‘Misconceptions and Realities About Who Pays Taxes’

I posted this last Sept. 18th.

I know that with the release of Ryan’s budget, we’ll hear that wonderful refrain of ‘skin in the game’ from the Republicans.

After all…..Republicans tell us ‘poor people don’t pay taxes’.

Turns out they do.

Which begs the question just how much poorer do Republicans want the poor to be?

‘Tax Policy Center data show that only about 17 percent of households did not pay any federal income tax or payroll tax in 2009, despite the high unemployment and temporary tax cuts that marked that year’.

‘In 2007, a more typical year, the figure was 14 percent. This percentage would be even lower if it reflected other federal taxes that households pay, including excise taxes on gasoline and other items’.

‘Most of the people who pay neither federal income tax nor payroll taxes are low-income people who are elderly, unable to work due to a serious disability, or students, most of whom subsequently become taxpayers’.

‘(In years like the last few, this group also includes a significant number of people who have been unemployed the entire year and cannot find work.’)

‘Moreover, low-income households as a group do, in fact, pay federal taxes’.

‘Congressional Budget Office data show that the poorest fifth of households paid an average of 4.0 percent of their incomes in federal taxes in 2007, the latest year for which these data are available — not an insignificant amount given how modest these households’ incomes are; the poorest fifth of households had average income of $18,400 in 2007’.

‘ The next-to-the bottom fifth — those with incomes between $20,500 and $34,300 in 2007 — paid an average of 10.6 percent of their incomes in federal taxes’.

‘Moreover, even these figures greatly understate low-income households’ total tax burden because these households also pay substantial state and local taxes’.

‘Data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy show that the poorest fifth of households paid a stunning 12.3 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes in 2011.
From : http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3505

Flash back to Paul Ryan’s budget last year – ‘Paul Ryan’s Budget Plan: More Big Tax Cuts for the Rich’

 

And that took 40 years to ‘balance the budget’.

Imagine the magic Ryan will have to preform so ‘balance the budget’ in just 10 years.

The Tax Policy Center’s take on Paul Ryans budget last year :

‘No surprise here, but the tax cuts in Paul Ryan’s 2013 budget plan would result in huge benefits for high-income people and very modest—or no— benefits for low income working households, according to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center’.

‘TPC looked only at the tax reductions in Ryan’s plan, which also included offsetting–but unidentified–cuts in tax credits, exclusions, and deductions’.

‘TPC found that in 2015, relative to today’s tax system, those making $1 million or more would enjoy an average tax cut of $265,000 and see their after-tax income increase by 12.5 percent’.

‘By contrast, half of those making between $20,000 and $30,000 would get no tax cut at all’.

‘On average, people in that income group would get a tax reduction of $129. Ryan would raise their after-tax income by 0.5 percent’.

‘Nearly all middle-income households (those making between $50,000 and $75,000) would see their taxes fall, by an average of roughly $1,000. Ryan would increase their after-tax income by about 2 percent’.
From : http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2012/03/23/paul-ryans-budget-plan-more-big-tax-cuts-for-the-rich/

 

Put America Back To Work – ‘Report: Half trillion need to update schools’

Just imagine the jobs we’d create just by upgrading our schools to today’s standards.

We live in a ‘Global World’. A child in Washington State isn’t just competing with a child in Iowa.

Both are competing with children in China, India, Brazil and the rest of the World.

Thier futures depend on the education we give them today.

But instead it’s time for more tax cuts for the ‘job creators’ so they can move that extra profit over seas so they don’t have to payt taxes.

“Nearly 20 years later, in a country where public education is meant to serve as the great equalizer for all of its children, we are still struggling to provide equal opportunity when it comes to the upkeep, maintenance and modernization of our schools and classrooms,” former President Bill Clinton wrote in his introduction to the report’.

“It’s a secret that we’re keeping because it’s shameful and embarrassing to us as a country,” said Rachel Gutter, director of the group affiliated with the U.S. Green Building Council’.

