AOL, in typical fashion, seeking attention like a child in a Wallet Pop segment, published an article by Kiplinger on “new taxes”. AOL had the sensationalist title “Higher Taxes Coming” and in a subtext on every page said that it would not be merely those over $250,000 who would be paying higher taxes. Then, they modified it to say it would be likely…not actually certain but likely…that we would pay more taxes.
Why is this important? Because there are no plans anywhere for more taxes on income of the middle class or obviously, lower income classes. But the Republicans, including Kiplinger, continue to spread the out-and-out lie that there are new taxes coming on the middle class. In other words, to heck with the People. Tell them what we want them to hear, simply to get their votes for Neocons. Then the Republicans will go back to cutting taxes for corporations and the rich…as they proposed as recently as their version of the stimulus plan.
Same old stuff. If you don’t have a terrorist to use to scare the people, scare them with higher taxes. It is classic Karl Rove, based on classic Joseph Goebbels. Look it up.
Here’s Kiplinger:
“Think taxes are too high now? Just wait: Congress is all but certain to raise them a couple of years from now. Tax increases will hit both businesses and individuals — and not just singles making more than $200,000 a year and married couples over $250,000 a year. They’ll be the first to get pinched, but not the last. There’s just not enough revenue that can be drawn from the wealthy without crippling the economy, so in time, middle incomers will feel a bigger bite, too.”
Well, that’s interesting because it turns out that there are no tax increases for the middle class. On each page at the top of the AOL article quoting Kiplinger, by the way, is the small introductory phrase: “Probable individual risk.” Probable. Of course, the overall headline, in much bigger type, is: “Lots of Tax Hikes Coming in 2011.” Well, here is the bottom line. We’ve checked. There are NO NEW TAXES coming any time in the next several years for the middle class. Period!
All the ones mentioned are for the upper brackets. In fact, the taxes that do come, on those with incomes over $250,000, even those are simply retirements of TAX CUTS that they got under Bush. They made tons of money on that. So now they go back to the Clinton tax rates. It is an increase of only 3%, three dollars on every hundred that is not covered by their myriad of deductions. Even people like Dick Cheney and George W. Bush worth, respectively about $45 million and $20 million, actually only pay about 21%.
What are the other possible taxes the rich will pay? Well, there is the Paris Hilton Retirement Tax. Once you’re dead, you are no longer taxed. And if you leave up to $3.5 million, your kids won’t be taxed either. At least not on the money you leave them. The inheritance tax is being fought by the Neoconservative Republicans for what is said to be only about 1800 of the wealthiest families. And apparently, the greediest. This does not include, by the way, the Gates family, the Buffett family, apparently the Rockefeller family or a large number of very wealth Jewish families, who seem so tuned in to endowment that they often seem to make it just to give it away.
Businessmen will pay some taxes only on a technicality. If they are declaring some workers as independent contractors in order to shift the tax burden to workers, they will pay more. Only if the independent contractors are actually employees. But that is the law now. So if they are not scamming, they’ll pay no more than they are now. The next one is to prevent very large income people from basically paying themselves no income and merely taking income from dividends, taxed at only 15%. Hedge funds managers making hundreds of millions come to mind immediately. They can afford to pay the same as Cheney and Bush…21%. It won’t kill them.
Oil companies will pay more taxes on certain tax breaks going to the Johnson era that have long outlived their relevance. Boo Hoo! These are companies that make $400 million in profits from $4.00 a gallon oil while people are going to food pantries and spending triple what they should to get to a minimum-wage job. Shame on you Mr. Kiplinger. The poor oil companies!
Here’s more from the “tax experts” telling us how much more we (those under $250,000 in income) are going to pay. Notice any similarities…or better yet…notice any provisions that only remotely apply to your lifestyle?
“Here’s what’s rising to the top of the list of probable hikes for individuals:
* Boosts in top marginal rates from 33% and 35% to 36% and 39.6%. No change in the other marginal rates seems likely. (Ed. These rates are the TOP rates, for the highest income earners.)
* A higher rate on capital gains and dividends, but only for those in the top brackets. They will probably be hit with a 20% rate, though it could go a little higher. (Ed. – This kind of tax is NOT paid by your retirement program. If you live on stocks before retirement, it is likely, statistically speaking, a 5% increase to that rarefied group will not even be noticed.)
* Caps on itemized deductions for top earners. Obama’s push to limit the value of deductions at 28% ran into a wall of opposition from charitable groups, but he’s not giving up. Some way of curtailing the tax break still seems likely by 2011. (Ed. – Really? How many of you can afford to give 28% of your earnings to charity? Enough said on that. Of course, thanks to the Republicans, government is itself more frequently a charitable organization.)
* No repeal of estate taxes, but count on an exemption of at least $3.5 million, and it could be set as high as $5 million if the Senate prevails. Estate tax legislation will include spousal transfers, making the exemption $7 million or more for couples. The estate tax rate will be capped at 45%, the same as it is now. (Ed. – So, another tax break for the rich. So much for everybody sharing the load, as Kiplinger suggests.)
* More easings for the alternative minimum tax, but no repeal.” (Ed. – While the alternative minimum tax does hit all Americans. Congress, not President Obama, devised it years ago and now has been gradually removing it. Apparently our fascist President, this huge tax oppressor, has decided not to interfere. But somehow, according to Mr. Kiplinger he is responsible for something bad…as yet undefined.)
This whole article is a joke. It is about as informed as Michelle Bachman was about the “Hoot-Smalley” tariffs that she says Roosevelt put in. He apparently would have done it by channeling Herbert Hoover, who was President in 1930 when the Smoot-Hawley Tariff was introduced…while Roosevelt was still governor of New York. Roosevelt actually removed the Smoot-Hawley tariffs after he took office in 1933.
Will we have increased taxes one day? Probably. We are the least taxed country…including the effective amount of taxes paid by our now bailed-out industrial and financial institutions…of any in the top industrial nations in the world. And thanks to the Neoconservative Republicans since Reagan…we have the least attractive lifestyle as an overall population. In fact, the theft of our natural resources and the treatment of our middle class labor force has been despotic.
So the headline didn’t match the tenor of the article which was basically: “Help! Help! Help! Taxes.Taxes.Taxes.” But it gained attention as it was apparently intended. Because it certainly wasn’t intended to mirror the facts. Had it been, the title would have been: “Tax breaks continue for the middle class through at least 2011.”