This is a response to my dear friend, Paul Barnes, who wrote a hateful letter to the Gainesville Times.
There goes the neighborhood again.
Just when it seems our state might have learned something important about government and taxes, my friend Paul Barnes regurgitates his hatred and ignorance.
I wouldn’t mind so much if Paul had some reason to hate so much.
What had him so fired up this time?
He thinks his personal income taxes are so much that some money is left over. And, of course, the deadbeat Democrats give that money to other deadbeats who won’t work for a living.
Ignorant Republican fool.
I doubt Paul can fill out a 1040EZ without help from a 13 year old.
Well, what are the facts on personal income tax?
It’s a fact that if all income taxes were applied only to the defense budget , there would be barely enough left over to pay the current interest on the debt for six months.
So much for Paul paying enough money to support a black welfare mother with 20 illegitimate kids and a Cadillac SUV.
Since Paul will never look for facts, I’m not stopping.
Almost every year around this time some allegedly neutral organization reports on the unfairness of the income tax. This years rather doubtful figures showed that 1% of the returns paid 39% of the income taxes. Of course that would be the top 1% of income.
When I reviewed the IRS data, I found a very different story. Of taxable returns, roughly one in every four dollars of income was earned by less than 1 percent of all taxpayers.
Less than a million people have 25% percent of the spending money. This small group of people got over a third of the tax cuts or about a half a million dollars each in take-home pay. Someone should cry for them.
Further, that very fortunate group got all the benefits of the Bush tax exchange. Bush didn’t really cut the personal burden of running government; he just cut taxes for some. The price of running the government and the debt continues to climb at record rates.
Meanwhile, 50% percent of Americans survive on an average income of $15,000 per year .
Since Bush and the Republicans began giving away the country, our national debt has risen to $9.4 trillion dollars. We spend $500 billion a year just to pay the interest. That’s nearly as much as the core defense spending, excluding Iraq and Afghanistan. Oil is selling for $110 dollars a barrel.
Our country has serious problems, at home and around the world. Taxes, the possible gay marriage of two men in San Francisco, and hanging the Ten Commandments in the courthouse bathroom aren’t serious issues.
Making enough money to live, paying the house payment, sending a gifted son or daughter to a good school; these are serious personal problems faced by more than 50% percent of Americans.
As a well informed American, I don’t care to cry crocodile tears for the most fortunate 1% of tax payers or give that bunch of French champagne drinkers another half a million dollars in take-home pay. If the rich need more take-home pay, let them work harder. It’s what my boss tells me every year.
The real job of taxation is simply providing enough money to protect our country.
Proudly pay your share if you still have a job.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Mortgages explained by a Straight Talk Express
Warning!
This is brutal and brutally accurate.
I deny having created even the detailed graphics.
However, I do borrow the graphic language when talking to my bank.
Link to the facts of the mortgage crisis
This is brutal and brutally accurate.
I deny having created even the detailed graphics.
However, I do borrow the graphic language when talking to my bank.
Link to the facts of the mortgage crisis
More Updates on tax information
The IRS does provide a wealth of information on income tax returns.
However, the IRS is careful to note the information is not in exact amounts as if collected from each actual return.
Instead the IRS samples tax returns and estimates figures for most reports.
When I say,"25 percent of all income was concentrated in 1 percent of the taxpayers," I can only be basing my observations on the estimates.
When others say, "1 percent of taxpayers paid 39 percent of the income tax," those others can only be making statements based on estimates.
Estimates vary.
Conclusions drawn from even large samples and good estimates can at best be only a guess.
But, looking at the footnotes clarifies the conclusions.
The IRS uses estimates based on sampling of returns.
The IRS does not include carry-forward credits, carry-forward losses, deferred tax payments, or refunds of taxes paid in previous years to its estimates.
The Tax Foundation and its professional apologists will not tell anyone this basic truth.
"We don't have the exact, finite answer on who earns the most or pays the most."
As they say on the streets, "The Bastards!"
However, the IRS is careful to note the information is not in exact amounts as if collected from each actual return.
Instead the IRS samples tax returns and estimates figures for most reports.
When I say,"25 percent of all income was concentrated in 1 percent of the taxpayers," I can only be basing my observations on the estimates.
When others say, "1 percent of taxpayers paid 39 percent of the income tax," those others can only be making statements based on estimates.
Estimates vary.
Conclusions drawn from even large samples and good estimates can at best be only a guess.
But, looking at the footnotes clarifies the conclusions.
The IRS uses estimates based on sampling of returns.
The IRS does not include carry-forward credits, carry-forward losses, deferred tax payments, or refunds of taxes paid in previous years to its estimates.
The Tax Foundation and its professional apologists will not tell anyone this basic truth.
"We don't have the exact, finite answer on who earns the most or pays the most."
As they say on the streets, "The Bastards!"
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
More Tax filing information
I've enjoyed several more hours of math and research on the federal income tax.
1. I am not, "one of those people."
I'm not too sure what the ranter meant by "one of those people." It is skin color? Genetic defects like being Jewish? And, do I care about the ranting remarks of anyone that uses a smear like, "one of those people."
2. All IRS data is present in raw form for free public downloads.
There's no reason, unless you have no reason, to not look at the raw data AND the IRS studies. Proper disrespect to the Lax Foundation, aka the Tax Foundation.
3. The Brookings Institute (BI) is a very interesting collection of well rounded individuals who seldom agree with each other.
I've fact checked a few publications from the BI. The BI always seems to have a command of the better sources and I've never caught them using a secondary source when the primary source was available.
