Truth about Taxes

My last letter prior to the mid-term elections. Please don't forget to vote on November 2nd.

Jonathan

I don’t like taxes any more than the next person, but it’s important to make decisions about the upcoming election based on facts.

Republicans are in favor of extending Bush tax cuts to the richest 2% because they claim it will help the economy. But according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, extending high-income tax cuts is the worst policy option currently available for promoting jobs and economic growth.

Republicans want us to think that President Obama and the Democrat-led Congress have raised taxes. That’s not correct. The stimulus package resulted in tax cuts for 98% of working taxpayers in 2009; no one has had a federal tax increase in the past two years.

Republicans claim they want to help “Joe taxpayer” as much as they want to help the rich. It’s not true. They are against extending enhancements to the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit that help working families, but for extending tax cuts to the richest 2% of taxpayers. So, with Republicans in control, many Americans would actually pay higher taxes than under President Obama’s proposed tax relief.

Republicans want us to think that the Bush tax cuts were great for the economy. Facts show the opposite. In the six years following the Bush tax cuts, jobs grew by 4.8%. In contrast, following Clinton’s courageous move to raise taxes in order to restore fiscal responsibility to the Federal budget, jobs grew by 16.2%, more than three times better than Bush’s performance.

If you want to live in a fairyland of low taxes and no hard choices, vote Republican. If you want to help the vast majority of Americans who need help, and recognize that some sacrifice by the most fortunate of us is necessary to set our fiscal house in order, vote Democrat.

A good article from which some of my facts were confirmed:

Three Good Reasons to Let the High-End Bush Tax Cuts Disappear This Year, Center for American Progress, 7/29/10

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/07/let_cuts_expire.html

Eliminating the Income Tax Draws Opposition -- What Else do They Want?

Apparently there is some internet swirl around a bill introduced last
February by a PA democrat calling for a 1% tax on financial
transactions, along with abolition of the federal income tax.
Interesting that even a crackpot Democrat who wants to get rid of
income taxes can attract the ire of the opposition. But I felt the
misinformation should be called out.

To the Editor, Greenwich Time
October 19, 2010

John Corrado, in his letter, “Spending is the Problem” urges
opposition to a bill in the House, H.R. 4646, that proposes a 1% tax
on all financial transactions. Mr. Corrado goes on to blame the
Democrat who introduced the bill, Representative Chaka Fattah (D-PA),
of “looking for ways to introduce new taxes on the already heavily
taxed people.”

The problem with Mr. Corrado’s assessment is that it completely
misrepresents the facts. According to the Congressional Research
Service (part of the Library of Congress), the bill offers an
offsetting tax credit for couples earning up to $250,000. More
notably, the bill calls for phasing out the individual income tax, and
is aimed at eliminating the national debt within seven years. Whether
or not the bill has any merit, claiming that Fattah favors “tax and
spend” is ludicrous.

Implying that Fattah’s bill represents a real threat misleads
further. The Congressman has introduced similar legislation for the
past six years, which each time has died without a vote. While Mr.
Corrado reports that the bill is “in committee”, it has not attracted
any co-sponsors nor made any progress in the legislative process.

This is simply another in a sustained effort by those opposed to
Democrats to inject misinformation into the political process as a
primary strategy for advancing their agenda. Caveat emptor.

Here's the letter, published at Greenwich Time online on 10/18/10
(http://www.greenwichtime.com/default/article/Business-versus-
executive-experience-711951.php)

"Spending is the problem"

To the editor:

It seems the tax and spend folks in D.C. just don't get it. Americans,
by a large majority, are fed up with the out-of-touch elected elite
class that populates our government. These officials are still looking
for ways to introduce new taxes on the already heavily taxed people.

I urge everyone to check out H.R. 4646, a bill now in committee and
due out after the November elections, that would impose a new 1
percent tax on all monetary transactions.
Included are ATM transactions, deposits and withdrawals by any means,
and checks written, to name a few. The sponsor is a Democrat.

The country's government does not have a revenue problem. It has a
spending problem. Let's throw out the bums who would continue to bleed
us dry by means such as H.R. 4646. Write your representatives and vote
out the institutionally incompetent who won't listen to the people.

John Corrado
Norwalk