I don't know what's worse: that Republican congressman Paul Ryan is viewed as intelligent, or that if the Democrats lose the House, he could be driving economic policy. Not surprisingly, Congressman Ryan has proposed a tax plan that would lower revenues overall (Republicans talk about lower deficits--in practice, they do the opposite); the plan slashes income taxes and institutes a value-added tax (VAT). What is remarkable is that, for 80% of the country, individual tax burdens would increase. You'll never guess which end of the income spectrum those eighty percent fall into:
Leaving aside jokes about cartoon villains and twirled moustaches, how can anyone think raising the taxes of someone who earns $26,000 per year by $2,000 is a good idea. And that person earning $13,000 will be much better off paying $1,600 in additional taxes. Or something.
This isn't conservatism, this is assholeism. I have disdain for much of the Obama team's economic plan. But these Republican 'ideas' are just fucking ridiculous. Unfortunately, by setting one end of 'respectable' discourse at "drooling moron", they make the Democrats seem intelligent.
And that's hard to do.
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Look, for too long have those Lucky Duckies earning $13K a year been living their lavish and leisurely lifestyles on the backs of the hard-working wealthy. It's about time they started paying their fair share. And shortfalls resulting from cutting the taxes (of the hard-working wealthy) don't matter. Only when those not among the hard-working wealthy benefit does fiscal responsibility become a moral imperative.
This looks just like what happened under Reagan as well. Now if the Dems would just sack up and start blasting these figures far and wide in the media, they might have a chance at convincing the average 'murrican that while they are completely beholden to corporate assholes, at least they're less beholden than the Republicans. For some reason they can't quite seem to figure out that with the right message (i.e., these are banker's and insurance exec's salaries), people would probably be glad to extend a large monetary middle finger to the rich Repubs in favor of keeping their kid's teacher employed.
I can't see the graphic you display in your post here at work, but if it is the same as the one in the article you link to, then you are misreading the data. It is clearly labeled in that article that Ryan's proposal is compared to Obama's tax plan, not current tax rates. I'll look into this more when I get home, have more time, and don't have to deal with blocking software.
Paul Krugman has a nice graph
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/who-do-you-love-part-ii/
Democrats are scared to be accused of 'class warfare' should they point out that poor people (all those in the lower 99% income brackets) are getting screwed by the Republicans (not to forget 'blue-dog' Democrats and others, all firmly in the pockets of various [financial, insurance] industries, assuring continued upward redistribution of incomes).
It is the genius of the Republicans to bamboozle enough of those they screw worst, so that these (well, ~50% of the electorate) will actually agree to get screwed, and think they actually get a bargain, because those with darker complexion or even poorer get screwed worse. And more so, all in the name of Christian Family Values! And Freedom!
And our media will not report this in any understandable way; there is no TV reporter who'll ask Ryan such an impolite question such as "Do you really think it is a good idea to raise taxes on someone earning $26k by 2,000.- AS YOUR PLAN DOES?[*]" (and then follow up on the evasion of a direct answer).
Instead we'll hear some vague mumbling about how serious a plan it is, that it benefits the economy (no proof needed), all eagerly licked up by some TV personality.
It seems in the U.S., there is indeed no more class war, it has been won. (And, obviously not by us).
[*} possibly need to add "compared to Obama's plan" here
This Facebook link is OT, except that it's awful, and is something which, so far, "our media will not report ... in any understandable way":
Justice for Kofi Adu-Brempong
Hey liberal putz if you knew anything about economics ot os that is you lower taxes you actually increases government revenue as show in the Reagen era. The lower taxes the more small busniess the lower the employment rate and the people start to pay into the system. The biggest joke of all is the tax cuyt to people that dont pay taxes at all under the Obama plan. The payroll taxes are for UI insurance and pensions is you stop paying them or decrese the amount you get less latter. Learn ECONOMICS MORONS lower taxes increase government revenue as shown by Reagan JFK ect... Or we can stay in 9.7% unemployment and obama healthcare that the public has rejected over and over democrats need to realize we are there bosses you don't listen you'll be out on your ass, and that goes for the GOP too. REagan revolution PART 2 needed either party please apply any applications by cheney bush reis pelosi or obama will be diswualified due to lack of intelligence.
Brent's right you know, as also shown by the Bush tax cuts. Sure, we went from a budget surplus to a huge deficit, but imagine how much huger the deficit would have been had not W given the hard-working wealthy a bit of a break. We're just darn lucky they don't all just go Galt on us now that we've elected a Socialist!