Most Americans Want Tax Cuts for the Rich to Expire

[FreakinDJ]

Most Americans Want Tax Cuts for the Rich to Expire

Posted by Stephanie Condon September 15
While leaders in Washington remain divided over whether to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans, as President Obama has proposed, just over half of Americans think it is a good idea, a new CBS News/ New York Times poll shows.

The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, and Mr. Obama has strongly urged Congress to extend them for everyone except for Americans making more than $200,000 or households making more than $250,000. Republicans and some moderate Democrats, by contrast, have called for an extension of all the tax cuts.

Fifty-three percent of Americans agree with Mr. Obama that the tax cuts for the wealthy should be allowed to expire, while 38 percent do not, according to the poll, conducted Sept. 10-14

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20016602-503544.html

[handmade34]

1. what the f*#*k is wrong with

the 44% of people making less than $250,000 that think this is a bad idea or don't know?????

We need a better education system in these United States.

[dkf]

4. What does tax policy have to do with education?

Isn't this more of a values call? Some people don't believe in redistribution of wealth and some do. I'm not sure you can pin that down to education or lack thereof.

[FreakinDJ]

5. Who said any thing about "Redistribution of Wealth"

Paying a "Fair Share" is NOT Redistribution of Wealth

Better question is "How Much of their Wealth is TAX DEFERRED"

The ONLY thing high tax rates on the Wealthy Elite does is GIVE them incentives to place more of their annual accumulation of wealth into Tax Deferred instruments. Any one who claims the Wealthy actually pay tax rates of 20% or higher is LYING

[tavalon]

7. Redistribution of wealth is a right wing meme, right up there with Death Tax

[dkf]

9. So how do you differentiate between redistribution and progressive taxes?

To me progressive taxes means a person with more pays more, but at the low end they pay nothing. Redistribution is where the high end pays and the low end receives.

I am okay with the first but have problems with the second just because I think everyone needs to feel like they own this government and that necessitates being invested in funding this Government.

It is too easy to want benefits that you never expect to pay for.

[FreakinDJ]

13. AGAIN - the Wealthy pay a LOWER % in Taxes then poor

Even with the Top tiered tax rate at 40% they still pay a lower % of their earnings in taxes then persons making less then $50K annually

This IS NOT about Redistribution but rather Paying their Fair Share

[tavalon]

16. That's a better framing

Thank you. We don't have to be lockstep and I don't think many Democrats would agree to that, but damn, we could get better at message framing and distribution. The Republicans kick our ass on that one. Death Taxes? No such thing. Death Panels? Only at your insurance company. Redistribution of Wealth brings Dangerous Socialism to mind and that is just what the Republicans want us to think (It even evokes the negative feeling in me and I AM a Socialist!) Framing works and we would do well to learn it.

[tavalon]

14. Progressive taxation is a Democratic idea, and yet

your last sentence could have come off of Limbaugh's show. We're you possibly raised in a Republican household and still have some of those misguided memes running their scripts? I know I was and did when I was younger. Now, I just see the desperation in other people's eyes and the only Welfare Queens I've seen have been Wall Street Moguls. I promise you, my ex-husband takes an emotional hit every week in taking that check that doesn't cover even half of his expenses. He's been out of work for 2 years and he's losing hope and his check as of today. I don't see how he keeps going and I keep wondering if I'm going to hear that he killed himself. Of course, he won't because his wife is disabled and he would never abandon someone who is dependent on him.

I'm sure their have to be a few people here or there who are grifters (Palin comes to mind) and expect free money to rain from the sky. I've never personally met one, but the law of averages says there must be some. Have you personally met any?

[dkf]

27. Temporary assistance is one thing.

But a permanent structure when only half pay and the other half receives is not a good thing.

I can see using a progressive system to determine who pays the check. But it's like going to a restaurant and the top half not only pays the entire bill, but gives the bottom half money just because.

A democracy where a majority votes to receive isn't a responsible one. That is kind of what we have now with the Bush tax cuts. We decided to raid the piggy bank.

[theophilus]

12. Yes. You. Can. People who vote against their own self interest need to

be educated. "Redistribution of wealth" is a Right Wing canard. Sharing our common citizenship requires that the have mores help out the have littles. It is in the best interest of the have mores. They avoid being eaten and can feel as if they contribute to the common good. My opinion.

[handmade34]

15. education and critical thinking

helps us understand better how economies work, our history and why a few accumulate such excessive wealth (often by exploiting others). Yes, I think education is key to many of the concerns we are facing.

