Posted by Tina
Taxes…will they go up? Will they only go up on the rich? The people have a right to know and that right is being ignored as our leaders play serious games with our futures.
Frustration about the current situation in DC and concerns about the next four years gave way to curiosity today as I thought about our leaders’ own sense of entitlement to remove private property from our pockets indiscriminately, arbitrarily, and without even the slightest hint of guilt or humility. How dare they behave with such careless disregard for the needs of our families! We face higher taxation in the next four years under Obamacare. Some of this taxation falls on the well to do but other forms will be stealth and hit all of us in the form of higher prices for goods and services, healthcare, and healthcare insurance. Some of our citizens will pay more than 50% of what they earn in total federal, state and local taxes while nearly half will pay nothing or a pittance. I believe this disparity is not only unfair but outrageous, and an indication of the irresponsible leadership we have blindly tolerated for decades. Why are so many Americans still living in poverty and unable or unwilling to care and provide for themselves? In a land whose government has managed to create $16 trillion in debt on top of all of the many trillions that has been spent in the last sixty years this amounts to an intolerable failure!
So where did my curiosity take me? First of all, it took me to the text of the 16th Amendment, the document that gave our representatives permission to take whatever portion of our “incomes” they wanted. The 16th Amendment reads:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Talk about a ticket to ride!
The ratification of the 16th amendment gave our representatives permission, under the legal authority, to devise any number of programs requiring more and more revenue…more and more of the money we earn through work and investment. It gave them permission to decide what we would send to Washington without regard for our own family’s need and circumstances. It also gave them permission, under legal authority, to lavish themselves with increases in salary and the high priced perks of fat pensions, top drawer healthcare, travel and entertainment, including rubbing elbows with the elite of the elite. This degree of power and position requires an extremely high level of integrity. I imagine that at least some of the leaders elected through the years thought they were exercising restraint in their duties. Perhaps their close approximation to first millions, then billions, and now trillions of dollars created a kind of fog and shadow to hide the reality of their willful; extravagance, pandering, collusion, and waste.
Citizens living in America in 1913 couldn’t see the folly in the 16th amendment. Americans were accustomed to taking the responsibilities of adulthood seriously and most did. No one living in 1913 could have imagined that within a half century the seeds of government dependency would be sown so that nearly half of the population would be dependent on government for their daily bread, housing and countless other perks of the privileged poor within a second half century. No one living then could have imagined that taxing authority would lead to bloated and under funded programs at the federal, state and local levels or the enormous debt that every American is now, theoretically, responsible to pay…plus interest! Had the generation that blessed the 16th Amendment been able to foresee the bleak, perilous future in which we now live they would never have granted our representatives such egregious license. The question now is how to reverse this error that intrudes on our prospects for the future and robs us of opportunities and freedom?
You can read more about US tax history at the Legal Dictionary.
A message to the youth of America: Pause in your daily routine to consider freedom.
America was founded on the idea that every human being should be free to pursue his interests and dreams; as an American freedom is your birth right. Generations of well-meaning people, generations of people lacking in foresight, have nearly ruined the concept of freedom in America and in the process created a mountain of debt and a list of under funded programs that can never be funded by the wealthy alone. The vast middle class is shrinking under the weight of government failure and excess and the ranks of the poor, growing.
Our nation needs an abundance of people able to count on themselves and willing to give charitably to those who are truly less fortunate. Our nation needs a limited and responsible government that manages the people’s money with great care and caution…as if it were their own! We need reform more than taxation. We need restraint and control from our leaders rather than extravagance and waste. Our government has a spending problem that evolved out of irresponsible money management and promises made that cannot be kept. In fact, the socialist principle of dependency has our nation in its grips!
But there is no reason to accept this failed, inferior philosophy. There is absolutely no reason to let an aging population of dunderheads rob you, the youth of America, of the ability to achieve whatever level of wealth and prosperity you can imagine through work, savings and investment. There is, likewise, no reason to relinquish your freedom for a government handout that comes with a debt load attached. The future belongs to you and your children and grandchildren.
Have you the courage, the vision, the sense of personal adventure to live your life free?
There is wisdom to be found in the words of others. Drink them in…and claim your birthright:
No man is free who is not a master of himself. – Epictetus (50-120) Greek philosopher.