Every BI publication or article always contains proper 'footnotes' for other researchers to follow, if a researcher wishes to double check data.
For the uncouth, that means the BI does not ever say, "We got our information from the IRS." Such a statement would be too vague and taint any conclusions presented by such a lame author. The BI would give a direct link to the online data, the proper name of the source, and the date of the sourced information.
4. For the purposes of making public reports and bulletins, the IRS always uses Adjusted Gross Income.
That in its self skews results. For example, the IRS gives Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) for 2005 as being $7.422 trillion dollars. However, Taxable Income drops to $5.023 trillion dollars. Non-taxable interest for 2005 was well over $57 billion. Most of which was in the upper income brackets and it not included in the $7 trillon or the $5 trillion or whatever AGI figure one chooses to use.
There are over 150 categories for exemptions. But, roughly $2.4 trillion in untaxed income after 'statuary adjustments' is a lot of folding cash.
5. There is at least one type of an income tax not included in IRS figures. The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).
That kicks in for some people with income of over $33,125 if married filing separately. That's after an exemption. It would seem this AMT hits the middle class, not just the elites.
All AMT collected is excluded from data on 'income tax collected.' That raw data has to be collected by the diligent researcher who wants the best answer on who pays income tax.
I have no interest in professional apologists for the Lax Foundation or "those kind of people" who call other people, "Those kind of people."
Some people can't process large amounts of information and must use snippets and sound bytes.
Who would want to know such a person? Not me.
If I want to hear sound bytes, news snippets, and mental midgets, I can turn on Fox News.
Now 'those people' are highly paid professionals who can read the news script exactly the way it was written.
1. I am not, "one of those people."
I'm not too sure what the ranter meant by "one of those people." It is skin color? Genetic defects like being Jewish? And, do I care about the ranting remarks of anyone that uses a smear like, "one of those people."
2. All IRS data is present in raw form for free public downloads.
There's no reason, unless you have no reason, to not look at the raw data AND the IRS studies. Proper disrespect to the Lax Foundation, aka the Tax Foundation.
3. The Brookings Institute (BI) is a very interesting collection of well rounded individuals who seldom agree with each other.
I've fact checked a few publications from the BI. The BI always seems to have a command of the better sources and I've never caught them using a secondary source when the primary source was available.
Every BI publication or article always contains proper 'footnotes' for other researchers to follow, if a researcher wishes to double check data.
For the uncouth, that means the BI does not ever say, "We got our information from the IRS." Such a statement would be too vague and taint any conclusions presented by such a lame author. The BI would give a direct link to the online data, the proper name of the source, and the date of the sourced information.
4. For the purposes of making public reports and bulletins, the IRS always uses Adjusted Gross Income.
That in its self skews results. For example, the IRS gives Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) for 2005 as being $7.422 trillion dollars. However, Taxable Income drops to $5.023 trillion dollars. Non-taxable interest for 2005 was well over $57 billion. Most of which was in the upper income brackets and it not included in the $7 trillon or the $5 trillion or whatever AGI figure one chooses to use.
There are over 150 categories for exemptions. But, roughly $2.4 trillion in untaxed income after 'statuary adjustments' is a lot of folding cash.
5. There is at least one type of an income tax not included in IRS figures. The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).
That kicks in for some people with income of over $33,125 if married filing separately. That's after an exemption. It would seem this AMT hits the middle class, not just the elites.
All AMT collected is excluded from data on 'income tax collected.' That raw data has to be collected by the diligent researcher who wants the best answer on who pays income tax.
I have no interest in professional apologists for the Lax Foundation or "those kind of people" who call other people, "Those kind of people."
Some people can't process large amounts of information and must use snippets and sound bytes.
Who would want to know such a person? Not me.
If I want to hear sound bytes, news snippets, and mental midgets, I can turn on Fox News.
Now 'those people' are highly paid professionals who can read the news script exactly the way it was written.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Support our Troops!
How to support our troops. That is the question.
The GOP thinks supporting the troops means voting for wars of aggression against petty dictatorships in puny third world countries. And, then continuing the war for a 100 hundred years.
However, it was revealed today in the AJC that our troops need another kind of support.
The Founder of the Home Depot is writing checks to a local hospital.
Why? Under laws written in Washington, where supporting the troops means giving them a ride into combat, the disabled and discarded veteran is dumped from medical treatment long before healing from combat wounds.
With our country about $10 trillion dollars in debt under Republican Presidents, we have no money to guarantee benefits promised under Social Security or the medical care promised to all our "supported troops."
The GOP promised smaller government but they said nothing about moral bankruptcy.
When grandma gets evicted and Sargent Rock lives under a rock, will voters finally wake up to the defects in GOP promises?
Story in the AJC
The GOP thinks supporting the troops means voting for wars of aggression against petty dictatorships in puny third world countries. And, then continuing the war for a 100 hundred years.
However, it was revealed today in the AJC that our troops need another kind of support.
The Founder of the Home Depot is writing checks to a local hospital.
Why? Under laws written in Washington, where supporting the troops means giving them a ride into combat, the disabled and discarded veteran is dumped from medical treatment long before healing from combat wounds.
With our country about $10 trillion dollars in debt under Republican Presidents, we have no money to guarantee benefits promised under Social Security or the medical care promised to all our "supported troops."
The GOP promised smaller government but they said nothing about moral bankruptcy.
When grandma gets evicted and Sargent Rock lives under a rock, will voters finally wake up to the defects in GOP promises?
Story in the AJC
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