OMG! What if the wealthy have to pay more . . .
Oh, the horror!
Apparently, something akin to panic has set in among the richest Americans, who are contemplating the possibility (although it seems increasingly remote) that they may be asked to make a small financial sacrifice to restore fiscal health to the nation that has given them so much. That’s right: Many among the wealthy are anxiously eyeing news from Washington about a possible tax increase.
That proposal hasn’t been debated anywhere with more fear than on Wall Street, home to some of the nation’s wealthiest and greediest capitalists. From the NYT:
Worried that lawmakers will allow taxes to rise for the wealthiest Americans beginning next year, financial firms are discussing whether to move up their bonus payouts from next year to this month.
At stake is a portion of the hefty annual payouts that are a familiar part of the compensation culture on Wall Street, as well as a juicy target of popular anger. If Congress does not extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the highest income levels, a typical worker who earns a $1 million bonus would pay $40,000 to $50,000 more in taxes next year than this year, depending on base salary.
Goldman Sachs is one of the companies discussing how to time bonus season, according to three people who have been briefed on the discussions. Pay consultants who work with major Wall Street companies say that just about every other large bank has also considered such a move in recent weeks.
With tax politics in Washington unpredictable, bank executives have spent months sketching out several options for their bonus plans, including the possibility of an earlier payout. Lawmakers have been trading accusations across a partisan divide, but after this weekend, it appears likely that a compromise will extend the tax cuts for all income levels.
Even so, the banks’ discussions about bonus timing underscore how focused the industry is on protecting every dollar of pay.
That’s rich. These are folks who manufacture nothing and whose collective scheming brought the nation — indeed, the world — to the brink of financial collapse. Yet, they have absolutely no sense of responsibility to the overall good.
And just how bad would it be if tax breaks for the filthy rich were allowed to expire? They’d still be paying less in taxes than they did under the Clinton administration, when the economy was healthy.
My, my, my. It helps you understand why the term “robber barons” had such meaning during the 19th century.
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421 comments Add your comment
barking frog
December 6th, 2010
2:23 pm
It is difficult to collect taxes from people who have no money.
ButtHead
December 6th, 2010
2:23 pm
What a joke CT and her liberal friends are, class warfare is due to wealth envy. Go get a job, work your but off start your own business, no, that’s not the liberal way. Just take the money from those who did bust their a$$ to get ahead. Why is it so hard for a loser liberal to understand that they need to go to work to get ahead? Why do they believe that they deserve money made by anybody except them? If you want the rich to pay more go to the FairTax, then since the rich consume more they will pay more, without tax loop holes….
Lane
December 6th, 2010
2:23 pm
In 2006, 335,000 Americans claimed over $1,000,000 as their adjusted gross income on their personal taxes. In 2007, it was 392,000. That was before the crash. So all of this arguing about taxing people making a million dollars a year (after deductions) is about protecting 300,000 (or less) people who file personally instead of through their corporation.
Also, if these tax cut were so necessary to protect the economic engine why didn’t the economy tank during the 10 years they were in force?
This is just a political gambit to pander to people to get them to vote against their own best interest. This “millionaire” tax break couldn’t apply to more than 6000 individuals in Georgia (300,000 divided by 50 states) but people have been convinced it will apply to them. Yet 100% of the taxpayers of Georgia will “own” the deficit it creates.
The Fallne
December 6th, 2010
2:24 pm
The wealthy already pay more.
James
December 6th, 2010
2:24 pm
I can learn more reading Green Eggs and Ham. There should be a 100% toll on the salaries of mindless blog writers.
Lane
December 6th, 2010
2:24 pm
TYPO: Also, if these tax cut were so necessary to protect the economic engine why did the economy tank during the 10 years they were in force?
joe
December 6th, 2010
2:26 pm
CT would be a perfect fit with Robin Hood and his Merry Men back in the day…
ga tech 92
December 6th, 2010
2:26 pm
“filthy” sounds like a hate term to me. I’m about middle income and the term “filthy rich” is offensive to me. Isn’t it a crime to offend someone and to be a hate monger? I thought it was. Seems like some folks have been fired for saying offensive things lately. Bottom line is this – No amount of money is ever going to be ‘enough’ for a goverment, so the solution cannot be to ‘raise taxes’. The solution is to balance your budget with the dollars you have coming in. Cut spending, don’t raise taxes, ever. Every home in America has to live within it’s budget and can’t ‘demand more money at gun point’…
Eat the Rich
December 6th, 2010
2:26 pm
Instead of the rich paying more – how about the poor consuming less? I see LOTS of fat people collecting welfare checks. Apparently they can get by with less.
And how about taking aware welfare completely from people who are on welfare already but have additional children…..they can get by with less too.
I’m sick of punishing the successful and rewarding the failures in this country. If you reward failure and laziness – guess what you get – more failure and more laziness.
