Poll: Americans strongly oppose some deficit proposals

[Darwin333]

Well, it's a good place to start. I'd rather see tax increases on the wealthy than on the poor.

The starting point is rather irrelevant in the scheme of things, its the ending point that really matters.

Great, start with them. Now what?

 

[Fenixgoon]

Not surprising, people want to have their cake and eat it too.
Unfortunately it doesn't matter what people want if its impossible, the wealthy can not "pay for it", because they don't have that much wealth to pay for it all.

Everyones taxes will need to go up substantially or spending cuts need to come (or both).
The math will catch up with us eventually. Only a matter of time.

in short, this.

 

[theeedude]

Republicans are going to be held accountable for attempting to gut Medicare.

 

[FoBoT]

i say the only fair thing to do is, do everything
everything everyone wants to do and everything people DON'T want to do, we just do it all, a little bit. that way we can all be miserable together. we raise the taxes on the rich, a bit. we cut defense and medicare, a bit. we just cut everything , a bit and raise all the taxes a bit.

since we can't agree on what to do, then i see 2 choices, we do it all or we do nothing

my bet is the politicians choose to do nothing and the world goes to hell in a few years.

 

[Jhhnn]

That's just your progressive jealousy poking through.

That's the usual false attribution poking through. Sensible middle class and working class people would be thrilled half to death to pay pre-Reagan taxes on incomes of $M's/yr.

It's what's we get to keep that matters, not the pre-tax numbers game. It seems highly unlikely that there's a significant lifestyle difference between $10M and $9M take home per year, but the Uber Wealthy anti tax zealots of the Right seem to be able to convince middle class Righties that it'd be the end of the world as we know it if Richies had to pay more.

 

[her209]

Republicans are going to be held accountable for attempting to gut Medicare.

Just look at this thread.

A family making $69,800 paid $1,012.10 in Medicare taxes. The employer(s) also paid the same amount. Yet the tax receipt shows $913.80 was spent towards Medicare. So where did the $1,110.40 go?

 

[Tom]

Your forgetting the "skin in the game" aspect though when it comes to the bottom 50%. The bottom ~40% pay zero federal income tax yet they receive an ever increasing amount of benefits that is payed for by others. The top 1% (and it should be noted that the population of the top 1% changes dramatically year to year) pays 38% of the total fed income tax while the bottom 50% pay 2.7%.

So, percentage wise of the total amount recieved, how much is fair to you?

Hypothetically, suppose the top 1% had 75% of the income that's above the poverty level.

Your argument taken to extremes is, they should pay 1% of federal income taxes. Even though they have 75% of the disposable income.

Instead of looking at the numbers you're looking at, which mean nothing, you should be looking at who has the money ?

Also, the bottom 40% pays a greater % of their income in payroll taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes, than the top 1%. It isn't fair to only look at one tax, income tax and not consider other taxes.

Finally, I'm confident the reason the polls are the way they are are, most people think the Bush tax cuts, at least for the rich, are part of the deficit problem and should be ended.