Make or Break Time for the Middle Class says Obama

[Red Arrow]

Just look at the tables.  I would love to be paying $15 million a year in taxes.  That means I would be grossing about $100 million under the current system.  Two years of that and I am outta here - sitting on a beach on each island of the world for about a month each, then moving to the next one.

Looking the 2009 (last year the IRS sent the book out) tax tables, married filing jointly (I believe you said you are married) with a taxable (Not AGI) income of $100,000 the tax is $17,369.  Adding back in $18,700 (standard deduction and 2 personal exemptions) to get to AGI gives $118,700.  $17,369/$118,700 = .1463, or 14.63%.   You must be raking it in to be well above 16%.  Make yourself a sign saying "My taxable income is well above $100,000 - give me a break" and march around town and see how much sympathy you get.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Looking the 2009 (last year the IRS sent the book out) tax tables, married filing jointly (I believe you said you are married) with a taxable (Not AGI) income of $100,000 the tax is $17,369.  Adding back in $18,700 (standard deduction and 2 personal exemptions) to get to AGI gives $118,700.  $17,369/$118,700 = .1463, or 14.63%.   You must be raking it in to be well above 16%.  Make yourself a sign saying "My taxable income is well above $100,000 - give me a break" and march around town and see how much sympathy you get.

Neither I, nor any friends or family is looking for any sympathy.  What we are looking for is a future for ours and everyone's grandkids.  And the last 30 years history shows that it isn't getting better the further we go - it IS getting worse!

Because we are NOT part of the 1%ers.

[Red Arrow]

Because we are NOT part of the 1%ers.

If you are not a top 5%er, you are fast approaching it.  Stop whining.

See Table 7
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table6

[heironymouspasparagus]

If you are not a top 5%er, you are fast approaching it.  Stop whining.

See Table 7
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table6

I'm not whining...are you?



The rumor just arrived - Bob Stoops is being fired this afternoon!  Not sure how true yet, but should be interesting.  Wonder what he's gonna do with that big house?

[Red Arrow]

I'm not whining...are you?

Not here.  I don't object too much to what I am paying.  It's a lower percentage than when I first started as an engineer (about 20% then) and I have no problem with the really rich paying more in tax each year than I will earn in my lifetime, even if it is only 15% of their AGI.

[Teatownclown]

hope this helps...

RIP Harry Joe Gannon Morgan!

"I've never seen a President do so little and get away with blaming so many." Conan71 the Bararbarian.... and that's politics!

[heironymouspasparagus]

Unintended consequences.


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/years-immigration-raid-iowa-town-feels-poorer-less-133035414.html

[Conan71]

To a great degree you're right.  The unemployment rate is inexcusable, and it's been that way for nearly his entire presidency.  Even his proposed legislation has been less than required to put the middle class back on any sort of foundational footing.  Weak sauce in the short and medium term, and even weaker still if we're talking about long term, structural reform.  And no, he hasn't done anything to police or prosecute wrongdoing in the financial sector. 

But the alternative is far far worse.  Nothing I've seen from either Romney or Gingrich suggests that they have anything better to offer.  They're not offering prosecutions or policing of the financial system.  They're not offering anything remotely good for the middle class; in fact everything that's current GOP orthodoxy will reinforce and/or speed up economic inequality.  That's the exactly wrong direction. 

Obama ain't fantastic by a long shot, but given the choice between a slow recovery and a nosedive into political oblivion, I'll take the recovery any day. 

I don't care what Gingrich or Romney is offering at this point, they are candidates and they want votes.  They have no power to act on any promises.

This president still has to try and lead for one more year.  He's been in charge for nearly three years now and he's squandered many opportunities   to bring corporate criminals to justice and to reign in traders and trading practices which affect us all (like the high oil prices we've lived with for going on four years), he's breaking bread with them.  He's a failure but you want to deflect that by making the point that two un-elected candidates for office have nothing to offer either.  Have you simply forgiven Obama of having any sort of responsibility as a leader?  How could you possibly want to re-elect this guy?

[Conan71]

hope this helps...

RIP Harry Joe Gannon Morgan!

"I've never seen a President do so little and get away with blaming so many." Conan71 the Bararbarian.... and that's politics!

Love the tag line!  I'm honored!

[nathanm]

I don't care what Gingrich or Romney is offering at this point, they are candidates and they want votes.  They have no power to act on any promises.

