[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by AlanE

Who is this "We" that you are referring to? Surely it's not Democrats and liberals. All they've been doing is focusing on individuals.

By "We" I mean every American except for the greedy money grubbers! In the 50s, the top tax rate was around 90%. Now it's about a third of that. Similarly corporate taxes are a fraction now of what they once were.

We have billionaires like Warren Buffet asking for tax increases because as successful investors they understand that too much money and power in the hands of too few isn't good for an economy in the long run.

Originally Posted by AlanE

Corporations DON'T PAY TAXES, people pay taxes. This has long been known by very many people which is why there hasn't been an uproar about corporate taxes coming down and yet the US corporate tax rate is almost the highest in the Western World:

Corporations don't pay taxes, yet the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world? Put down the bong you tree hugging hippie! Corporations pay taxes. They used to pay more taxes in the past, but thanks to tax breaks they don't pay nearly as much as they used. In fact, the United States has some of the lowest effective corporate tax rates. The difference between statutory and effective tax rates is naturally tax breaks, so even if statutory rates are high, effective rates are low due to tax breaks in the tax code.

Originally Posted by AlanE

When guys like you, relics of the past, advocate that the corporate tax rate be increased the real world consequences fall on the investor class and the 800 lb gorilla in the investor class are retirement accounts.

I know, wouldn't it be awful if corporations and the wealthy payed the same tax rates that my grandparents generation, those relics of the past, paid? I mean, sure, they didn't do much, just won WWII, but jeeze it sure would be awful if we ended up paying the same corporate/income tax rates that those relics did.

Originally Posted by AlanE

The ripple effect works like this - higher corporate taxes paid means a.) less stock price growth because stocks are priced at multiples of earnings, and b.) less dividends paid.

Yeah, cuz we all know the stock market does a great job of valuation...

Originally Posted by AlanE

When you increase the tax on an activity you will get less of that activity.

I know, huh. Wouldn't it be terrible if we had fewer oil spills and refinery accidents? If there was better competition then we wouldn't need to tax corporations, because their profits would be much more reasonable, but as it stands corporations have become the best vehicle for a few greedy money grubbers, and this unfortunately ruins it for everyone.

Originally Posted by AlanE

I don't know what to say here, this is such a bizarre statement that is so divorced from reality that you're either completely ignorant about what you're writing, you're engaging in wish fulfillment or you're on something.

The spending problems the US faces ARE NOT fixable by your band-aid measures. The US could implement everything you suggest and because you are working with static modeling rather than dynamic modeling, none of your predictions on outcome will have any resemblance to what will really happen. The US doesn't have a revenue shortfall problem - look at your corporate tax rates with respect to the rest of the Western World, you're just a tad below Japan's and everyone else is below your rate. Now you're suggesting that the rate be increased even further?

I don't know what to say here, this is such a bizarre statement that is so divorced from reality that you're either completely ignorant about what you're writing, you're engaging in wish fulfillment or you're on something.

The spending problems the US faces ARE fixable by the same tax measures that our grandparents used. The US could simply implement the same tax code that was present in the past a greatly increase revenue. The US has a revenue shortfall problem - the tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is about twenty five percent less than it was with Ronald Regan. Granted, the U.S. also has a defense spending problem, but that doesn't someone invalidate it's revenue problem.