Georgian
December 6th, 2010
2:28 pm
McKinney, Tucker, Pelosi…. does it really matter what you call them?
StJ
December 6th, 2010
2:28 pm
soak the rich…bait and switch…yada yada…this topic has been recycled to death.
Josh
December 6th, 2010
2:29 pm
OMG! What if we trained people to stop relying on the government and teach them to fish themselves? Here is a simple fact. You tax the rich more they pass the cost down to the middle class and poor and hire less people to work for them. OMG! Who would thunk that one!
ga tech 92
December 6th, 2010
2:30 pm
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.(…This is a quote from someone else…I didn’t make it up…but it’s worth reposting…)
W
December 6th, 2010
2:30 pm
We must oppress to sustain
Falcon1
December 6th, 2010
2:30 pm
Why is it liberal democrat socialists like Cynthia Tucker never want to talk about government SPENDING that could be reduced? Tax more spend more. That’s all they think about. 50% of this nation carries 98% of the tax burden. 10% of this nation carries over 70% of it. But yet somehow, someway, the mind of a liberal believes that the wealthy (IE: the successful) in this nation just don’t pay enough. And with 70% of all new job growth in this nation being from small businesses – the owner(s) of which also pay income taxes – the mentality is economically ignorant at best.
Soon to be minority leader Nancy Pelosi stated at the beginning of the year that with the passage of Obamacare, the burden of entrepreneurs having to pay for health care would be lifted and they would be free to start their own companies essentially burden free. Seriously. And she still wonders why she got voted out of power along with her cohorts in the House and several who got the pink slip in the Senate. “We did this for you” is what she whined. Talk about out of touch liberalism.
RB
December 6th, 2010
2:31 pm
MS..Tucker. I work my butt off to provide for my family and let me tell you as a small Business owner with 2 employees $250,000.00 is no where near rich; I’m barely middle class because of all the BS taxes I’m paying now. If they raise my taxes guess what, A. I’m not hiring anyone and B. I’m not giving raises. My kids go to a public school, I drive a 1995 Tahoe and I live in a house that cost $150,000.00. I still save for my kids to hopefully go to college one day. Why are my blood, sweat and tears being taken from me and my family to be given to someone less ambitious and made poor choices in life. I know generations of families living off the Govt. We should have a fair tax system that everyone pays.
Kamchak
December 6th, 2010
2:31 pm
If you want the rich to pay more go to the FairTax, then since the rich consume more they will pay more, without tax loop holes…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The FairTax has yet to get out of committee, much less undergo the compromise procees that all legislation goes through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can learn more reading Green Eggs and Ham.
Is anyone stopping you from reading that particular literary masterpiece, Jimmie-poo?
The Nerve
December 6th, 2010
2:31 pm
LOL….”filthy rich”. Liberals are so funny.
George W
December 6th, 2010
2:33 pm
That is it….penalize those who are the most successful and then wonder why we have so many on Medicare.
MC
December 6th, 2010
2:33 pm
Would someone please answer Lane’s question? I’m as befuddled as he. This furor seems way out of proportion to the number of people affected on one side of the equation.
Falcon1
December 6th, 2010
2:33 pm
“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.”
And there we have why Communism and/or Marxism fails time after time.
Kamchak
December 6th, 2010
2:34 pm
…. does it really matter what you call them?
It does if words and their definitions matter to you.
If not…well, there’s your sign.
Georgian
December 6th, 2010
2:34 pm
I do not like it Sam I Am, I do not like Green Eggs and Ham….. LOL classic.
Kamchak's gerbil
December 6th, 2010
2:35 pm
Kamchak
December 6th, 2010
2:22 pm
One thing you’ll never get people like Cynthia McKinney to admit…
Our hostess’ name is Cynthia Tucker, sport.
Is “sport” a code word for something?
Franklin Raines
December 6th, 2010
2:35 pm
Cynthia, this is why your creditability is shot to H$ll and of no importance. ABC news did a report and yes if the tax cuts are extended for those making over 250K it will hurt revenue to the government however if they are extended to those also making less than 250K revenue will drop even more. We have a corrupt congress, president, lobbyist, federal entitlement programs and spending problem, not revenue problem. You will never get rid of the problem of greed, greed is also living on somebody else wealth and using the government to steal it. You liberal promote class warefare and envy daily.
So you have to ask the question, if small business have to pay more in taxes then will they stop investing in their business along with not hire people? I say yes they will not hire and stop investing because its common-sense. Why work to pay for government redistribution of wealth which is what Obama ran his presidential campaign on and these good white people that were responsible for him winning the office of President believed he was a centralist politician. Now the majority of blacks blame white people for his problems and rich people for having all the money. Rich people create jobs, invest in business, stock, build libraries with their name on it, hospitals, give to charity organizations, give land to black colleges like Spelman in Atlanta. People forget this guy if a educated fool, never accomplished anything beyond community organizing, and he did a poor job at that.
