Fox' Carlson repeats falsehood that "40 percent of the country does not pay any taxes," gets corrected by guest
August 03, 2009 2:19 pm ET
From the August 3 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
From the August 3 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

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In the Land of Brittan i think she would be called "A TarT"
But who am i to Judge this Former Ms. America
I have never worn a Two Piece or a Tiara.
Speak truth to Power.
Mr. News
You shop - You pay taxes.
You work - You pay taxes
Its part of our culture...
I say let's give it a try if the choice is between them forced to fly coach and health care reform.
From 1917 - 1921 the top tax bracket was 67% -73%
Then there were those who decided that the rich should keep more of their money... that lasted for 10 years until the great depression in 1929.
From 1922-1931 there was a steady cutting of the top tax rate...
1922 (56%)
1924 (46%)
1925-1931 (25%)
1932-1935 (63%)
1936-1939 (79%)
1940-1941 (81%)
1942-1943 (88%)
1944-1945 (94%)
Then after WWII those rates remained until the late 60s
1946-1963 (82% - 92%)
Then there was a steady dropping of the top rate
1964-1980 (70% -77%)
1982-1986 (50%)
1987-2009 (28%-35%)
2008 we almost fell into another Great Depression...
This time, we took the lessons from the first one and figured out how to avoid it.
Now let's take more lessons... why not make the top tax rate 75%?
Look at our history... the only thing I agree with the republicans is that we should return to the good ol' times of the 50s... when the top tax rate was 90%
Good job, blue.
The people with money, not the government. Very elementary.
When only looking at income taxes, the share of the top 20 percent increases even further. In 2006, the top 20 percent paid 86.3 percent of all income taxes. This was an increase of 6 percent from 2000
So much for not paying your fair share.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p525/ar02.html#en_US_publink100098115
Employee Compensation
Generally, you must include in gross income everything you receive in payment for personal services. In addition to wages, salaries, commissions, fees, and tips, this includes other forms of compensation such as fringe benefits and stock options.
You should receive a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, from your employer showing the pay you received for your services. Include your pay on line 7 of Form 1040 or Form 1040A or on line 1 of Form 1040EZ, even if you do not receive a Form W-2.
Also: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p525/ar02.html#en_US_publink100098119
Bonuses and awards. Bonuses or awards you receive for outstanding work are included in your income and should be shown on your Form W-2. These include prizes such as vacation trips for meeting sales goals. If the prize or award you receive is goods or services, you must include the fair market value of the goods or services in your income. However, if your employer merely promises to pay you a bonus or award at some future time, it is not taxable until you receive it or it is made available to you.
Also, bonuses are taxed either at the employees normal withholding rate elected on their W-4 if the bonuses are included with regular wages, or at a flat 25% rate if the bonus is identified and paid separately. See page 13 - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p15--2008.pdf
Now, with all that being said, yes, the compensated employee may not recognize taxable income when incentive stock options(ISO) are received or exercised but will recognize an income tax liability when the stock is sold. The tax liability is then based on the capital gain or difference between the ultimate sales price of the stock and the price at which the employee bought the stock when the option was exercised. Of course, if the price of the stock go down after the ISO is exercised, then there is no capital gain and the employee has actually lost money. Also, there are time limitations that make it impossible for the employee to make a quick buck by timing the market and exercising the option and then selling quickly into a favorable market. If the employee sells the stock acquired via the ISO within two years of the date the ISO was granted or one year of the date the ISO was exercised then the favorable capital gains treatment is lost and the gain, if any, is reported as ordinary income and taxed as such. It is not quite the cakewalk you make it out to be and also carries an inherent amount of risk that the option price may exceed the market price of the stock in the future or that the options themselves may become worthless, thus equating to zero compensation.
So would you rather have stock options or cold hard cash?
the top 1% paid 28.3% of the liability despite owning 38.6% of the wealth in this country...
The top 10% only pays 55.4% of the tax liability when they own 80% of the wealth in this country.
So they need to pay more...
We are talking about tax increases that will effect 30 million people that own 80% of the wealth in this country... that leaves 270 million of us fighting for the remaining 20%
Also, how in the world did you get that I was opposed to tax incentives for education? I was questioning why, if I had carefully saved but as a result fell in one of the higher wealth brackets (not income but wealth), should I pay a higher percentage tax rate just because of my thrift.
Oh yeah. The pwnd was just for pros2pros2940 since garcut provided the CBO link that supported his "lies" as pros put it. Better to research before one spews accusations.
Granted, various segments of society that have money and power may create obstacles that make it harder for the less fortunate to enter their realm, but most of those people are politicians already. The ones that aren't are mostly too busy working to worry about whether some poor schmuck busting his but for an education and decent job is interloping in their territory.
Sitting on your ass complaining about the percieved inequities of life because someone else has more than you does nothing to contribute to society as a whole or grow the economy therefore creating more wealth for all to share. That type of non-productive activity only creates class envy while instilling the idea that I am due something just because I know enough to want something better and does nothing to instill the ethic that maybe I can achieve something better through hard work and perseverance.
Nice........talk about creative accounting
Here are some facts...
