Romney and the 47%
Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:44 am
This is exactly why we need the FairTax. It doesn't get any easier than this!
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer? ... irTaxWorks
-------------------------------------------
FORTUNE -- We've been hearing endless yammering lately about two seemingly unrelated things: that 47% of U.S. households don't pay income tax, and that Mitt Romney paid a lower effective tax rate on his $13.7 million of 2011 income than most American workers pay for just Social Security and Medicare.
Ironically, the reason so many U.S. households don't pay income tax, one of the conservatives' current laments, is largely attributable to policies pushed by two Presidents beloved by low-tax types: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Reagan expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Bush doubled the child care credit. Romney either didn't know this when he made his denigrating remarks about "the 47%," or else chose not to mention it. Putting things in perspective doesn't make for good applause lines.
The real problem here, I think, is that by using the tax code to advance social policy rather than to merely collect revenue, we've lost sight of the idea that all of us Americans are supposed to be engaged in a joint enterprise.
In an intellectually and morally honest system, we'd collect taxes from everyone. Then we'd mail checks to lower income people instead of giving them tax credits. We would also send checks to compensate people for some of their mortgage interest, real estate taxes, charitable contributions, and dividend and long-term capital gain income, rather than giving them tax money indirectly, via the tax code.
ref:
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/ ... 7-percent/
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer? ... irTaxWorks
-------------------------------------------
FORTUNE -- We've been hearing endless yammering lately about two seemingly unrelated things: that 47% of U.S. households don't pay income tax, and that Mitt Romney paid a lower effective tax rate on his $13.7 million of 2011 income than most American workers pay for just Social Security and Medicare.
Ironically, the reason so many U.S. households don't pay income tax, one of the conservatives' current laments, is largely attributable to policies pushed by two Presidents beloved by low-tax types: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Reagan expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Bush doubled the child care credit. Romney either didn't know this when he made his denigrating remarks about "the 47%," or else chose not to mention it. Putting things in perspective doesn't make for good applause lines.
The real problem here, I think, is that by using the tax code to advance social policy rather than to merely collect revenue, we've lost sight of the idea that all of us Americans are supposed to be engaged in a joint enterprise.
In an intellectually and morally honest system, we'd collect taxes from everyone. Then we'd mail checks to lower income people instead of giving them tax credits. We would also send checks to compensate people for some of their mortgage interest, real estate taxes, charitable contributions, and dividend and long-term capital gain income, rather than giving them tax money indirectly, via the tax code.
ref:
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/ ... 7-percent/