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paxamericana:

stfuconservatives:

I don’t think he’s planning on totally switching teams but based on his 2012 performance I’d be more than willing to welcome him to our side. 

-Joe

Huntsman had the most regressive economic platform this side of Ron Paul. People hear him say things like “I believe in science” and “I don’t want to boil immigrants and homosexuals alive” and in a rush to appear more moderate than “the other side,” they clamor over how awesome and reasoned he is. This is exactly what’s wrong with the Democrats. By virtue of not being transparently evil, Huntsman gets welcomed to the fold. 

(Source: stfuconservatives)

underthemountainbunker:

Representative Michele Bachmann noted recently that 47 percent of Americans do not pay federal income tax; all of them, she said, should pay something because they benefit from parks, roads and national security. (Interesting that she acknowledged government has a purpose.) Gov. Rick Perry, in the announcement of his candidacy, said he was dismayed at the “injustice” that nearly half of Americans do not pay income tax. Jon Huntsman Jr., up to now the most reasonable in the Republican presidential field, said not enough Americans pay tax.

Representative Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, and several senators have made similar arguments, variations of the idea expressed earlier by Senator Dan Coats of Indiana that “everyone needs to have some skin in the game.”

This is factually wrong, economically wrong and morally wrong. First, the facts: a vast majority of Americans have skin in the tax game. Even if they earn too little to qualify for the income tax, they pay payroll taxes (which Republicans want to raise), gasoline excise taxes and state and local taxes. Only 14 percent of households pay neither income nor payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution. The poorest fifth paid an average of 16.3 percent of income in taxes in 2010.

Economically, reducing the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit — which would be required if everyone paid income taxes — makes no sense at a time of high unemployment. The credits, which only go to working people, have always been a strong incentive to work, as even some conservative economists say, and have increased the labor force while reducing the welfare rolls.

The moral argument would have been obvious before this polarized year. Nearly 90 percent of the families that paid no income tax make less than $40,000, most much less. The real problem is that so many Americans are struggling on such a small income, not whether they pay taxes. The two tax credits lifted 7.2 million people out of poverty in 2009, including four million children. At a time when high-income households are paying their lowest share of federal taxes in decades, when corporations frequently avoid paying any tax, it is clear who should bear a larger burden and who should not.

-The New York Times.  Without a doubt, this is the best editorial I have read all year.  Read the entire piece here.

…

This from Ruth Marcus (OpEd WaPo) on 8/15/11: 

Of those households that do not owe income taxes, about a third earn $10,000 a year and a slightly smaller share earn between $10,000 and $20,000. More than three-fourths earn $30,000 or less….

Two-thirds of the households that pay no federal income tax still ante up for payroll taxes. Fewer than one in five — 18 percent of all households — pay neither income nor payroll taxes. Nearly all of these are elderly (10 percent) or have incomes below $20,000 (7 percent.)…

Does anyone imagine that a person with an income of $20,000 is getting away with anything because they don’t earn enough to even pay income tax OR payroll tax??

Is there a millionaire or billionaire in the world who would trade places with anyone making $30,000 or less per year just to avoid income tax?

No.

(via therodentqueen)