Mark Holmes,
I have agreed with almost everything you’ve said on this thread.
Michelle O gave a solid speech & how cute are those kids! Political issues aside – my kids are their age, and I couldn’t help but feel like I identified w/ Obama even more after seeing them up there as a family.
Ex-SD
I loved your post – it was in true Piggington form laying out your facts as you did, and you even supplied reference links. Your points fall short however, and they are MISLEADING at best.
First, I had difficulty finding the sources of your facts when I clicked the links you provided.
DIVIDEND TAX – 39.6% tax is only for the wealthy located at the top tax bracket. Obama is basically back to treating divs like ordinary income. Middle class will not be impacted much by this.
ESTATE TAX – don’t forget the lifetime exclusion of $1mill to taxpayers as well as spousal step-up in basis. Even when reinstated the estate tax this will mostly only impact the very wealthy.
INCOME TAX – According to your CNN link, Obama only proposes rolling-back (increasing) tax rates on the top two brackets & the lower brackets would remain unchanged. This means you would have to make about $250k married or $150k single before you see an increase in your tax due to rate changes.
CAP GAINS – your most compelling point was regarding tax on gain of principal residence. I did see in your sources mentioning of cap gain increases for wealthy, but I couldn’t find anything about lifting the $500k exclusion. Can you specifically point out where you got this info?
PAYROLL TAX – I’m not sure you mentioned that one, and admittedly it’s a doozy for the wealthy making over $250k (MFJ), but if you’ve got a better way of saving Soc Sec, get Barack on the batphone quick.
Overall, Obama is increasing taxes on the wealthy and leaving middle-class alone. In fact, I did not even touch on the tax breaks he is offering the middle class.
Hear me now & believe me later…
OBAMA WILL DECREASE INCOME TAX FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS. (under $250k MFJ)
