[quote]oubigguy wrote:
I’m not sure if Kerry would improve the standard of living for people who are just working to get by, but Bush definitely hasn’t helped them. I know people got their little chump change tax cut (more if you have kids), but you need to look at what will be happening to your tax burden within the next 10 years not just now.
I really think the corporations need to be shelling out more taxes personally. They are profiting off of America and they need to pay their fair share of tax to support it. With all the loopholes available, corporations are not caring their fair share of the load.
As for why I wouldn’t be against a tax raise. I guess there are a couple reasons. 1. I hate to see the national debt skyrocketing upward. I don’t live on credit and I don’t believe our goverment should. I know this can be solved by budget cuts also, but where should they be. We are still underfunding things as important as schools, so it must not be that easy to cut much more out. 2. I realize how good America is to me. And I realize not everyone is getting out of it what I have. I want schools to be great for the poorest children as well, so they will one day be able to break out of that cycle. I want children of poor families to have adequate food, shelter, and healthcare.
Also, on a side note. I don’t believe in giving people a free ride, but I also believe that with the price of housing and the cost of living in general today that many people don’t earn a living wage and this needs to be corrected. It is not right for someone who is willing to bust their ass and work to not be able to earn a decent living. On the other hand I have no sympathy for the lazy (if you aren’t willing to work, I’m not willing to help).
Something needs to change.[/quote]
OU:
Two small points. Firstly, “corporations” don’t care how much they pay in taxes – their shareholders, however, care a great deal, because they own the companies and make (or lose) money based on the profitability of the companies, via either dividends or capital gains. Personally, I don’t think corporations should pay any taxes, or that the combined corporate tax on profits and either capital gains or dividends should not exceed the maximum individual rate. The government always takes two bites at the corporate profit apple.
BTW, don’t forget all the taxes that employers pay in terms of social security, medicare etc. While one could argue that such taxes are just deducted from the wages the companies would otherwise pay their employees, it seems there is not an exact correlation.
To put it another way, corporations, and their shareholders, pay quite a bit of taxes.
Second point: If I were to agree with you, which I generally do, that government shouldn’t be living on credit, why not cut its spending? Since you like the analogy to yourself, if you were in debt, would you keep spending at high levels or would you look to reduce the amount you spent on worthless crap, which, in the case of our government, is farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies and various other pet pork projects for congressmen who sit on budget committees.