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. – Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer and historian.
“You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can be free only if I am free.” – Clarence S. Darrow (1857-1938) American lawyer
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom: and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too. – W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British novelist and playwright.
The folly in the 16th Amendment is that it authorized the destruction of freedom.
We’ve all heard Pelosi say we had to pass the ObamaCare bill to find out what’s in it. Now 17 Democrats and 1 Independent, so far, are against taxes in the law that impact their states.
Democrat Senators Are Up In Arms Over Obama’s Medical Device Tax
SENATE DEMOCRATS ARE LINING UP TO REQUEST THE DELAY IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MEDICAL DEVICE TAX
THE TAX WILL NEGATIVELY AFFECT JOB CREATORS AND STIFLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE-SAVING DEVICES
http://www.gop.com/news/research/democrats-taxed-over-medical-devices/
Tina: “Some of our citizens will pay more than 50% of what they earn in total federal, state and local taxes while nearly half will pay nothing or a pittance. I believe this disparity is not only unfair but outrageous,”
OK, but you do realize you just described the Reagan years, don’t you?
Also, I’d like to see evidence for your claim that some of our citizens will once again start pay more than 50% of what they earn in taxes.
Imagine back in 1913/14/15 the highest tax rate anyone would likely see was a tiny 1%. That bracket was spread over so many levels of income you might as well call it a flat tax, $0-450k. So it was just 1%, no deductions, just pay 1% of your income and everyone paid a little. It was that easy and with that soft start to an income tax we opened a door that should never have been opened and look what it’s become!
http://taxfoundation.org/article/us-federal-individual-income-tax-rates-history-1913-2011-nominal-and-inflation-adjusted-brackets
In 1985, during the middle of the Reagan years the highest income tax bracket was 50% for an single person earning over $177,523. For a married couple it was $352,460.
A medical device tax? Un-freaking-believable. The inmates are running the asylum.
I brought it up because it will be another “hidden” tax paid for by us the consumors since buisnesses do NOT pay taxes. To keep their doors open they will add the cost to their products or services and past the cost on to the end user. Us.
Note in the below Wash. Bus. Journal article the tax is computed on the gross revenues and not net profits. The tax is going to not only be huge causing jobs to be lost, it will make wheelchairs and other medical necessary devices for the sick and disabled very expensive. The last electric wheelchair my son had was in the $20,000+ range. He had at least 5 during his life beginning with a $800 manual wheelchair when he was just 11 years old.
I can only imagine what the cost for his hospital bed, ventilator, Hoya lift and other items he needed would be today.
Someone’s hard earn cash is going to pay this tax. People don’t work for free and businesses need to make a profit to pay salaries.
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Medical device makers to be hit with tax in 2013
Washington Business Journal by Tong Zhang
December 4, 2012
AdvaMed, a D.C. trade group for medical device manufacturers, said an excise tax slated for 2013 could have dire consequences on its members’ profits.
Starting Jan. 1, medical device manufacturers must pay a new 2.3 percent excise tax on their gross revenues, regardless of profits, to raise $1.8 billion in federal revenue in 2013 and $20 billion through 2019, as part of the health care reform legislation.
Recently, our colleague at the Phoenix Business Journal wrote a piece explaining how the tax “is expected to kill jobs, stifle growth and lead to fewer innovations.”
According to the article, Medtronic Inc., a big medical device manufacturer based in Minneapolis, is expecting a $120 million to $150 million annual impact for its fiscal year ending in April 2013, and a $40 million to $50 million financial hit during the first four months of next year, because of the tax.
Small and medium-sized companies will be particularly hard hit, said Wanda Moebius, vice president of policy communication of AdvaMed, an industry trade group based in D.C.
“It will have a significant impact on companies that are struggling to get profitability,” Moebius said. “It’s across-the-board bad policy.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/index.php/washington/blog/2012/12/medical-device-makers-to-be-hit-with.html
Here’s another “fee” aka tax coming to 200 million people.
ObamaCare surprise is a $63 per person fee uncovered to pay for people with preexisting conditions. New fee raises $25 billion to cover high cost uninsured.
These are NEW taxes beginning Jan.1 no matter what happens with the “fiscal cliff.”
