[quote=AN][quote=flu]Because I never thought I would vote for Hillary, lol. Ok, let me correct that. I’m probably not a California Democrat. More like a Bible state democrat. lol.[/quote]
What does that even mean? So you’re OK with higher taxes, bigger government, just as long as they don’t touch college acceptance?[/quote]
AN you know me pretty well. And you know that I would never be Ok with higher taxes and bigger government.
BUT, at this point, I’m more concerned with a longer term damage Trump does to this country than a shorter term damage that Hillary might do to my taxes.
He represents everything wrong about this country, every sorry excuse people make for themselves on why they can’t get ahead. He’s an enabler for people who hate just for the sake of hating, latino, muslims, blacks, and later indians, asians, jews. Maybe not all Trump supporters are like that, but there’s enough of them to make it a problem. And enough of them that I believe if he wins, it could be a problem for not me, but my kids and your kids, especially if they don’t plan on growing up in CA.
I can’t for the life of me explain to my kid how a Trump “President” behaves and acts the way he does as acceptable behavior. Now extrapolate his demeanor and his behavior to the parents and family that think what he is doing is nothing wrong, and pretty soon you have a bunch of little punks that also will end up saying shit to your kid like “Trump is going to send you colored people home”. Shit that was a really bad memory when I was growing up and people like us really were a minority in CA. People always say, things can’t get “that bad” in California. And that’s true. But why must I or my kid be forced to stay in California in order to feel safe or protected? That’s bullshit. My kid has so much more to lose. Neither I or my kid has the luxury to afford a Trump fvckup and his extreme followers in charge. Neither my kid or I are white. We don’t have the privilege of “experimenting” with Trump screwing around with his talk of a theoretical border wall built to keep latinos, or profiling muslims because all of them are terrorists, or his tough talk against chinese who are all hackers and spies and stealing “our jobs”, and on and on and on. These are luxuries a (for a lack of the better word) white family and white kids have, because no matter what Trump does, or how outrageous he casts his “blame net” on, it is very unlikely to ever impact a “white family”. Sure, it’s very easy for some of his supporters to say “Trump is being honest, and I’m so glad he’s not PC”. Again, they are white, and no matter what he does, yes they are correct, their life won’t change significantly no matter what he does. You, me, your kid, my kid, we’re not so lucky. Maybe we aren’t going be a target first, maybe we won’t ever be a target. You want to take a chance? I don’t. While as I don’t give a flying fvck about me, I do care a lot about my kid and the world that my kid will have to grow up in.
No, I’m not a big fan of bigger government, more spending, and a higher tax bill. And had the GOP presidential candidates stuck to those issues, and left off all the other social issues/racial issues/ women’s rights issue aside, they would have been a much more appealing and aligned to what would be good for me. But of course, Trump didn’t do that, and his most extreme right base didn’t want to back any of the moderate candidates that tried to do that. So what choice do I have? Johnson? who has over the past month demonstrate he is out of touch with the world?
If that means that my tax rate goes up for the next 4 years, fine. Hopefully, this won’t be a landslide election, hopefully the GOP maintains control in at least one branch of Congress to act as a counter balance. I’ll back the local republicans that didn’t endorse Trump,. In CA, republicans here are mostly moderates anyway, more so than most Democrats in Rustbelt states.
Trump’s tax plan isn’t really going to help either of us. His elimination of estate taxes (which benefits people like him) is really useless for people like us. The current estate tax laws allows families to shelter up to $10million in net worth, using an A-B Trust, I believe. Above which, there are additional ways to shelter some of that amount. This is nothing more than a handout to the extreme wealthy. It was a ploy to draw out all the 0.1% in this country that probably couldn’t back Trump because of his unsavory view on minorities and women, but appeals to that 0.1% that don’t mind overlooking basic human decency if means saving themselves on taxes, so they can afford an extra Bugatti….. Because obviously, an extra Bugatti is much more important for them than the well being “of a bunch of colored people” and women….. Trump is also proposing an increasing in capital gains taxes, so yes your tax and my tax is going to go up anyway. He is for expanding the child tax credit. But here’s the rub, your “tax credit” for a child most likely is less than additional taxes you are now going to pay for capital gains… At least it certainly would be for me. So again, this is Trump’s nice little plan to wealth transfer money from those in the upper-middle class, while simultaneously leaving the 0.1% alone. See the common theme here? We get hit by both parties.
Hillary is proposing limiting estate tax exemption to 7 million. She is also proposing to increase capital gains taxes, and having the long term capital gains tax rate over a much longer period (5-6 years I think). Does this make that much of difference for us? Probably not that much… Most of our trading in after tax accounts are short term trades taxed as ordinary income already and all the trades in retirement accounts are either tax deferred or tax exempt. And for accounts holding index funds, chances are those are already long term from holding onto them all these years.
The biggest tax issue is step-up cost basis she is proposing to eliminate.. I believe Hillary’s team is still “working out the details”. What was unclear is whether this would be eliminated for everyone or just for people that make $2million+/year. That would have consequences for us holding on to real estate and equity trying to pass it on to our kids, big time. But I’ll reserve judgement until the plan is laid out. It depends on how Hillary defines the cutoff of “wealthy”.
In any case, taxes are going to go up eventually for everyone anyway, simply because this country is bleeding financially. Any politician telling you that taxes aren’t going up is lying and/or only talking to the bottom 1% who never paid taxes or top 0.1% who will always have their tax shelters.
As far as the rest of Hillary is concerned, I don’t give a flying fvck about all the “other issues” that the extreme right wing noise machine continues to make. I don’t care about Bill, I don’t care about Benghazi, about the email, nor do I really give a flying fvck about the Clinton Foundation. All these issues are of no concern to me, relative to the bigger issue that a Trump presidency presents for my kid.
