What's Mallard raving about today?
Taxes, Straw Men.
Those God damned "some people," chief enablers the Right Wing echo chamber for the past decade or more. If only these "some people" wouldn't say such outlandish things, the Right Wing would have nothing to attack! If only someone, someday would tell us who these "some people" are...
I will, by contrast, grant that some people believe in fiscal responsibility and paying for what you spend. The bad news: one of them is not the President and another is running for President.
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No asterisk, of course. He knows someone would just call him out on his half-true statement if there was.
I just wrapped up doing my taxes an hour ago.
Do I like paying them? Of course not. I also don't like paying for rent, groceries, cable, gas, electricity, cat food (The little bugger has a food allergy so she needs special hypoallergenic duck-based food. I can't even remember the last time I had duck.), clothing, doctor bills, medicine, DVDs, laundry and a whole lot of other things.
But I do, because I'm an adult and that's the way things work. Certainly I agree there's lots of waste in the government even for the programs I feel are worthwhile, let alone the various things which I can't believe my tax dollars are going to support (*coughBlackwatercough*).
I'm not going to bitch and whine every April about income taxes, however, because I'm resigned to the fact that in a society which supports many opposing viewpoints is going to mean that the government is going to spend some of my tax money in places where I don't like and there isn't thing one I can do about it. It actually makes me feel - dare I say it - patriotic to make my annual financial contribution towards this great bastion of democracy. (Was that laying it on a little thick? Sorry.)
You know, the standard comeback to the anti-war protests has been, "They're over there fighting so you can have the right to protest." Funny that the anti-tax zealots forget that the money they pay goes toward supporting a government and a political system that allows them to loudly and vehemently protest their financial duty.
Daaaaamn, Dave, that was nice.
While he cries regularly about spending, Tinny rarely seems to bring up the deficit. Perhaps our great speaker-of-truth-to-power thinks it unpatriotic to do so in a time of warwarwar. Still, I would love to read his tax-hike-free solution the problem the deficit presents. For example, would his solution involve pixies--or Smurfs?
"Some people" say Tinny's a gibbering maroon.
1) National debt exists
2) Interest exists
3) The sooner debt is paid off, the less interest overall one pays.
Thus, it is far more practical for the nation to acheive 0$ deficit ASAP so that we avoid paying more of our taxes in the long run.
Because trillion dollar debts don't just go BOOP! and vanish. Even considering pork and waste, it is an ugly reality that might explain why 2 candidates seriously discuss raising taxes.
And in an ironic but logical and relevant aside, those tax hikes will be for the wealthy, Clinton outright and Obama by raising taxable income limits for social security. By definition, that is not your average American citizen overwhelmed by taxes.
I don't know how true this is or not (I don't do math so good, but the guy who told me sounds like he knows what he's talking about), but apparently Tinsley's "Average American" stat includes corporate taxes.
Meaning the Average American is working hard to pay taxes that the corporations pay.
The "we" that "don't pay enough taxes" are people earning over $200,000 per year. Noone is talking about raising taxes on the average Joe. His whole argument is proof that there are only two kinds of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
Man, this tax stuff is weak. He might as well just write "generic leftwing boogieman says generic leftwing boogieman thing. And the scary part? Presidential candidates agree with the leftwing boogieman thing!" every day for seven weeks in a row. It would be exactly as cogent as what we're getting now.
Your friend is right, Starshark, corporate incomes are added to this number. An objective analysis of this date/number tells me it's calculated to make it as big as possible. Hmmm.
Wikipedia on the subject....
Tax Freedom Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the year in which a nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to fund its annual tax burden. It is annually calculated in the United States by the Tax Foundation—a Washington, D.C.-based tax research organization. Every dollar that is officially considered income by the U.S. government is counted, and every payment to the U.S. government that is officially considered a tax is counted. Taxes at all levels of government—local, state and federal—are included.
....
In the United States, Tax Freedom Day for 2008 is April 23, for a total average effective tax rate of 30.8 percent of the nation's income.
....
Criticisms
Critics object to misleading portrayals of Tax Freedom Day in the popular media. It is commonly referred to as the day "the average American" has earned enough to pay his (or her) tax obligations. .... While Tax Freedom Day presents an "average American" tax burden, it is not a tax burden typical for an American. That is, the tax burdens of some Americans are overstated by Tax Freedom Day.
Another criticism is that the calculation includes capital gains taxes but not capital gains income, thus overstating the tax burden. For example, in the late 1990s Tax Freedom Day moved later, reaching its latest date ever in 2000, but this was largely due to capital gains taxes on the bull market of that era rather than an increase in tax rates. In other words, variations in capital gains income and their associated taxes cause changes in the amount of taxes, but not in the income used in the calculation of Tax Freedom Day.
The Tax Foundation defends its methodology by pointing out that Tax Freedom Day is the U.S. economy's overall average tax burden -- not the tax burden of the "average" American, which is how it is often misinterpreted by members of the media. Tax Foundation materials do not use the phrase "tax burden of the average American", although members of the media often make this mistake.
Note what Tinsley has Mallard say, "The average American will work from Jan 1 to April 23 of this year...." A 1 minute Google search would have pointed out the error in this statement, but why bother?
No no no. Don't be a good little worker and fork over taxes without bitching and moaning. The government is not entitled to your money; you are. What is fueling the obscene war in Iraq, the ever-growing arsenal of sci-fi weaponry, and corporate welfare if not your tax money? There's nothing patriotic about supporting government funded genocide.
Mallard hates the military.
Pass it on.
I agree in theory that civil disobedience is a fine thing, but anonymous, are you typing this from a jail cell? Because if not, you would seem to lack the courage of your convictions.
Not necessarily, geox:
"There is very little precedent for Tax Resisters being jailed. When it has happened (fewer than two dozen times since World War II), it has generally not been for non-payment, but for related decisions (for example, contempt of court for refusal to produce financial records). The IRS acts, essentially, as a collection agency."
Besides, anonymous said: "Don't be a good little worker and fork over taxes without bitching and moaning," which may have been in response to Dave Robidenza's post above:
I'm not going to bitch and whine every April about income taxes, however, because I'm resigned to the fact that in a society which supports many opposing viewpoints is going to mean that the government is going to spend some of my tax money in places where I don't like and there isn't thing one I can do about it.
I'd like to think there's a sort-of-happy medium where one pays one's taxes, but also takes an active, regular and vociferous interest in how that money is spent by the government--not necessarily in one's exclusive self-interest, but in the interest of society and the nation at large (and I just lost Tinny, right there).
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