Peggy one small company device maker fears the tax will cost $3 million; another said his tax could be closer to $8 million.
See also this Fox Business article showing less investment going to companies that develop new products:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2012/12/04/new-health-reform-tax-scares-away-venture-capitalists/
Useful comparisons are difficult to make because the circumstances are never the same from decade to decade…snide remarks about the highly successful Reagan years aren’t very useful. Snide remarks about the Clinton years aren’t either. If you are going to take a look at those years you need to be willing to assess all of the information.
Reagan’s tax cuts generated a lot of revenue and jobs. It’s unfortunate that the promised tax cuts never materialized. Global competition was much different in the eighties, the debt was lower, and there was less entitlement spending.
I’d like to see evidence for your claim that some of our citizens will once again start pay more than 50% of what they earn in taxes.
I actually wrote: “Some of our citizens will pay more than 50% of what they earn in total federal, state and local taxes…”
The rate being suggested by Obama for high earners is 39.6%. California’s high earners will pay 12.3% this year. Those two figures alone add up to more than 50%. High earners usually have upper end real estate taxes…possibly as high as $4-5K a year.
It would be interesting to add up all the taxes that an individual can pay each year…sales tax, phone tax, gas tax, licensing fees, water, energy and phone taxes and fees, boat fees, fishing and hunting licenses, etc. It would be a real challenge to add up every dime but if accomplished I imagine it would also be a real eye opener.
Government has just gotten too big and expensive…it takes too much out of the private sector. There is nothing fair about it. It’s time to reverse that trend and give power back to the people to create opportunity and wealth. Even government wins when the private sector thrives…it’s truly a no brainer.
Tina, The bottom line is this tax that was supposed to help pay for the medical care of millions today will put thousands out of work impacting thousands more family members and will stop or greatly slow the development of new products that would save lives in the future.
When my son at age five was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in 1973 his life expectancy was only to live until he was thirteen. Because of the improvements in medical care from the development of these very devices and the care of his doctors and nurses he lived until he was 31.
Because of the shortsighted idiots in DC we now have a medical system that will provide care for people today but at the cost of jobs and lives in the future. All because the elites who never read the bill before voting on it got what they wanted by shoving it down the throats of the majority who didn’t.
These paragraphs from your article nails the problem.
“The federal government will now be taking $30 billion out of the industry that develops new treatments to limit patient deaths and suffering. Research and development budgets are now being outsourced to companies overseas, notably Israel.
As FOX Business has reported, already medical technology companies are cutting jobs due to the reductions in R&D budgets in order to pay for the new medical-device tax on sales. Companies that make medical equipment to save lives must pay the excise tax, same as if they were selling cigarettes or alcohol. And they must pay it even if they lose money and post no profits, because the tax is on sales, not income.”
This submitted comment from several other small companies sums up the negative impact this tax has.
“We are a small company that provides good wages and benefits, but those jobs are at risk. We estimate that the 2.3 device tax on gross sales in conjunction with income tax will consume roughly 80% of our gross profit. In order to pay for this, all product development has been stopped. Marketing has been reduced and our ability to grow and expand and create jobs has been eliminated.
Furthermore, we cannot invest any profits into new development because the option of having a breakeven year by re-investing is gone. We must pay the tax regardless of profitability or go out of business.”– David Mrak director of product development, BioPro, Detroit, Mich.
Don’t tell me this administration doesn’t have a war on business going on; particularly small business which is where the experience of freedom is still intact and the true expression of the American spirit is still represented.
You can’t convince me that the progressive extremist left in power cares about the little guy either…or working families. They are heartless, self-serving, megalomaniacs puffed up with power…is there anything more dangerous to the common man?
I am thoroughly disgusted and disheartened at the idiocy of our dumbed-down society.
Tina: “Useful comparisons are difficult to make because the circumstances are never the same from decade to decade…snide remarks about the highly successful Reagan years aren’t very useful. Snide remarks about the Clinton years aren’t either. If you are going to take a look at those years you need to be willing to assess all of the information.
Reagan’s tax cuts generated a lot of revenue and jobs. It’s unfortunate that the promised tax cuts never materialized. Global competition was much different in the eighties, the debt was lower, and there was less entitlement spending.”
