Nick, given how low actual taxes are on the very wealthy -- the two returns provided by Romney demonstrate this (15%) compared to the actual rate burden on middle class, I suspect there is plenty of room in the $250K+ population for some modest increases in tax levels.

I'm not talking French style tax rates (those are stupid), rather rates that match what they were for the wealthy during the Clinton administration. The concentration of wealth 'achieved' in the US over the past 30 years is (my opinion) not all that healthy at all, and hasn't helped the economy generally.

You do realize that Romney gave 30% away. Now if you want people like him to not give to charity ...

You may not agree with the charity he gave to, but that is different than doing away with charities by choking off their donors. I am sure there needs to be reform of what is a charity, 501(c)3, but that is a separate issue from tax rates.

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Barry, Going by the American trade balance since the late 70's the USA has
steadily gone into greater deficit year on year. This may have something to do
with why either raising or lowering tax thresholds seem not to work either way.
Setting fair Tax thresholds, I suspect, will be a bone of contention for
many years to come. By you all spending a few dollars more by buying USA
manufactured goods, as against foreign made goods, would help a lot.

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The Kite Fliers

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Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Which charity was this, Gary?

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Gary, I realize that Romney has given a great deal of money to his Church and to his family charitable trust -- this is a good thing.

That being said, given his income sources, he wasn't going to be paying more than 15% anyway.

It is interesting that when pressed on his own tax proposal, he suggested a top limit for deductions that would have increased his taxes (or reduced the his incentive to fund his charitable trust).

I wonder what sort of numbers he had for the Clinton era tax rate -- probably similar.

Nick a large piece of that trade imbalance is Oil -- that's actually been reduced a bit due to the recession plus expansion of natural gas use, plus increasingly efficient automobiles.

The other really large piece of course is from China -- and, like oil, the US is quite dependent on goods from China -- of all sorts.

Nick a large piece of that trade imbalance is Oil -- that's actually been reduced a bit due to the recession plus expansion of natural gas use, plus increasingly efficient automobiles.

The other really large piece of course is from China -- and, like oil, the US is quite dependent on goods from China -- of all sorts.

Barry, a reason why lowering the top earners tax threshold has not improved
the American economy, since at least the 80's and onwards, is that the top
earners extra cash has not gone into investments in America but over into China,
Japan and the likes.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Gary, I realize that Romney has given a great deal of money to his Church and to his family charitable trust -- this is a good thing.

That being said, given his income sources, he wasn't going to be paying more than 15% anyway.

It is interesting that when pressed on his own tax proposal, he suggested a top limit for deductions that would have increased his taxes (or reduced the his incentive to fund his charitable trust).

I wonder what sort of numbers he had for the Clinton era tax rate -- probably similar.

Actually I wonder when he was Governor if he had to release his tax returns?

Somewhere he had to have salary compensation to have have that huge IRA. I don't remember seeing what kind it is but I'd guess a SEP-IRA with a $50K yearly contribution limit. With the 25% compensation limit it would mean he had to be getting $200K salary and paying employment taxes on that. I suspect while he was working at Bain his tax rate was a good chunk higher than it is now.

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Prez is Good, Real Good. You've Won. Time to Get 'er Done.

And The Evidence For This Is?

'Cause IT said, FORWARD! And CNN headline piped, Challenge No. 1: FORWARD!

'Nuff said. And Good 'Enuf for 50% of The ZOMBIES who voted for IT.

You wanted Mr. Hollywood, youse gots 'im.

But, The Boys In Appalachia Will Be Watchin'.

The DEMON...ella

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

I would expect his tax rate while working at Bain was a lot higher -- after all, under Obama the rates are equal to or lower than they were at the end of the Bush administration -- back to 2002.

Rates were higher in the Clinton administration, the first Bush administration all the way back to the Hoover administration.

All the noise about tax/spend -- the problem (largely recession driven) has been low tax/spend. Spending needs to drop -- a fair piece of that is going to have to come from entitlements. Revenue is going to need to increase -- a portion there in rates, and a fair portion coming from limiting tax entitlements.

Frankly, if Obama wants to make a deal, I think he's going to need to cut that deal with Ryan -- Ryan, for all his ideological budget conservatives strikes me as a 'country first' politician. Boehner and Cantor and McConnell -- not so much.

Somewhere he had to have salary compensation to have have that huge IRA. I don't remember seeing what kind it is but I'd guess a SEP-IRA with a $50K yearly contribution limit. With the 25% compensation limit it would mean he had to be getting $200K salary and paying employment taxes on that. I suspect while he was working at Bain his tax rate was a good chunk higher than it is now.

Gary, I realize that Romney has given a great deal of money to his Church and ...

Word is, that's required. I guess it's ok for a "church" to demand it, but your country, no way! Render NOT to Caesar!!!

Well according to Nate Silver FiveThirtyEight Blog, who got prediction right in 49 out of 50 states in 2008 and correctly forecasted all the 35 Senate seats contested that year, it's going to be Obama.