WASHINGTON (AP) — ‘America’s schools are in such disrepair that it would cost more than $270 billion just to get elementary and secondary buildings back to their original conditions and twice that to get them up to date, a report released Tuesday estimated’.

‘The Center for Green Schools’ researchers reviewed spending and estimates schools spent $211 billion on upkeep between 1995 and 2008. During that same time, schools should have spent some $482 billion, the group calculated based on a formula included in the most recent GAO study’.

‘That left a $271 billion gap between what should have been spent on upkeep and what was, the group reported. Each student’s share? Some $5,450’.

‘To update and modernize the buildings, the figure doubles, to $542 billion over the next decade’.
From : http://www.boston.com/news/education/2013/03/11/report-half-trillion-need-update-schools/uN2hyfcynvXz9XyyB3LMNP/story.html

 

Why America Is Failing – ‘The Fastest Growing Job In America Pays Less Than $10 Per Hour’

“Poor people need to put ‘skin in the game'” says Paul Ryan.

When we as a Nation, sit on our hands as our politicians pass legislation giving huge tax breaks to the ‘job creators’, corporations, and even more legislation allowing those self serving same companies to move, hide their profits off shore so as to avoid paying taxes…..

And when we as a Nation sit on our hands as Republican politicians propose budgets that CUT spending and funding for the programs such as food stamps, health care, housing, transportation…….programs that help those that care for our elderly…….

‘They swap out bed pans, tend to wounds, and assist with every facet of day-to-day life — sometimes even living with their patients’.

‘They’re home health care aides, and they are a crucial resource in caring for America’s sick, elderly, and disabled — and they do it all for an average wage of $9.70 per hour, less than the mean hourly compensation for lifeguards, food servers, and dry cleaners’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/11/1698071/home-health-aid-fastest-growing-job/

Why America Is Failing – ‘Awash In Record Profits, Corporations Shift Even More To Offshore Tax Havens’

I am most likely like 90% of Americans.

I have pledged allegiance to my Country all my life.

I live In Washington State which pays more to the Federal Government in taxes then we get back. I live next to Idaho which gets more from the Federal Government then it pays in taxes.

But if Idaho were in trouble, I’d want my State and the Federal Government to step up and help them.

We are the United States of America.(Something teabaggers have forgotten.)

We Americans know we are all in this together.

Corporations are neither people nor do they pledge allegiance to our Country.

They pledge allegiance to their profits.

We are in a unique position to watch as the very ‘rats’ that benefited the most from our economic colaspe, are now deserting the ‘sinking ship’.

– – – – – – –

‘Even as American corporations are raking in record profits, the largest among them are shifting larger amounts of money away from the United States and into offshore tax havens that allow them to pad their bottom lines even more, according to multiple analyses of legal filings made since the beginning of 2013’.

‘The Wall Street Journal found that the 60 largest companies moved $166 billion offshore in 2012, shielding 40 percent of their earnings from American taxes and costing the U.S. billions in lost revenue’:

“The amount of money at stake is significant”.

“Just 19 of the 60 companies in the Journal’s survey disclose the tax hit they could face if they brought the money back to their U.S. parent”.

“Those companies say they might have to pay $98 billion in additional tax—more than the $85 billion in automatic-spending cuts triggered this month after the White House and Congress couldn’t agree on an alternative”.

“A similar analysis from Bloomberg found that 83 of the largest American companies moved $183 billion overseas in 2012, bringing the total offshore to $1.46 trillion for those 83 companies alone’.

‘Most of the companies, like Apple, Microsoft, and Yahoo, have set up subsidiaries in low-tax countries like Bermuda, Ireland, and the Cayman Islands specifically to receive tax benefits’.

‘That has ramifications for states, which lost $42 billion in revenue to corporate tax dodging in the last three years alone, and taxpayers and small businesses, who often have to pick up the tab’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/03/11/1699101/corporate-profits-tax-havens/?mobile=nc