This president still has to try and lead for one more year.  He's been in charge for nearly three years now and he's squandered many opportunities   to bring corporate criminals to justice and to reign in traders and trading practices which affect us all (like the high oil prices we've lived with for going on four years), he's breaking bread with them.  He's a failure but you want to deflect that by making the point that two un-elected candidates for office have nothing to offer either.  Have you simply forgiven Obama of having any sort of responsibility as a leader?  How could you possibly want to re-elect this guy?

Obama has gotten quite a bit done, just not much that you like, and not so much since this latest Congress went into session. It would help if there weren't a cadre of supposed economists out there screaming policy prescriptions at the top of their lungs that just happen to have been disproven by recent events. Me, I'm more upset at the people in Congress who made it their stated goal to deny Obama the opportunity to have a recovery during this term. The President doesn't get to be a dictator, so there's only so much that can be done since Congress won't consent to anything.

[Teatownclown]

yep

[Conan71]

Obama has gotten quite a bit done, just not much that you like, and not so much since this latest Congress went into session. It would help if there weren't a cadre of supposed economists out there screaming policy prescriptions at the top of their lungs that just happen to have been disproven by recent events. Me, I'm more upset at the people in Congress who made it their stated goal to deny Obama the opportunity to have a recovery during this term. The President doesn't get to be a dictator, so there's only so much that can be done since Congress won't consent to anything.

Out of all that "quite a bit done"...

How many Americans has he gotten back to work?

What has he done in the way of investigating and ensuring another massive collapse of the financial system isn't waiting for future generations (or just around the corner)?

What has he done in the way of a substantive energy policy?

And finally we are back to the "blame Congress for Obama's failed leadership skills".  That really doesn't wash, as somehow, Clinton had a really effective presidency in spite of Newt Gingrich and a pretty solid GOP majority in the House and Senate who were dead-set on running him out of office.

[nathanm]

Out of all that "quite a bit done"...

How many Americans has he gotten back to work?

About 3 million.

What has he done in the way of investigating and ensuring another massive collapse of the financial system isn't waiting for future generations (or just around the corner)?

Dodd-Frank should help, if Congress will ever confirm a head of the CFPB. Broader consumer protection should help prevent banks from making as many dumb mistakes. Our banks are in much better shape than those in Europe and most of the rest of the world. That's partly due to the new regulatory powers granted through that legislation.

I agree that there have not been nearly enough prosecutions for the last turn at the wheel. The DoJ has pretty much decided that the banks should not be penalized for illegally foreclosing on deployed servicemembers or fraudulently recording mortgages or any of the other clear cut violations of law.

What has he done in the way of a substantive energy policy?

What would you like him to do? You guys are giving him no end of smile for investing in domestic solar production. He's stayed the course on the nuclear front despite the uproar due to Fukushima.

And finally we are back to the "blame Congress for Obama's failed leadership skills".  That really doesn't wash, as somehow, Clinton had a really effective presidency in spite of Newt Gingrich and a pretty solid GOP majority in the House and Senate who were dead-set on running him out of office.

Leadership skills do not turn a minority into a majority. Not when a good chunk of the Republican caucus is far to the right of their already pretty far to the right Speaker. They are dead set on dismantling the government, as we saw during the debt debacle. Moreover, they have stated outright that they will not pass any legislation Obama supports. What do you want him to do, force a vote at gunpoint? The public voted for this. It's not as if the people they put in Congress were unclear about their intentions. I don't know why you think Obama is a failure for not ignoring the wishes of the public by essentially staging a coup.

tl;dr: http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/ (I prefer the not-PG URL, but it would be rude to post it here)

[heironymouspasparagus]

Out of all that "quite a bit done"...

How many Americans has he gotten back to work?

What has he done in the way of investigating and ensuring another massive collapse of the financial system isn't waiting for future generations (or just around the corner)?

What has he done in the way of a substantive energy policy?

And finally we are back to the "blame Congress for Obama's failed leadership skills".  That really doesn't wash, as somehow, Clinton had a really effective presidency in spite of Newt Gingrich and a pretty solid GOP majority in the House and Senate who were dead-set on running him out of office.

How many Americans did George Bush put out of work?

Many more than got work during his term.

[Townsend]

How many Americans did George Bush put out of work?

Military advisorships skyrocketed