A few of the Baseball fans might know of Nate Silver as he started his predictions with Baseball Prospectus using his PECOTA system for projecting player performance and careers.

Well how many of you followed his blog.

Because if you had you would have known the result several days before the election.

Several news outlets said things like "he's a joke" by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, Politico though his results from the last election made him a “one-term celebrity” and even in his own paper the NY Times colleague David Brooks dismissed him.

So now the comments are,

“You know who won the election tonight? Nate Silver,” wrote MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

and from Politico, Dylan Byers, tweeted: “Nate Silver nailed it.”

So far the score is 49 out of 50 state with Florida still to declare and his prediction for Florida on Monday night was Obama by 1%.

Sarge, tithing (10%) is the nominal requirement. I say nominal -- not sure it is an absolute requirement. His contribution rate exceeds that.

Gary, I realize that Romney has given a great deal of money to his Church and ...

Word is, that's required. I guess it's ok for a "church" to demand it, but your country, no way! Render NOT to Caesar!!!

CIA Director RESIGNS. Sweetness. Bogus reason.

It Begins. Not even one week past Election. Oh Yeah.

Seven Days In May. FO Sho

Also, Pitiful already being divisive. Sweetness.

I'm looking For Hell To Pay for Pitiful's Libya Debacle. All kinds of Investigations and Oh So Sweet Revelations Of Failure Of Commander-in-Chief Duties.

And since The Armed Forces hate Peace Prize Losing Potus, I'm hoping for A Seven Days In May Thingee.

If Libbers are Down In The Dumps now because of EPIC FAILURE, there will be Lots 'O Fun OBSTRUCTING this MO FO of a Crap Prez for The Next Four.

Yep, No Across The Aisle for Mr. Attack and Blame. He wants Love, He can get it From Hollywood, Not Washington DC.

We, Of The Right, Solemnly Swear, to Bring This Country Back and Far Far Far Away from The Socialist/Communist/DEMLib Doctrines.

So It Will Be.

Yep.

DEMON...Hot

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

IIRC Adultery in the Military is an offense against the UCMJ.

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He's not in the military any more.

When did he do it?

And, it's OK to be gay in the military now. There can't be any antiquated thing such as "adultery" any more.

IIRC I just saw a news item about an officer being charged with that.

And WHOOPS, my bias as an ex military man came through again. I'm a dam white guy... Now that I think about it, he IS a white male. I can't imagine why Obama is letting him resign other than as a favor for him because he can't reconcile unreasonably high standards for himself. If he is responsible for any wrong doing, Obama should hang him.

No, Obama shouldn't hang him. Being responsible for one's own action is a white male thought process. You will get it right eventually Guy. ;)

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Reality Internet Personality

Sarge, tithing (10%) is the nominal requirement. I say nominal -- not sure it is an absolute requirement. His contribution rate exceeds that.

Gary, I realize that Romney has given a great deal of money to his Church and ...

Word is, that's required. I guess it's ok for a "church" to demand it, but your country, no way! Render NOT to Caesar!!!

The emphasis is on required.
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AnGF6Y1xoaIAEWd.k6txKVybvZx4?p=mormon+tithing+requirement&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701-10

And fighting two long term wars on credit plus an ineffective fiscal policy had nothing to do with the deficit ?

I won't say that didn't cost much, but I blame paying for things like art work entitled "P*SS CHRIST."

"The piece caused a scandal when it was exhibited in 1989, with detractors, including United States Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms, outraged that Serrano received $15,000 for the work, part of it from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ)

Clinton balanced the budget in the meantime and the only reason we have any debt or deficit today is the irresponsibility and ideologically-driven foolishness of W and the Republicans in Congress. That painting literally has nothing to do with any current budget deficit or debt, in addition to being so many orders of magnitude less expensive it's ridiculous.

You make an absolute fool of yourself by asserting that the two are in any way commensurate.

Let's ballpark the cost of W's Iraq War at $1.5T, although we know total costs such as medical care for chronic wounds inflicted in the line of duty are much, much more. But 1.5 gives a neat result and the right order of magnitude, which is close enough for this discussion.

$1.5T / $15k =
$1,000,000,000,000/
$15,000
===================
100,000,000

Your priorities are quantifiably out of order, by a factor of at least 100,000,000, 100 Million.

This is not only a waste of taxpayer money, but it also insults the tax payer.

No, it is only possibly an insult to practitioners of one particular Iron Age superstition, and even that is debatable. Freedom of religion means that nobody is obligated to believe or pretend to believe that anybody else's religion is more than a silly superstition. Arguably, saying so in public is rude, but it's absolutely nothing worse than rude. Most importantly, nobody is harmed by allegedly disrespecting your Iron Age superstition or anybody else's. If you cannot see that and "turn the other cheek" then you are no Christian anyway, and have no right, according to Christ Himself, to take offense on His behalf at "sacrilege" against a religion that you are obviously not really practicing anyway.

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