We would ultimately have to borrow from one or another sovereign wealth fund to finance a $100,000 dollar apiece gift to those top taxkeepers.
When asked how they plan to pay for it, however it is that they answer, the real answer is, "By eventually getting it from you."
Republican Claim #6: The top two percent of earners already pay thirty percent of federal taxes. Perhaps. It sounds about right with all factors taken into account. In 2007 the top 1% paid over 40% of the income tax revenues to the federal government while claiming around 22% of the total adjusted gross income. Beware that statistic though.
Adjusted gross income is what they admit to after their well paid accountants work their magic on reducing the actual income to the fiction that they pay taxes on. It also fails to take into account the considerable chunk of pelf that is represented by the dividend checks from their investments (you know, those jobs in China) on which they pay only 15% capital gains taxes. That's what inspired Warren Buffet to point out that his secretary pays a higher effective tax rate on her income than he does on his income.
It is instructive to note that the top marginal tax rate, even after the Bush tax cuts have lapsed, will be historically low. In 1952 with the top marginal tax rate at 92% rich people paid their taxes and were still rich afterwards. We may safely expect that no greater harm will befall our shamelessly put upon modern rich, and if I am wrong, I'm sure that some of my fellow beneficiaries of their largesse will gladly loan them a crying towel.
Republican Claim #7: Democrats are trying to wage class warfare. If they insist on couching the situation in those terms, we must observe that Republicans have been waging unremitting class warfare since the robber baron expressed their first disdain at the unwashed masses. Their beef seems to be that they had a lot more fun waging unilateral class warfare than they expect to have with this bilateral type. Once again, citing Warren Buffet, who is in a position to know, when asked about fomenting class warfare, he replied, "There's class warfare all right, but it's my class, the rich class that's making war, and we're winning."
If the Republican Party wishes to hold their breath and kick the chairs and withhold sensible votes from the legislation to extend the middle class tax relief for 98% of us, very well, they may do so, and adopt as their own the blame for everyone's taxes going up. Then after the Bush deficit builder has lapsed, the Democrats can introduce new legislation for Obama tax cuts so that they may watch Republicans line up to take it on the chin once again.
If you want to see a Republican fume and sputter, back one into a corner and neutralize their talking points with these responses. Being in a corner, they'll have a choice of walls to bang their heads on and it'll do them a world of good.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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