Back in June I said this…
I want every working person in the country to pay Federal Income Taxes.
I don’t care if you make $10k a year, pay something, pay $100 (1%). Everyone should have some skin in the game so you’ll care. If you have nothing in the game then why should you care about government waste, pension abuses, healthcare cost overruns, tax rates…johnd @ Wed 6 Jun 9:53 PM
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I was watching Meet The Press this morning and David Gregory talked about his question to VA Senator debaters Kaine and Allen if there should be a “minimum” Federal Tax amount for ALL Americans and Democratic candidate Kane said he could support something like that. Asked about that question, Gov Patrick said he also could support something like that because “everyone would have some skin in the game”. Hmm…
I do wish everyone could pay into the Federal Income tax system since everyone would maybe care a little more about the system and where the money goes. Let’s be honest, if you aren’t paying into a system, how concerned are you about where that money goes? A starting point would be letting the Bush tax cuts expire which itself removed million soy Americans from paying ANY Federal Income taxes.
As I said back in June, I don’t care if it was even $100 bucks, we should all pay something!
…what if you don’t have any income. You pay this tax anyway?
If you will just try to think like a Republicanine for a moment, I believe you will notice without much difficulty that the Lucky Duckies do not get free apartments, or free groceries, or free much of anything else simply because they do not have what is (rather technically) called ‘income’. Even a small discount on that basis is rare.
Why should government be any different?
Happy days.
.
“if you aren’t paying into a system, how concerned are you about where that money goes?”
Lousy shiftless non-American poor people — who tend to vote Republican.
…but I’m still citizen enough to care how our money is spent thank you very much!
What’s next? Referring to yourself in the 3rd person? Too funny …
kirth thinks that johnd has never been so poor that $100 looks like a lot of money. When he couldn’t scrape up money to buy gas, or the $50 for a physical he needed to apply for a job, $100 was real money to kirth. So kirth disagrees with johnd. Even though he’s doing well now, kirth still remembers those days, and he will never be that particular kind of asshole who wishes more poverty on the already poor.
Sorry you think the Governor and Senator Kaine are assholes. I do still remember the days which is why I still use coupons whenever I shop, eat everything off my plate and save shit in my house that I can use for something else.. some day. I don’t know you so I won’t judge you. However, I feel very happy for all the “work” I do for poor people vs the bullshit talking that I hear from so many other people. See you at the next food drive because you know I’ll fucking be there!
Their kids don’t need that gallon of milk every week! Retired people don’t need to that prescription medicine every day! That disabled vet doesn’t really need a T pass – let her walk to the hospital!
Only people who have no notion of what poverty really is, what hunger really means, can say things like “pay $100, that’s not much money”.
When we started out on our own, we weren’t “professionals” and we weren’t making all that much. We did OK, but every week, every month was a careful juggling act.
And by no means were we part of the baseline working poor, either. We made more than minimum wage, definitely.
Someone living on less than what we made back then, and trying to, say, raise a kid or two…I don’t even know how they would do it. I mean, we were at times way back then in the ramen-noodle pasta-every-night category. What the hell is BELOW that?? Starving??
So yeah, $100 may not sound like much, but but buys a shitload of pasta and ramen, and might BE the difference between starving and eating. No, the working poor should NOT have the same tax burden as the rest of us, and should be exempt up to a certain point. It’s called a progressive income tax and it’s the foundation of tax fairness.
But maybe you could go back to those days and see how much you paid for Fed Income taxes. I bet it wasn’t zero! I remember those days when couldn’t make ends meet, bill collectors chasing me down, thoughts of bankruptcy… they sucked. But if I go back I bet you lunch I paid some taxes which is why I may have cared a little more about elections and what they did with those taxes.
I’m good with progressive income taxes too!
but don’t poor people already have taxes taken out of their check and then get it returned like I do? Albeit with a bonus?
The entire meme is stupid, misleading, and racist. Most of those who pay no federal income tax are working poor who receive the EIC — a program for keeping people OFF welfare that received strong bi-partisan support until the latest wave of right-wing hysterics.
Significant numbers of that 47% (seniors and veterans) live in RED states and reliably vote Republican. The meme is red-meat for white racist working-class poor men and women who say “Even though I don’t pay income tax, I work my tail off — it’s those lazy damned fill-in-your-favorite-scapegoat that cause the problem.”
The Democrats acknowledge the existence of this demographic, but work hard to help them overcome their prejudices. The GOP flagrantly and directly panders to them.
