It is time to check a few facts with respect to Barack Obama's income tax plan. Joe Biden made an interesting comment while talking about that income tax plan. He stated that rich Americans should be willing to pay more income taxes as a matter of patriotism. Paying taxes does not make one patriotic, and no American should pay higher taxes because other Americans make stupid or dishonest decisions.
Let's take a look at Joe's definition of rich and apparently of patriotism. His example stated that anyone making over $250,000, (5% of American taxpayers), will see an increase in their income taxes under the Obama plan and they should be willing to pay them, patriotically. Is $250,000.00 in annual taxable income the jumping off point for what the Obama/Biden ticket considers a rich American? It is good to start with an understanding of who is rich and who is not. I am not, but I knew that long before Joe Biden came along to define it. Joe just confirmed what I already knew; sort of a second opinion, like you get from doctors.
I do wonder how that $250,000 line dividing rich and poor was determined. How much does a Senator make? Did congresspersons look at their paychecks and decide that the increased tax burden should start a few dollars above their annual salaries? If the increase does start just above their salary levels, it is coincidental, I am sure.
Why should we discuss tax increases for the wealthiest Americans when the thing we need to accomplish is decreased taxes for all Americans? We do not need to increase taxes for anyone if we reduce government spending. Keep actual spending within the revenues generated by the current tax structure, then work on reducing it.
Bailouts of mismanaged institutions, while the company executives get multi-million dollar bonuses, must stop. Take back the salaries and bonuses of persons who put those banking institutions on the skids. If those paybacks do not make the institutions solvent, let them go under and prosecute those who shirked their fiduciary responsibilities.
Work with me here. Start with a round number of three hundred million Americans counted during our last census. This number includes all Americans, some of which are not taxpayers. Since those who do not pay taxes now will one day pay taxes, let's just be one happy family and include everyone. Is that okay with you, Joe?
As an accountant I love to understand numbers. So, let's reduce the large numbers to ones that relate to my wallet; somewhat smaller than those understood by rich people who should patriotically pay more taxes, as per Joe Biden.
A quick calculation of the estimated losses for failed lending institutions is in excess of one trillion dollars. That number will not filter through my wallet and needs to be reduced. The government intended to trickle this number past us, but it was too large to trickle. I tried to get my hands around one trillion dollars in a previous column with an example; if I gave out $1.9 million every second of every hour of every day for 365 days, (or one year), I would spend one trillion dollars. Hopefully that example helped illustrate the enormity of the number.
The fact that the government bail out is initially estimated at one trillion dollars is the good news. The bad news is that the government never gets close to the real number with its first estimate. Let's go with one trillion dollars and pretend the government got this one right on the first try. My portion of that bailout is $3,333.33. Oh, by the way, so is yours. Each one of us three hundred million Americans owes his/her share, not just the patriotic tax payers earning over a quarter of a million dollars.
- $3,333.33 X 300,000,000 = $1,000,000,000,000.00
Since we did establish earlier that I am not a rich patriot, it will not surprise you that I am a bit short; $3,333.33 to be exact. However, Joe Biden has graciously offered to let the 5% who earn more than $250,000.00 per year pay the bill, patriotically. So, each one of them can just kick in $66,666.66 and my taxes will remain the same.
- $66,666.66 X 15,000,000 = $1,000,000,000,000.00
How can I show my gratitude for Joe Biden and all of those rich patriotic Americans who will rush to vote for Obama/Biden and line up to increase their taxes on behalf of a poor guy like me? I feel…all red, white and blue!
