If you have a point to make, please make it. I understand you're not happy, why? Specifically. Put all those stats at your fingertips into a position statement, rather than one-liner retorts. You seem to be well informed, so spread the wealth, and inform the rest of us. And, if possible, tie it in with the tea parties

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

Quote:

Originally Posted by el presidente 2009 $106,800 6.2% $6,621.60 2008 $102,000 6.2% $6,324.00 2007 $97,500 6.2% $6,045.00 2006 $94,200 6.2% $5,840.40 2005 $90,000 6.2% $5,580.00 2004 $87,900 6.2% $5,449.80 2003 $87,000 6.2% $5,394.00 2001 $80,400 6.2% $4,984.80 2000 $76,200 6.2% $4,724.40 1999 $72,600 6.2% $4,501.20 1998 $68,400 6.2% $4,240.80 1997 $65,400 6.2% $4,054.80 1996 $62,700 6.2% $3,887.40 1995 $61,200 6.2% $3,794.40 1994 $60,600 6.2% $3,757.20 1993 $57,600 6.2% $3,571.20 1992 $55,500 6.2% $3,441.00 1991 $53,400 6.2% $3,310.80

OK, I get it, you have no position, but you can cut and paste. Great. Bye now

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

sigh... another wiki-researcher....

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

These are Republican Party functions, organized by Fox News. If it was some sort of spontaneous public outcry that included all slices of the population and electorate, they might matter, but it wasn't, it was just more GOP campaign rallies for a campaign that is over, the same crowd of white faces, the same anti-Obama rhetoric, the same mischaracterization and demonization of Democrats as socialists and communists, in the, yawn......

Since Obama campaigned, as you say, and the voters voted for him, it is obvious the electorate wants to raise taxes on the rich, who essentially ran a government that borrowed money to give themselves cash. That's the problem the GOP has, they claim to be tax and spend cutters, when in practice, they are just tax cutters. If they had had the guts to really cut spending to get revenues in line with tax cuts, they'd still be in office. They didn't. They ain't.

What planet are you from, again?

Really, I was hoping you were going to put together a position. You seem well informed, and believe it or not, I was hoping to gain some insight from your post. All too often here, you get to debating something, and the response is cut-and-paste wiki. I really don't sit down with tax code and read, so my opinions are formed from what is touted as news, and most of that is contradicted by news sources with different financial backing. So, I was here, thinking that you, (I'm guessing, a business owner?) might enlighten me with your first hand interaction with the tax laws, possibly even with projections of how the proposed changes would affect you.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

Given the fact he thinks average trades people are pulling in $150k and up a year, he may be a tad out of touch....

I have no problem with taxes. They help pave roads, sponser programs and about a million other useful things. And I especially have no problem with the rich paying their far share of taxes. Warren Buffet was on CBS I belive it was and said something along the lines of "I paid less percentage on my taxes than any of my employees. That doesn't seem right to me." So there you go.

From IRS 2006 statistics.
Returns filed = 106,658,744
95% would equal 101,325,835 returns.
The "top 5%" would mean the highest 5,332,939 filers.

The number of returns filed with AGI over $200,000 was 3,116,220.
The top 5%, therefore, would extend to about 2.2 million taxpayers having AGI less than $200,000.
Just going strictly by the numbers.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/06in35tr.xls

I believe Obama said that those making 2.2million would not see a change. No cut, no increase.



These tea parties are clearly partisan. This is hardly the first administration to spend more than it takes in. If the deficit was such a big deal to these people, the tea parties would be in their 8th year. If tax increases were such a big deal, we would've seen them in '91, '92.


I worked last year as a cabinetmaker. Hourly wage. I paid a bigger percentage of my income than some top 5% families I know.

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1984 300TD

The 100 to 200k AGI range includes 12 million returns. I'd say the highest 2.2 mil of those would be above 160-165,000. No further detadil is published.

But these numbers don't mean much, because the "95%" promise is just so much talk anyway. IMHO, of course.

Of course there is waste in government and hopefully Obama will be true to his word and try to stop it. And yes I have a problem with it.

I cruised through my usual list of left-wing websites this morning expecting to find a bunch of stories of tea party participants acting like fools. There was some of that, but the left-wing coverage seemed somewhat subdued, so maybe there is some legitimacy to this "movement" even though it is funded and promoted by wealthy special interest groups. And yes, I believe Fox News has become a special interest group.

To the extent the tea party people want to influence people like me, they need to distance themselves from Sean Hannity. If he is promoting the movement, then I know it is at least partially fraudulent. I don't have the time or interest to separate which part is legit and which part is phoney.

I don't mind paying taxes as a part of shared social responsibility.

But some of my tax dollars subsidize a metropolitan school system (Detroit) that is so incompetent and corrupt that it is $ 440,000,000.00 in the HOLE!

It cannot explain where it spent/lost/misplaced $ 14,000,000.00 and it can't explain what bills totaling $ 33,000,000.00.

In the meantime, only 26% of public school students graduate.

The entire Public School admin council is, PER INDIVIDUAL, paid over $150,000.00 each, for nine months' work. They also each get a chauffered car or a city-paid driver and car.

The superintendent, who is paid 300,000.00 per year, was fired, and gets
$ 750,000.00 in severance, which people are now trying to revoke via civil suit.

The state finally stepped in but has not been able to find enough information to unscramble this very large plate of eggs.

This is not greedy white people, either.
The administrators, superintendent, and 96% of the local population is black. No race has a monopoly on greed, cronyism, corruption and incompetence.

The point: Taxes paid without accountability is what frustrates me.

Most people seem apathetic and just do what the Russian serfs did: avoid them. Bury the coins in jars in the garden. (actually they use plastic bags that have been connected to the dehydrator to take the air out and keep the freshness in!)

I knew there would be a use for all those gizmos advertised on late-night TV...

Unemployment in Detroit proper is 29%
in Metro Detroit 22%
In Michigan as a whole: 14%

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6