Quote:
Originally Posted by KatzPajamas
I think you need to look closer at the "32 bullet points". Among others (no Death tax, no Capital gains tax, no Payroll tax, no tax on repatriated profits) are 3 main 9% taxes as such-9% personal income tax, 9% business tax, and 9% national sales tax...Very specific detailed points!
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Without getting into a long debate on this, just a couple questions on Cain's detailed proposals...
- Who will get the majority of the benefit of the elimination of the death tax and capital gains taxes? Lower income Americans or those wealthy enough to have built up enough wealth to be subject to those types of taxes? Seems like another sweet deal for those wealthy campaign contributors.
- What does the "payroll tax" that will be eliminated pay for? Medicare? Social Security? Unemployment benefits? If the funding for those programs is eliminated, who will pay for them? Will they be eliminated?
- A 9% corporate tax rate? Guess what percentage of the total profits of American companies are actually paid to the federal government? A quick look at the GDP of the U.S. and the amount of taxes collected from businesses shows an average tax rate of 1.55%. (In 2009 total business tax payments were $225 billion on a Gross Domestic Product of abouit $14.55 trillion.) Forget about the IRS rate tables, think about how much companies actually pay the federal government! My guess is that Cain's "all corporations pay 9% in taxes on their profits" will be roundly rejected by corporate America.
- Making the same calculation for personal taxes paid shows an average tax rate for individual Americans in 2009 was 8.1% Cain's proposals might be terrific for the wealthy, whose tax payments would go down with a 9% rate, but not so good for poorer people. A 9% individual tax rate will actually increase the amount collected in individual income taxes!
- And a 9% national sales tax? That's 9% more than it is now.
I'll ask again...how come no outrage?
The answer? Because no one has bothered to do the arithmetic!!