A new poll indicates popular support for taxing wealthy that flies in the face of the Republican insistence on keeping repeal of tax cuts for the wealthy off the table.
Interestingly the budget cutting preferences run in almost reverse order from the new Congressional Republican House priorities.
When questioned about preferred first steps to balance the Federal budget
61% increase taxes on wealthy
20% cut defense spending
4% percent cut Medicare
3% cut social security
Increased taxes on the wealthy tops those four options even among higher earners who might be most affected by a tax hike, the poll suggested. Fifty-eight percent of respondents making between $50,000 and $100,000 per year rated tax hikes as the best first step to balance the budget, while 46 percent of those making over $100,000 said it was their top choice, too.
The incoming Republican House has expressed an eagerness to address the deficit and mounting U.S. debt. But the fight over tax cuts in the closing weeks of 2010 made clear the GOP isn't ready to address the budget through tax hikes, against which they vigorously fought in the lame-duck Congress.
The 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll was conducted Nov. 29-Dec. 2 and released on Monday. It has a three percent margin of error.
because the wealthy are the ones that seem to be better positioned to buy the votes, errrrrr INFLUENCE the votes that make the decisions..
Now if we were in France maybe?????
We need to tax the wealth hoarders and the financial speculators. Hoarders keep money from the productive economy, while speculators create and burst economically destructive bubbles.
Those who actually invest in things that create real, good-paying jobs in the US economy; fund pure and applied research; and support other economically productive activities should be rewarded, while those who harm the economy through hoarding and speculation should be “encouraged” to change their behavior through tax policy.
The two most important facts for understanding U.S. politics are:
1) Whoever spends the most money in a congressional primary wins, 9 times out of 10
2) Over 75% of that money is donated by millionaires and billionaires in amounts no ordinary person can afford.
(See the PIRG study titled “The Wealth Primary” for details.)
Therefore, (almost) any candidate with opinions that might offend or alarm millionaires is filtered out of the process from the get-go. So, higher taxes for the wealthy are off the table until thousand-dollar campaign donations are off the table. In fact, any policy that might improve the lot of people of ordinary income, generally to the detriment of the wealthy, is off the table as long as millionaires and their checkbooks are the national nominating committee.
I feel like Johnny One-Note here, but while everyone is focusing on personalities (Obama, McConnell, Pelosi, Boehner…) and their stories, I’m interested in the system, the process that brought them all to power. We can throw the bums out, but the millionaire nominating committee (MNC) will throw new bums in.
Perhaps MNC should be the new acronym that supersedes the DNC and the RNC, because it trumps them both. We end up with a half-handful of people like Bernie in Congress and the MNC picks the rest.
Please, stop wasting time discussing the details of tax reform. It’s an academic exercise prior to comprehensive campaign finance reform.
the right has control & they don’t care who it hurts.