You are currently browsing the Intensive Purposes weblog archives for .
Pages
December 2006
July 2006
May 2006
April 2006
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
Archive for March, 2005
This is an editorial from Tim Joseph, Chair, Tompkins County Legislature regarding our taxes. Please share it with your friends.
Bait and Switch Tax Cuts
by Tim Joseph
For the last thirty years every President and every Governor has proclaimed new and bigger tax cuts. Governor Pataki claims that, under his administration, New York has cut taxes more than any other state in the union. With so much tax cutting going on for so long, it’s a wonder that we’re still paying any taxes at all. Yet most people will insist that their taxes keep on rising and the calls for tax cuts keep getting louder rather than fading away, as you might expect. What’s really happening? Why do you feel like your taxes are going up in spite of all
the tax cuts?
The truth is that we’re the victims of a massive bait and switch scam.
Here in New York the Governor proudly points out that the top income tax rate has been cut in half. That sounds great, but I don’t pay the top tax rate. You probably don’t either. What he doesn’t tell you is that the bottom tax rate has doubled. Nearly all of us pay that rate on at
least part of our income. Thirty years ago we had more tax brackets with a lower bottom rate and a higher top one. If we simply returned to those brackets, adjusted for inflation, 95% of us would pay less than we do now, and the wealthiest 5% would pay more. The state would also take in $7.7 billion more and solve its budget problems. In other words, taxes
have indeed been cut by $7.7 billion, but every cent of that cut went to the richest 5%. Then 95% of us had our income tax increased, so that the top 5% could get an additional cut. I’ve illustrated the situation with State income tax, but a similar thing has happened at the federal level.
Is it any wonder that the gap between the wealthy and everyone else is getting larger every day?
But this is only half the story. While the State reduced its taxes, it didn’t reduce the spending. It simply required lower levels of government (counties, towns, cities, and school districts) to pick up a greater share of the cost. Those governments have been forced to turn to
sales tax and property tax to cover the expenses shifted to them by the State. These taxes fall much more heavily on those who earn less and both have been steadily rising for decades. The Federal government has used a similar approach, cutting income tax for the wealthiest and then shifting expenses to states. So, after three decades of highly publicized tax cuts most of us are paying more income tax, more payroll tax, more sales tax, and more property tax.
None of this is going to change until the American people wake up to what’s been going on and stop being taken in by phony tax cut promises. If we continue to jump on the bandwagon every time a politician promises a tax cut, we’ll continue to fall for the bait and switch tax shifts that we’ve “enjoyed” for 30 years. This year Gov. Pataki’s budget again proposes multiple new or increased taxes for most of us, but cuts taxes for those earning over $100,000 per year.
Those who have the most money pay the lowest percentage of it in taxes, and all the rest of us are subsidizing their repeated cuts. It’s time to start demanding tax reform rather than tax cuts. We don’t need lower total taxes; the United States already has one of the lowest levels of
taxation of all developed countries. What we need is greater fairness in who is paying them.
—
Have you all noticed for a while now, whenever Sharon accomplishes anything, its always depicted as a narrow victory, like he almost didn’t win, but thank god he was strong and made it happen?
I think if he were really that “on the edge” you’d hear alot more of his failed attempts, right?
Does Sharon manufacture his slim margins of victory to look like he’s fighting a good fight?
Or does the media just not report on his failures?
Please contribute thoughts…
Do you all think avatars are lame? I played with them a while back when i had xoops installed. My first reaction was that they are kinda silly. I mean, why would you want a picture of bart simpson or whatever next to everything you write?
While i used xoops i guess i accepted them, and it was funny to see what other users chose as their avatars.
now that i’m done with xoops, i think the site is a while lot cleaner without them.
QUESTION: do you think avatars add to the discourse, or are they just lame?
So, a good friend of mine forwarded this story to me. He doesn’t usually do the forward thing, so it caught my eye. Anyone know if this is fact?
————————-
SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, ofcourse, they do not collect from it.You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society They felt they should have a special plan forthemselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that’s Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00 . NADA….ZILCH…. This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan . The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds; ” OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK “! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, -every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)- we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley’s benefits! Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to: Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us. then sit back….
and watch how fast they would fix it.
If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
———————
Google is in the news every other day. I’m wondering. When will the geeks turn on them? Some already are. Google launched google code today. They are launching so many products in such a short span they are bound to step on some toes. What do you think?
I love to see progress in clean and renewable energy technologies and this one takes the cake. Imagine running actual sunlight directly to your dreary, windowless office space or to the basement of your house. Not only that… if it’s the summer time, just filter out the IR to keep the place cool and instead of letting it float off into space, direct the infrared at some solar cells that charge batteries to help power your lights when it’s dark outside. If this thing really works and gets adopted on a large scale, it can save a whole crap load of grid energy.
Plus, I can’t wait to get one and hack it into a heat laser to shoot at unsuspecting penn students.
April 1st, 2005 at 1:20 pm
it was actually nice to see the media talking about her as a living person instead of a paw during the last day. They did alot of little remembering her kind of pieces.
not that i read or listened to any of them, but still nice to see that instead of the objectification prior to her death.
I’ve noticed that every time the BBC mentioned her they mentioned the pope, as if they were willing him to have the same fate or something.
April 1st, 2005 at 1:28 pm
Oh poor pope. What about the Purdue guy… I don’t see huge headlines about his death… wait… i haven’t checked the headlines… brb.
April 1st, 2005 at 1:38 pm
Apparently only the Minneapolis Star Tribune found it news worthy that the all time father/pioneer of the “manufactured chickens for human consumption” revolution has passed.
April 1st, 2005 at 9:04 pm
Actually, I read about Purdue on CNN today. in newsmakers.
That farm started with 50 chickens.
It has some funny quotes.