But when you take those factors into account, your position that we should never raise taxes on the top 2% looks even stranger. We have a higher debt and more entitlement spending. Doesn’t that tell you we need more revenue?
You can argue that Reagan managed to increase revenue by lowering taxes, but that doesn’t work forever, otherwise we would lower taxes to 1% of income. That theory only works if taxes are too high, as they likely were when Reagan came into office. But taxes on the rich are lower than ever today, and we are seeing no increase in revenue or increase in job creation. Recent studies, including one by the Congressional Research Service, show that lowering taxes on the rich would not increase revenue or spur economic growth:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/tax-cuts-dont-lead-to-economic-growth-a-new-65-year-study-finds/262438/
http://www.businessinsider.com/study-tax-cuts-dont-lead-to-growth-2012-9
The CRS study showed that while tax cuts on the rich do not seem to spur growth, they do widen the gap between the rich and the poor. This will actually lead to more entitlement spending.
If you are against entitlement spending, you should support putting pressure on corporations to pay their workers more and to stop outsourcing.
This Republican makes a conservative case against the world’s largest retail giant, Wal-Mart:
“But why would a redneck boy from Alabama go and stand in the dark for a few hours on the edge of Walmart’s property to holler with a few crazy lefties out protesting corporate greed and unfair working conditions instead of just staying home to watch football or lining up for the next door-busting deal? The answer is simple. Listen to me conservatives! Listen to me Republicans! How can you support a poverty wage and at the same time bitch and bellyache about people on food stamps? Have you put any thought into this?
Here are the facts: The average Walmart employee working 34 hours per week makes just over $15,000 per year on an average wage of $8.81 per hour. Most Walmart employees are among the 25 percent of all American workers making less than $10 per hour. As much as 80 percent of Walmart workers are on food stamps and add up to some of the largest recipients of Medicaid in many states. By the droves, Walmart kids and families are on the All Kids or Peach Care programs. In Arkansas, they call it ARKids First, but in fact it should really be called “Walmart Kids First” since they make up the majority and highest number of beneficiaries.
Shouldn’t someone tell the Walton family that there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Nearly two billion dollars annually burden the American taxpayer to subsidize the low-price, low-wage cost for a mega-corporation who profits each year between 15 and 20 billion dollars. This year, the store set a new precedent by opening on Thanksgiving Day at 8:00pm nationwide, two hours earlier than the previous year. In the first four hours, between 8:00pm and midnight, the company claims it processed 10,000,000 transactions at its cash registers, swiping an average of 5,000 items per second.
I hear my conservative friends whining and griping a lot about social programs. I hear them complaining about people who need assistance for food. I hear often the phrase that echoes from a 1976 campaign speech that Ronald Reagan gave about a “welfare queen” driving a Cadillac on the south side of Chicago. But as it turns out, one of the biggest welfare queens in this country doesn’t live in Chicago. She doesn’t live in downtown Detroit. She lives in Bentonville, Arkansas and she’s sucking over five million dollars per day from the government dole and bloating our national debt even greater! She’s the wealthiest damn family in the whole wide freaking world. Where are you conservatives? Where are you Tea Partiers? I can hear Ronald Reagan rolling in his grave. These are our tax dollars and we’re trying to pay down an overblown national debt while one of the richest companies in this land is having us subsidize their shortsighted greed that forces millions of American workers into a life of government dependency. This is not capitalism. This is not the free market. These are not Republican values. Or are they?”
http://www.andmagazine.com/content/phoenix/12635.html
Blaming entitlement spending for our country’s woes is like blaming a band-aid for not curing cancer. Welfare programs are there to fill the void left by outsourcing and low wages. Those are the real culprits. It’s time to stop the scapegoating and deal with the real problem.
Chris: “ut when you take those factors into account, your position that we should never raise taxes on the top 2% looks even stranger.”
Never is a word I would not use. It is absolutely stupid to raise taxes on anyone in this lousy economy. But Obama has a record of stupid within the context of what to do to create a thriving economy. within the context of fundamentally transforming America he’s right on track. Soon no one in the upper middle class will ever have the opportunity to build wealth as Warren Buffet or Oprah Winfrey have. Already the middle classes, who have seen their opportunities dwindle and their buying power shrink have begun to join the ranks of the poor. The people who own businesses in this country can create a better economy but not with their hands tied and their pockets being robbed…that was Reagan’s argument and it holds true today.