If rich people that already have wealth have a tax increase and listen you your liberal diatribe about how evil they are, will they have an incentive to invest in the economy by buying stock, provide venture capital into business, buy luxury goods, or will they say flip the poor, I am already rich, I will take care of me, my family and let the government take care of the poor. They have enough money to live anywhere in the world and take their filthy rich assets with they also.
Billybob
December 6th, 2010
2:36 pm
Your post is crystal clear Tucker. You hate the rich, they are the reason you have column after column on ‘victims’ that they are wronging. You are a socialist and this plays into your idea that the gov’t should decide how much money anyone should receive from ‘their own’ paycheck. Thanks for continuing to show people who you are. As long as there are ‘victims’ that you can highlight, the longer you and the far left can prey on these people for votes. Huge spending cuts and ‘business growth revenue’ together are the only way out of this mess. You and the far left’s idea of social justice and gov’t intervention is nothing more that a Marxist/Socialist ideology and that is a fact. When will you admit what and who you are for all to see. Coward……
Browncoat
December 6th, 2010
2:37 pm
MC and Lane, what if I passed a law that only taxed you two. Would the tax be “fair” because it only affected two people?
Georgian
December 6th, 2010
2:37 pm
McKinney- radical extreme liberal who uses race as a means to justify her positions on issues.
Tucker- Is there any difference?
Pelosi- Uses race as a means to push through the issues she deems “important” to attempt to grow her party.
Georgian
December 6th, 2010
2:38 pm
Kam uses sport and those other words as a means of intended insult, it just makes me chuckle at the kid.
Good Grief
December 6th, 2010
2:38 pm
Regarding the Fair Tax:
Kamchak, since it has yet to escape committee, I’d like to pose a question.
Doy ou think it could have anything to do with the misrepresentation given to the Fair tax by the political opposition?
Most people have never studied the Fair Tax proposal, but then they hear a politician say that the Fair Tax is just the addition of a 23% sales tax nation wide. They never mention the pre-embedded taxes that would be eliminated.
Kamchak
December 6th, 2010
2:41 pm
So you have to ask the question…
No, I really don’t.
In fact, you don’t have the authority to identify what it is that I “have” to do..
RB
December 6th, 2010
2:44 pm
Ms. Tucker have you ever run your own Business?
Cadbury
December 6th, 2010
2:46 pm
Go ahead & increase my taxes, I will off set them by buying a company plane.
amazed
December 6th, 2010
2:48 pm
I am waiting for all the professional athletes to come out and express gratitude for being able to do their part in the proposed tax rates for next year and beyond under Obama. For some reason, though, I’ll probably have to hold my breath. And another thing, why is Hillary pitching autograph copies of her DVD on home shopping networks now? Oh, she wants to make all that money she owes under the current tax rate.
Kamchak
December 6th, 2010
2:48 pm
Doy ou[sic] think it could have anything to do with the misrepresentation given to the Fair tax by the political opposition?
No.
It’s been stuck in committee when both Democrats and Republicans have had control the Senate and the House.
It’s a bad bill, and no matter how much you’ve studied of the two books that people were conned into buying, if it ever emerges as law, it will in no way resemble what you’ve memorized.
MC
December 6th, 2010
2:49 pm
While that may be true Browncoat, I still haven’t heard anyone attempt to rationalize how the largest tax cuts in American history resulted in a net loss of 9 million jobs. If these tax breaks don’t directly contribute to massive job creation,why add that 700 billion dollar tab to the bill future generations will have to pay?
Sarah
December 6th, 2010
2:51 pm
They can’t answer that MC.
B
December 6th, 2010
2:51 pm
Enter your comments here
wtf?
December 6th, 2010
2:53 pm
There are 2 sides to this. Why not cut spending in stead of raising taxes? There are A LOT of places we could cut spending and let people keep their own money. How much tax is too much? I think we are at that point right now.
Are you serious with this commentary Cynthia? It’s one thing to dislike rich people, but raising their taxes has been proven every time since WWII to actually lower the revenue pool, these are the facts. You raise more revenue from getting a smaller pice of the pie from everyone than a large pice of pie from a smaller group. That is just proven stone cold ecconomic truth of our tax system through the decades.
Cynthia, to claim otherwise is simply ignorant of the facts or politically based, both of which this country has no time for.
Boca Baby
December 6th, 2010
2:53 pm
Imagine that. You do not consider Bill Gates a “robber baron”? How did Gates get to where he is? Answer: By stealing technology. (Note: see Pirates of Silicon Valley). The rich stealing from the rich. I guess that is ok with you. He may have become a philanthropist but he hasn’t always been so. As an aside I find it laughable to see labels stating that it is unlawful to copy (without permission) computer software on Microsoft products.
