Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

AMEN, Liz! Well said.

Don't even get me started on all this. I can't stand all this hate the "rich" business. Every person I know who is in the higher income bracket has worked hard to get where they are and they work hard every day to remain where they are. Why punish them because they worked hard and made good choices? They were not "lucky." You make your own luck based on choices and hard work. Live within your means, no matter your income. It's pretty dang simple. And when you choose to not live within your means, deal with the flippin' consequences, don't look to people who have more to give up what they work for to bail your a$$ out. Yeah, I feel pretty strongly about this.

I don't believe in taking from one group to give to another PERIOD, and I don't believe in taxing the higher income brackets more. It's that simple.
I believe in the Fair Tax.

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

Exactly, Liz. Thank you for making this point.

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

I would be slaughtered for my liberal opinion here, but I think people in Bush and Cheney's wealth catagory can afford to do more. They get all the tax breaks anyone making less than they are (including those who make $200,000 a year) cannot get. A lot of them inherited their wealth. Sure they pay some taxes, but they pay a much lower precentage of their annual income than the average American. I am talking about the top 1%. Frankly, being born into a wealthy family with a $5 million a year trust fund, doesn't strike me as hard work. He's my senator and he's done for me, but Jay Rockefeller and his family can pay more. They would be no where near the streets or even out of their mansions, if they lost 3/4's of their income for some reason.

Compared to some, Paris Hilton is hard working, but I really don't have a lot of sympathy for her tax burden. I'm sure she pays more than some. Tom Cruise, I am not crying my eyes out for your tax burden either and I can see you earned the money! Famous actors aren't even the richest people in America. But they do pay, because if they don't they end up in court and on Entertainment Tonight raked over the coals.

But there are people so rich, that they pay next to nothing because they can hide the money in off shore accounts, tax havens, etc. Yeah, those people can pay more. because they make more at the expense of the rest of America. We have to buy their products. We don't have any choice in the matter for the most part.

I have no sympathy for someone living like the Queen of England on their great, great granddaddy's efforts.

Good grief government, if a company has been blacklisted for providing substandard goods and services or nothing at all, do not give them another contract!

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

Lenora, just because these people HAVE more and CAN pay more doesn't mean the government is ENTITLED to taking more from them. That's the thing. The government doesn't have a right to take from one group to give to another. Everyone is in a certain tax bracket already. My husband is in a higher tax bracket than our next door neighbor because Kyle makes more money than Jon. So not only does he make more money, he is taxed at a higher rate because of it. And you know, Jon has a college eduation. He chose his career path, knowing full well what the pay would be. Kyle, on the other hand, went to work at Delta right out of high school and has worked his butt off to get where he is. He works very hard for the money he makes, and yet, because his job pays better than others, he is taxed higher. So, yes, I have a problem with that. And honestly, you don't think that George Bush has ever worked hard in his life? Yes, his family has money, but he has worked and had a lot of responsibility in both the private and government sectors.
And you are right, Paris Hilton didn't earn most of the money she has, she did inherit it, but someone, somewhere in her family did work hard and earn that money, and it was THEIR money to leave to their heirs. So, I don't begrudge Paris Hilton or the Rockefellers or anyone else who inherited money because somewhere down the line someone worked hard and made that money, held on to it, and left it to the ones they love and so forth. Just because their heirs didn't earn the money themselves doesn't make it any less theirs or give anyone else the right to take it from them.

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

Oh you so don't want me on this, but apparently I can't hold my tongue. This is going to hit us because Billy works his ass off to make good money. HOWEVER, he put himself through a private law school and he owes over $100,000 in student loans. So his take home pay doesn't just stay here so we can eat bonbons off of gold platters.

This is going to create such class warfare... I will never understand why the govt should be entitled to anyone's money because they are successful (or their ancestors were successful). The entitlement mentality that has overcome this country is really upsetting to me. I have never looked at a wealthy person and thought that I should get the same just because. The American dream is that you WORK hard to receive the benefits.

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

Well said, Dana! That is what I have been trying to say all along, you just said it more concisely.
Kyle and I were just talking about this at lunch, and he told me that I can stop looking for a job because it won't benefit us for me to go back to work because with Obama's new plan, we'll be taxed higher because we'll be considered "rich" if I go back to work. How sad is that? And believe me, we are FAR from anyone's definition of rich.
I was thinking about my BIL and sister. Like Billy, my BIL is a patent attorney, and he, too, put himself through private law school. (I would also like to add that he did this while working full time as an engineer AND he is paralyzed from the waist down--and no, he didn't get ANY special grant money to go to law school--he and my sister paid for it and he also got student loans). So now my BIL makes good money, but he has worked hard and used his own time and money getting a good education. He came from a middle class family (dad was retired Air Force, not an officer, and mom was in the Air Force for a while and became a SAHM), so believe me his parents didn't pay for his school. He worked his way through GA Tech and earned his engineering degree, and did the same for law school. He's earned everything he has, and now because he is well educated and works hard and is compensated for that, the government thinks it's acceptable to take from him to give to those who have less? BULLS---!
I mean, if my BIL can persevere through being paralyzed at 29, and then go on to put himself through law school at Loyola, while working full time and being in a wheelchair, then I just can't believe anyone really has an excuse to not better themselves, and he didn't get one single hand out through this, so if he can do this without welfare or government aid, I would say 99% of the population should be able to do the same.

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

What if you found out these people actually pay less money every year in tax money than you do? Not just less percentage wise, but less period. Say the person get $5 million a year from their trust fund and when tax time comes around they pay $0. Would that still be fair? Why should you guys pay more in actual cash money than a multi billionare.

As for Paris Hilton, she was disinherited not long ago. She gets $0 in trust fund money. All that she has, she earned herself. Jay Rockefeller himself has said he should pay more taxes.

Why should middle class people pay 30% of their annual income a billionaire pay .1%?

Re: Obama budget: Mammoth deficits but headed lower

Besides, I have a choice in supporting Paris Hilton. I don't have to buy her products. I don't have to watch her movies. ConAgra Foods on the other hand, has us all over a barrel. How many of us can raise all our own food? Or Johnson and Johnson? Care to make your own drugs?

Oh well, there's no sense arguing with people whose minds are set.