This election will turn on which approach proves more effective.
Governor Patrick is a racist! Go tell him Tom.
I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
Many of Johnds posts call to mind the phrase “tiny brained wiper of Other people’s bottom…”
n/t just funny.
As the New York Times noted, Ronald Reagan called expansion of the earned income tax credit “the best antipoverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.” How’d that go over with the right wingers?
The whole point of lowering the number of low-income people paying federal income tax was to increase the incentive to get a job, even if it’s low paid, and move people off of public assistance. Republicans used to be in favor of that.
I’m sorry you find the Governor’s words and Senator Kaine’s remarks so offensive OR… are they still ok but you just disdain my words?
Either way, you’re so off base. If you think I don’t now what it’s like to be poor then you just don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
But my point was, and still is, nobody cares about anything unless they have some skin or responsibility in it. Nobody cares how they drink at an open bar since they don’t have to pay for it. They get a Corona, take a sip and put it down, then go get another Corona because… it’s free! If they’re paying for it, they drink those Buds to the last drop.
You can disagree with my feelings and that’s ok but I don’t think you’re part of the solution to encourage everyone in this country to care enough about it to fix it. And the funny thing about this subject is many of you know damn well it’s true. Imagine… Hey they’re thinking of raising the tax on cigarettes to $3.00 a pack… who cares, I don’t smoke! How about we raise income taxes, who cares, I don’t pay any income taxes. How about we raise Medicare fees? NFW! That’s my money you want to touch.
I don’t agree with Patrick on everything (although I have agreed with a lot of things he’s done for MA) and I think this issue he may be right on. Anyone who lives in this country and enjoys the services which our tax revenue provides for (defense, transportation…) should pay in to it. I really wouldn’t even care if they raised the minimum wage 10% and then asked for the workers to pay that 10% into taxes so it wouldn’t touch their actual buying power, at least they would care about where the Fed spends its money.
…it would be logical to disqualify all men from making any decisions about abortion. After all, wouldn’t they just be saying, “Hey, I don’t have to worry about actually having to carry a baby inside my body for 9 months! Of course force all those women to carry to term!”
First of all, this is a highly emotional charged issue for people because it involves their faith/religion and they believe they do have some skin in the game. Second, men do have skin in the game since they are Fathers of babies. I know that you said you’re not a young person but can’t you remember so many things/times in your life where people didn’t care about something unless they were invested in it or had something at stake.
But thanks for replying.
This argument presupposes the point it fails to make.
EVERY worker pays into the economy. Most of the workers in question pay no federal income tax because the benefits they receive under the EIC exceed their federal tax obligations. They have “skin” in the game — and they meet the standard you yourself describe in your last sentence.
The only people who actually fit the criteria you imply are those who DO NOT work. That vanishingly-small demographic is the implicit target of this meme. The reality is that almost NOBODY fits that demographic — except in the fantasies of right-wing bigots and those who pander to them.
Republicans cut taxes to the point where certain people don’t pay federal income taxes. Then Republicans complain that certain people aren’t paying federal income taxes. It’s quite hilarious.
was a librul
Poverty, homelessness and hunger continue to increase thanks to the smashing success of the ongoing 30-year war against the 99%.
Many of those in dire straights are the working poor, who already pay 15% or so into SS and Medicare (and are now being told they can’t get a big chunk of that back) and sales tax. I’m not sure how we squeeze even more from them. Perhaps they can work a fourth $10-an-hour job with no benefits?
We need policies that grow the 47% back to incomes that pay taxes, rather than reducing the threshold at which one starts to pay federal taxes.
The question isn’t “Why do 47% of people not pay federal income tax?”. We should be asking “How do we get the economy working for more people, so that they can earn enough to pay federal income tax?” Also, as stated earlier, folks that are working (or on unemployment thanks to Reagan) are paying taxes during the year, they just get them all back at the end of the year. Also, wouldn’t taking more tax from the poorest 47% lower their ability to create demand by purchasing their everyday needs?
You’re talking against your talking points. If you want to make government small enough to drown it in the bathtub (since your boy Dubya could get Lake Pontchartrain to do the job…) then it is axiomatic that Federal Revenues must decrease: It is only fitting, according to your lights, that less and less people ought to pay into the system.
Or maybe you’re just confused.
In any event, de-centralized government that puts a premium on local control would, I daresay, be not at all alarmed at any percentage of persons not paying federal income tax. It might, in fact, be a rather valid indicator of the level of decentralization occurring.