Browncoat
December 6th, 2010
2:54 pm
MC, how do you know that the job losses wouldn;t have been 12 Million without the lower tax rates? Many economists believe that lowering tax rate will fuel the economy by putting more money in people’s hands, and in turn increasing total tax revenues. I believe that raising taxes right now will hurt the economy. How about we cut spending by 700 billion?
Good Grief
December 6th, 2010
2:54 pm
The filter must’ve found something offensive about my last comment…
Browncoat
December 6th, 2010
2:55 pm
I just did Sarah
And you wonder why your circulation continues to go down...
December 6th, 2010
2:58 pm
Cynthia – I really can see why your circulation continues to dwindle quickly. I believe that those of us who actually produce the jobs and pay the taxes in this community (yes, the high income earners) are just tired of reading how bad we are and are searching for and entertaining new news outlets that are more balanced in their COMMENTARY. I don’t mind a balanced rendition of the news but your AJC is just do damning of the folks like me who actually produce. Cynthia, I just don’t think you understand really how the world and economics work. This is not a “class” statement but merely the truth and if if you will slow down just a tad and ponder it– you may see the light: The over whelming majority of all taxes are paid by the top 2% of wage earners (just for fun let’s say the top 5%). So those of us who risk everything – provide the jobs – are the ones paying nearly all the taxes. WE ARE IT. By removing or lowering our taxes we will provide more jobs. Really it is simple Econ 101. If you will promote more balanced COMMENTARY I bet your circulation will reduce its down fall. That too is Econ 101.
Good Grief
December 6th, 2010
2:58 pm
Kamchak -
I have no doubt that if the bill were to make it thorugh committee it would be so heavily altered that it would never measure up to any previous expectation.
As for your comment about being ‘conned’ into buying the two Fair Tax books (I do not own either, by the way), did you mean along the same lines as those who were ‘conned’ into buying “Dreams from my Father” and “The Audacity of Hope?” Or is a person only ‘conned’ into buying books by authors that are conservative?
Tired of BS
December 6th, 2010
2:59 pm
Well why not try a tax on all dark haired minority women with college degrees, or all blonde headed women with boob jobs, or body builders with bald heads, or young black men with saggy pants and tatts, or anyone who wears anything with a bulldog on it, or any woman driving a car she can’t afford with a cell phone in her ear, or anyone over the age of 40 who dared to have a child or children who will likely become a productive citizen….. oh wait a minute….. scratch the last one….. they already do that don’t they.
CT….. sometimes I read your opinion pieces and say….. just damn…… how stupid!
Billybob
December 6th, 2010
3:01 pm
Tucker,
COWARD……RACIST……BIGOT……SOCIALIST/MARXIST SYMPATHIZER……CLASS WARFARE SYMPATHIZER……that about covers it, have a nice day!
DP
December 6th, 2010
3:01 pm
Tucker…you are a fool, how much would taking every dollar from everyone who has liquid assets in excess of say $5,000,000 would bring in, huh?
I doubt it would amount to any more than $2,000,000,000,000. Find for sure before you start ranting about the rich. You are sad socialist just like your hero.
B
December 6th, 2010
3:02 pm
Cynthia,
Are you kidding me? Surely you can’t be this much of an idiot? Surely you are just yanking yet another wealth envy chain to stoke up the hits to the site. Surely…….
IF…. “If” the weathy have to pay more……” What in the hell are you talking about? IF? They DO! An inordinately HUGE amoung of the funding of this country comes from the small percentage at the top. And damn right they’re fed up about it…. Why in the world would they want to give yet even more to the corrupt, inept, lying, theiving democrats to “spread around”????? That’s just stupid. And they didn’t get to be successful by being stupid.
If there are those out there among the wealthy who think they should give more, FINE. Let them contribute all they want to. Cash, check, however they choose to pay. But how dare them or anyone else stick a proverbial gun to the heads of the successful in this country telling them that they must pay more taxes or else, damn it. Absolutely absurd.
You are sometimes absolutely unbelievable. That’s why I think most of the time, you’re tonge in cheek. ‘Cause nobody can be that damn dumb. But then again, we’re stuck with Obama for two more years and Californians just re-elected Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown—–so I guess it’s possible for you to be as stupid as you come across.
D, JD….
Welfare Check Casher
December 6th, 2010
3:03 pm
Those greedy rich folks should pay more! They just got lucky thats all! They sit up in they high rises wiping they butts with hundred dollar bills while I can barely feed my 6th baby I just had. I’m behind on my DirecTV bill and might have to get rid of my Showtime and HBO. How is that fair? All cause the rich folks won’t pay their fair share. Its only fair. The little folks in America need HBO too! How am I gonna buy my ciggies and beer if I have to pay for my own rent and food? This ain’t right I tell ya…greedy filthy rich folks…