Tag: United States Congress

The Buffett Tax

therightliberalLeave a comment

As some people worry about the money they spend on gas or groceries, a group of Americans sit back and watch their money flow in.

I do not mean to insinuate that millionaires and billionaires do not work hard because most of them do. However, I see no argument that their lives are anywhere near as hard as those who are living paycheck to paycheck.

Warren Buffett has over the years called for higher taxes for America’s uber-rich, and now it seems he might get it.

Obama is looking to propose the “Buffett Tax,” a new tax on wealthy Americans that would work to keep some of the wealthy from avoiding taxes and increase the rates that they pay.

Although it would only affect about 450,000 Americans, the tax could very much benefit the economy, which as we all know, needs all the help it can get.

I look back at the arguments I have heard on why the rich should not have higher taxes; they don’t deserve it, it wouldn’t really help, it’s not fair. But none of those arguments make sense to me.

Taxes are not a punishment, they are just a fact of life in a society like ours. If you enjoy the country you have then you better accept the idea of taxes.

Taxing the top 0.3% of Americans (which this would do) a higher amount could really help. And on top of it, the bill wouldn’t actually raise taxes, it would just eliminate some of the Bush tax cuts, which I think we can see did not work judging on where are economy is now.

I hope that this bill can get through Congress during their Dec. meeting on deficit reduction. I think that this could be a helpful bill, but on top of that, it just makes sense.

Jobs for America

therightliberalLeave a comment

How do we as a country lower the jobless levels. There is no doubt that it is a problem, the only question is how we fix it.

Obama‘s massive “Jobs for America” bill could potentially do a lot of good. Despite being a huge fan of Obama, I do see a couple of issues.

First is that I’m not so sure it will get through the house. Obama seems to be fairly confident and I know he has a bit more information than I, but with the general consensus of Republicans not supporting the bill, I don’t see how this is going to pass.

Secondly is the effectiveness. Just like with the health care bill, compromises could kill the effectiveness. We don’t know if the healthcare program will work but hopefully it does, but with compromise comes less progress. Obviously there is no way around compromise with the American system but I just don’t see how such a small redistribution of wealth will make such a large difference.

Employing teachers, emergency workers and other public helpers is a huge step in the right direction but will the boost from that be worth the $447 Billion put in to it. Are people going to save or spend with more money?

Hopefully if they have learned anything they will save, but for the sake of the US economy, we hope that they spend.

As I see it, this is a progressive move, despite my doubts. But ideally we could go after business and try to encourage them to hire through incentive. Tax the corperations that are switching technology with real people and see if there is a change.

It may seem immoral to go after those corperations but if you look at the amounts of money they are taking in that are not being taxed due to loopholes and interesting accounting, many would find the morals to be lacking heavily.

We are trillions, yes trillions, of dollars in debt. We can not act like the banks once did and pretend that our debts will go away given time. We are facing a financial crisis so large that it is scary as well as difficult to imagine. As painful as paying taxes may be, we need to suck it up and increase tax rates. The luxuries we have from the government are only in place due to taxes.

Jobs are the key to having a good economy and Obama is working to create jobs. Whether or not you support the bill, admitting the economy is in trouble and that jobs are the answer is a necessity. Support the bill and see where it goes, because in the end, we need help now.