“You can argue that Reagan managed to increase revenue by lowering taxes, but that doesn’t work forever, otherwise we would lower taxes to 1% of income.”
A 1% tax was never Reagan’s argument. I don’t know why the left (you) insists on making this extreme argument. See info about the Laffer Curve which contends that tax rates that are too high and tax rates that are too low are unworkable.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielmitchell/2012/11/28/a-laffer-curve-warning-about-the-economy-and-tax-revenue-for-president-obama-and-other-class-warriors/
And these two links from the article are also useful:
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/a-laffer-curve-tutorial/
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/whats-the-ideal-point-on-the-laffer-curve/
“But taxes on the rich are lower than ever today, and we are seeing no increase in revenue or increase in job creation.”
There are many reasons for that. The biggest is this administrations big government tax and regulate theme…fear and dread are not the pair of legs that risk takers want to stand on. Uncertainty about the future is a third leg that is equally wobbly.
“We have a higher debt and more entitlement spending. Doesn’t that tell you we need more revenue?
NO! It tells me our government spends too much while punishing, controlling and taxing wealth builders. STUPID!
“If you are against entitlement spending, you should support putting pressure on corporations to pay their workers more and to stop outsourcing.”
A. I don’t believe in using the power of government as a coercive agent against private sector companies. I believe in a simple tax code. I believe that people have the power in this day and age to negotiate for wages without government intervention. Chris if you want higher wages find a job that pays higher wages…or go into business for yourself…or get more training…or create a new product or service. Companies do not exist to satisfy every workers dream. Companies have the right to create businesses anywhere in the world. They have a right to meet the demand for their product or service in other countries. Workers had better wake up and smell the coffee…they get to compete in this shrinking world and if they want to work they had better find a way to make sure the companies have a reason to operate in America. the hay days of intimidation are over for workers in the same way that the hay day for employers to oppress their workers was over in the 1920’s.
“The CRS study showed that while tax cuts on the rich do not seem to spur growth, they do widen the gap between the rich and the poor.”
The Democrat Party is doing all it can to discredit Reagan and this white lie is part of the narrative.
I don’t doubt the stats that show a disparity in wages, however, blaming Reagan’s policies for this disparity is ridiculous. It began in the Carter years and many different factors contribute. Union excessive demands helped to move blue collar work toward automation and sent work offshore, for instance. The work ethic has been in decline…one could argue that more government programs helped to destroy incentive to work and better ones prospects.
More Americans than ever (before the last crash) were moving into the upper middle classes as their property increased in value and they invested in 401K’s, the stock market and other savings and investing instruments. It is also true that the poor were moving into the middle class under Reagan:
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/10/006-the-rich-the-poor-and-reaganomics-40
“Blaming entitlement spending for our country’s woes is like blaming a band-aid for not curing cancer.”
Your problem Chris is that you don’t understand the objection! Entitlement spending represents a promise that cannot be kept no matter what. When taxes are too high revenues dry up. when taxes are too low they don’t generate enough! When tax rates are just right so that investment and growth are not stifled and revenues flow freely to maximum effect…THERE STILL ISN’T ENOUGH TOP PAY THE BILL AND THE BABY BOOMERS WILL ONLY MAKE THIS SITUATION WORSE!
We MUST do whatever we can to put our companies in high gear. We MUST cut government spending somehow. Otherwise the debt and the interest on the debt (particularly when interest rates rise) will totally destroy the country.
This is why we need serious adults having a serious discussion in DC.
Republicans are not against a safety net. Republicans are against turning it into a hammock for the less fortunate that can work so they have no incentive to better themselves…or, a fishing net that just captures more and more people dependent on government. Our laws as written are not working for anyone…and this administration refuses to do anything except expand and worsen the problems by continuing in the same unworkable manner. (Actually tripling down on methods and policies that don’t work).
I have a party at my home tomorrow and I need to catch some Zzzzzzzzzzzz’s.
I strongly urge you to learn about the Laffer Curve and begin to think of conservatives who want life to work for EVERYONE!