upper-middle-class couple making a combined $200k should not be paying the same as CEO making twenty times that amount.

Obama's 3% tax hike is not enough even to cover the growth in the structural deficit.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. Not enough there to bring in what is needed

At that level, there are lots of ways to hide or defer income into alternate compensation. Blame the tax code for that.

[FiveGoodMen]

17. "Blame the tax code for that" -- revise the tax code?

[.... callchet ....]

18. Stop playing the shell game

and raise taxes with a new Sheriff in town. He ought to know how to find the loopholes and evaders.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Agreed, but the president can't do that unilaterally.

Congress is going to have to grow some spines to give that the support it deserves.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

20. President neets to lead and its a brains issue

First of all, tax avoidance is legal, tax evasion is not. If someone follows the rules and pays nothing on $$$$ income, that is quite legal. The answer is to change the laws.

The problem is that for many years that is what has been happening in piecemeal fashion. Band Aid here, patch there, and we end up back where we started. COngress is clearly incapable of building on to the tax code and really changing things. There is an entire industry in this country aimed at reducing taxes. A similar one is estate planning. Those industries do analysis and develop strategies that the Congress can not keep up with. They have mpre resources and more importantly time to do the required work to effective protect their clients.

The solution is a long term plan that gets the analysis put into it up front and then gets handed to the legislature to pass untouched. Obama is about the only president in my lifetime who could do that. He needs to.

[FiveGoodMen]

21. Obama may be up to the job -- but he's got to fend off CongressCritters taking bribes

from absolutely everyone with a vested interest in keeping the loopholes.

For real reform, I think the public has to be willing to oust anyone -- during the primaries -- who won't close the loopholes.

And that will require one hell of a PR campaign in don't-tax-me-land ('Murka).

Barack may be better at that than anyone we've had lately, but boy is that going to be an uphill battle!

Mind you, it would be fantastic to get it done. Someone has to pay to run the government.

[.... callchet ....]

22. When I was a kid, I don't remember any

homeless people. My dad was a coalminer and everybody owned their own house. That was in the 50's and 60's.

[Jack Sprat]

23. Same here. It is almost contrarian when

you think about it. Yet, it does seem like the economy does nosedive every time the tax rates are cut and the deficit widens. I know the large deficits definitely hurt consumer confidence. Everyone was feeling all warm and fuzzy in the Clinton years when surpluses replaced the red ink for 3 consecutive years. That was in the aftermath of a tax hike. Nobody, but nobody, feels confident about making purchases when the national deficit is so astronomical. It isn't a healthy signal to consumer spending when the U.S. budgets are so unbalanced and the national debt has expanded to this unprecented level.

[DCKit]

24. They'd also dump a shitload off $$$ on charities - to avoid the taxes.

It's a win-win for everyone.