Yes, agreed there are a very few that stick to principles and it can be called a value's call. The Republican's idea behind the tax cut extension is to promote job growth.... there has been no proof/indication that the tax cuts have created such jobs... why would most normal people want to extend something that does not benefit society and costs them in the long run?? Education about such things helps people truly understand as opposed to relying on propaganda and innuendo

[FreakinDJ]

21. I want to see proof "Tax Cuts to Wealthy" creates jobs

How they have gotten away with that claim all these years without ever being call out to provide so much as 1 iota of empirical evidence supporting those claims is completely mind boggling to me

IN FACT - I have sufficient evidence to suggest the "Top Heavy Accumulation of Wealth Distribution" in this country causes Economic Recession



Notice the Wealth Distribution during 1920 - 1937

[handmade34]

23. K&R

[FreakinDJ]

25. More evidence for your viewing pleasure

[Angry Dragon]

26. Perhaps if the workers were paid a fair compensation

for their labor there would not be such a huge
disparity between the haves and the have nots

Is a ceo worth $15 million /yr??
What did they produce??

[murdoch]

20. The redistribution of wealth -

is from the working people who create the wealth...

...to the parasite heirs who expropriate their surplus labor value, like Paris Hilton and company.

[handmade34]

24. I always considered myself

a syndicalist but it got such a bad rap years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA

DENNIS: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior!
ARTHUR: Well, I AM king...
DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By
exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma
which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society!
If there's ever going to be any progress--
WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh -- how d'you do?
ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, King of the Britons.
Who's castle is that?
WOMAN: King of the who?
ARTHUR: The Britons.
WOMAN: Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR: Well, we all are. we're all Britons and I am your king.
WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous
collective.
DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship.
A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
WOMAN: Oh there you go, bringing class into it again.
DENNIS: That's what it's all about if only people would--
ARTHUR: Please, please good people. I am in haste. Who lives
in that castle?
WOMAN: No one live there.
ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?
WOMAN: We don't have a lord.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take
it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.
ARTHUR: Yes.
DENNIS: But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified
at a special biweekly meeting.
ARTHUR: Yes, I see.
DENNIS: By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,--
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: --but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more--
ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh -- who does he think he is?
ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, 'ow did you become king then?
..............

[bluethruandthru]

6. They watch Fox news non-stop and listen to rush, sean, et. al.

They truly believe that the rich are creating jobs with their personal wealth so the last thing they want to do is something that takes money away from the rich.
I think they also believe that one day they too will be rich and they don't want to pay alot of taxes! :crazy:

[Johonny]

18. I don't think they vote based on policy

they vote like it's a football game. They are team Republican and they want to win. They have a total disconnect between what winner means and what losing means policy wise.

[handmade34]

22. yup, hence the need for

education and critical thinking skills

"The critical habit of thought, if usual in society, will pervade all its mores, because it is a way of taking up the problems of life. Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators ... They are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain. They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence, uninfluenced by the emphasis or confidence with which assertions are made on one side or the other. They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens."

~ William Graham Sumner, Folkways, 1906

[SpiralHawk]

2. Republicon chickenhawk tax-dodgers should pay their fair share

for once. Even though Republicon fatcats imagine they are 'elite' they should be forced to act like honorable Americans for once in their lives, and pay for all the benefits they enjoy.

Shut and pay your fair share, RepubliCons.

[BlueJazz]

3. You know....just who in the hell are we suppose to get money from??

We can't get it from the poor or even the diminishing (so-called) middle class. Their wages have been going down for decades....while the Rich have enjoyed ever increasing...ah..well...Riches.
These so called "Cuts" of services, Social Security and Gas Hikes is just a con job from start to finish.
It's NOT going to solve the problem of our insane deficits.
We HAVE to get the money from those that have it....any other course of action is just a dog and pony show.

[ctaylors6]

8. I think it's because $250k doesn't seem super-rich to many

I often see threads on DU asking about that very thing. I think if a poll asked about $500,000 or even $400,000, there might be a significantly different result. I know that the percentage making $250k (jointly) is very low, but it probably doesn't seem ridiculously out of reach for two people combined. Maybe two people making $150,000 combined don't feel "rich" so they answer "bad idea" because $250,000 doesn't seem THAT much higher.

At least it's only 53% who said "bad idea." I was worried when I saw the headline ("most americans") that it would be over 70%.

[raccoon]

10. Oh, and you think TPTB give a happy rat's ass what the average Americans want?

:sarcasm:

Or should I do :sarcasm:? What I mean is, to the powerful, it doesn't matter what us ordinary Americans want.

[spanone]

11. politics is no longer about what the people want

[handmade34]

19. bingo!

politics has become the continuation of keeping the status quo (corprotocracy? plutocracy?...)

[RainDog]

17. k&r

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. 53% was back in September; now 67% want the >$250K tax cuts to expire

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4639886 and http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20024494-503544.html

26% want tax cuts for all to continue; 53% want the cuts only for $<250k; 14% want them to expire for everybody.

[spanone]

29. most americans want dadt to expire. most want tax breaks for the rich to expire

we have a government that it non-responsive to it's peoples wishes