Reply #27: his first error is to call taxes some sort of punishment

[hfojvt]

Secondly, I think this is wrong "Republicans may insist with flawless logic that seizing resources from business people does nothing to encourage them to expand, invest or create jobs."

The idea that most of the rich are businesspeople is wrong. Also, it seems to me that lower taxes are a disincentive to hire. If the tax rate is 30% and my business makes another $100,000 then I am probably gonna choose to keep it. However, if the tax rate is 70% then I might as well use the money to hire somebody, because the government is gonna just take it anyway. Hiring and investment become a way to avoid higher tax rates. Because employee costs are tax deductible and money that I put into my business is not taxed either. For every $1 I pay an employee in salary and benefits I save then 70 cents on my taxes. So a higher tax rate makes employees cheaper to me. If the tax rate is lowered, then wages effectively become more expensive.

Third, looking at tax share is not the best measure. The total pie has gotten smaller, so the share of the rich getting bigger is a way to cover up their huge gains. In 2001, the top .1% paid an average rate of 28.2% in Federal income taxes and got 8.1% of all income. By 2007 (pre-recession) they got 11.9% of all income and paid an average rate of 21.46%. Their total income was $1.05 trillion so they gained $70.35 billion from the Bush tax cuts in 2007 alone.

Now the tax rate for the bottom 50% was 4.09 in 2001 and it was 2.99 in 2007. Total income for the bottom 50% was $1.08 trillion (how about that a whole .03 trillion more than the top .1%?). Our savings from the Bush tax cuts - a mere $11.9 billion. That's 1/6th as much money going to 500 times more people. Meaning that for every $1 a person in the bottom 50% got from the Bush tax cuts, a person in the top .1% got $3,000 (did I mention that their average income is $7.55 million?).

So an argument that the Bush tax cuts has increased the rich's share of income taxes paid - isn't worth a dram of spit to me. Although if you do make that argument to me, I will happily deposit said dram of spit into your right eye.