US Election 2020

[Tero]

Republicans officially start work on impeaching Biden after he wins:

Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, announced in a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray that their panels "are reviewing potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama administration."

Grassley and Johnson specifically cited Hunter Biden's position on the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company, writing that it "is unclear whether Hunter Biden received government sponsored travel or a protective detail for these endeavors." The New York Times has reported that Hunter Biden made approximately $50,000 a month in that role.
The letter also specifically points to a particular trip that both Bidens made to China in 2013.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/politics ... index.html

[pErvinalia]

It's not illegal to make money.

[JimC]

It's not illegal to make money.

Property is theft!

[Hermit]

It's not illegal to make money.

Property is theft!

No! Taxation is theft! That's why billionaires so rightfully shift their profits to tax havens. [/Seth]

[Sean Hayden]

The bottom 50% pay less than 4% of taxes. The 1% pay the most. The trend of paying less continues for corporations.

But innit just a way to avoid talking about the income disparity? Taxes, taxes, taxes! It's all a hill of beans to me. I mean, I don't give a shit that you and yours are paying 30+ % of income taxes, the gulf between our incomes is astrofuckinnomical, asshat.

[Hermit]

The bottom 50% pay less than 4% of taxes. The 1% pay the most.

Income taxes. When all other forms of taxation are taken into consideration the picture looks rather less lopsided.



https://theintercept.com/2019/04/13/tax ... tatistics/

[Tero]

That's completely fair. Tax the rich for income, and the inheritance. Let their kids learn to be greedy capitalists after we take a cut. Plus the trophy wife gets a little, a lump sum pension. And a lifetime pass to Mar-a-lago.

[Tero]

A book on American voters in the current era including the election and the impeachment..it discusses the parties mostly.
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Were-Polariz ... 4142a34c55
you can read a good number of pages in the LOOK INSIDE window.

I would get that book, but I have put a block on book spending till we have taxes and travel paid first.

[Sean Hayden]

Sure, anyone who has to pay for things understands that it makes little difference they're paying significantly less in federal income tax. That's why I focused on income. Taxes, taxes, taxes! It's all a hill of beans to me. However, the assumptions, and some of the data behind the graph Hermit posted have been disputed. It's not easy for an average Joe to get an accurate picture.

[Tero]

I'm not that happy with property taxes. I think we could fix schools, or build them, just adding 0.5% to city level income tax.

[Tero]

(The Onion, but again, likely the outcome)

[Hermit]

However, the assumptions, and some of the data behind the graph Hermit posted have been disputed.

Of course they are. It's par for the course. The same people who dispute those tax data also dispute the data behind this graph:

It's not easy for an average Joe to get an accurate picture.

Seeding doubt and confusion ensures average Joe's inability to get it. Here we call it "pulling the wool over one's eyes". Billionaire media owners have the wherewithal to employ lots of henchmen to do just that.

[Tero]

I'm not that happy with property taxes. I think we could fix schools, or build them, just adding 0.5% to city level income tax.

My annual property tax is 1.6% of the value of the house. Fortunately property values are relatively low. But I've already paid off the house and this comes around every year. You can pay it in two parts.

[pErvinalia]

Socialism! We don't pay property taxes here on house value. Only on unimproved land value.

[Sean Hayden]

However, the assumptions, and some of the data behind the graph Hermit posted have been disputed.

Of course they are. It's par for the course. The same people who dispute those tax data also dispute the data behind this graph:

It's not easy for an average Joe to get an accurate picture.

Seeding doubt and confusion ensures average Joe's inability to get it. Here we call it "pulling the wool over one's eyes". Billionaire media owners have the wherewithal to employ lots of henchmen to do just that.

Jason Furman, Obama's pick to chair the Council of Economic Advisers is unlikely to fit your description of people who are skeptical of the study. A quick search shows he freely admits the rich pay too little in taxes. No, I think the problem is that it is genuinely difficult to get a clear picture here.

This is a graph Furman came up with in response to yours:



--graph fight!

His main concern was that the study did not include the refundable part of EITC. Others pointed out that most literature differs from Saez-Zucman, some of their sources are missing or incorrectly identified, or that they're using novel interpretations of key figures.

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to evaluate it. So, I said it's hard for the average Joe to get a clear picture.