Various sociological statistics suggest the severity of wealth inequality "with the top 10% possessing 80% of all financial assets [and] the bottom 90% holding only 20% of all financial wealth."[2]
So you're right... they aren't paying there fair share, they should be paying more.
If the top 1% had 90% of the wealth in this country would that be right? Is that the kind of country you want, because that is the direction we are headed.
The problem is that the top 20% or roughly 60 million people... are getting lumped in with the top 1% that owns 38% of the wealth in this country.
Someone who makes 100,000/yr should not be in the same category as a CEO who just pulled in $20 million, but they are.
Why are we only looking at "income" taxes. Do the other taxes people pay not count? Does the money that pays these taxes not count as money? This is the kind of statement that shows you to be a partisan idealogue rather than a seeker of truth.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin quote:
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Karl Marx quote:
Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation.
Karl Marx quote:
My object in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.
Quoting your heroes. How telling.
Quoting your heroes. How telling.
You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your s**t.
Second of all, all these steps the Obama administration is taking (taking control of GM, etc.) are to SAVE capitalism. And maybe you didn't notice (you are, after all, a troll), but unless you're making 250k (you're not), you just got a tax cut.
Finally, oooh, you Googled scary Marx and Lenin quotes that have nothing to do with anything. I bow to your superior argument.
So what is different about fascism and socialism? Remember now, the Nazis were Socialists, at least with respect to those German citizens that were considered to be Aryans.
Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation.
Isn't that the line that the right uses to argue against government programs? Isn't that what you guys call tyranny of the majority? It seems like you're on Marx's side on this one.
Thanks, comrade.
1. Right Wing: Fascists are fervently against: Marxism, Socialism, Anarchism, Communism, Environmentalism; etc – in essence, they are against the progressive left in total, including moderate lefts (social democrats, etc). Fascism is an extreme right wing ideology, though it can be opportunistic.
2. Nationalism: Fascism places a very strong emphasis on patriotism and nationalism. Criticism of the nation's main ideals, especially war, is lambasted as unpatriotic at best, and treason at worst. State propaganda consistently broadcasts threats of attack, while justifying pre-emptive war. Fascism invariably seeks to instill in its people the warrior mentality: to always be vigilant, wary of strangers and suspicious of foreigners.
3. Hierarchy: Fascist society is ruled by a righteous leader, who is supported by an elite secret vanguard of capitalists. Hierarchy is prevalent throughout all aspects of society – every street, every workplace, every school, will have its local Hitler, part police-informer, part bureaucrat – and society is prepared for war at all times. The absolute power of the social hierarchy prevails over everything, and thus a totalitarian society is formed. Representative government is acceptable only if it can be controlled and regulated, direct democracy (e.g. Communism) is the greatest of all crimes. Any who oppose the social hierarchy of fascism will be imprisoned or executed.
4. Anti-equality: Fascism loathes the principles of economic equality and disdains equality between immigrant and citizen. Some forms of fascism extend the fight against equality into other areas: gender, sexual, minority or religious rights, for example. 5. Religious: Fascism contains a strong amount of reactionary religious beliefs, harking back to times when religion was strict, potent, and pure. Nearly all Fascist societies are Christian, and are supported by Catholic and Protestant churches.
6. Capitalist: Fascism does not require revolution to exist in captialist society: fascists can be elected into office (though their disdain for elections usually means manipulation of the electoral system). They view parliamentary and congressional systems of government to be inefficient and weak, and will do their best to minimize its power over their policy agenda. Fascism exhibits the worst kind of capitalism where corporate power is absolute, and all vestiges of workers' rights are destroyed.
7. War: Fascism is capitalism at the stage of impotent imperialism. War can create markets that would not otherwise exist by wreaking massive devastation on a society, which then requires reconstruction! Fascism can thus "liberate" the survivors, provide huge loans to that society so fascist corporations can begin the process of rebuilding.
8. Voluntarist Ideology: Fascism adopts a certain kind of “voluntarism;” they believe that an act of will, if sufficiently powerful, can make something true. Thus all sorts of ideas about racial inferiority, historical destiny, even physical science, are supported by means of violence, in the belief that they can be made true. It is this sense that Fascism is subjectivist.
9. Anti-Modern: Fascism loathes all kinds of modernism, especially creativity in the arts, whether acting as a mirror for life (where it does not conform to the Fascist ideal), or expressing deviant or innovative points of view. Fascism invariably burns books and victimises artists, and artists which do not promote the fascists ideals are seen as “decadent.” Fascism is hostile to broad learning and interest in other cultures, since such pursuits threaten the dominance of fascist myths. The peddling of conspiracy theories is usually substituted for the objective study of history.
Just looking at the chrematistics of Fascism any person can see it is the opposite of both socialism and democratic party.
You like quotes so here is one from Benito Mussolini
Liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State.
Adam Smith the father of Capitalism was for a progressive tax structure, so it does he also think rich bad, banks bad, insurance companies bad, and etc
What a disgusting human being.
In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2004, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.3% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.3%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers).
In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one’s home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.2%…
…In terms of types of financial wealth, the top one percent of households have 36.7% of all privately held stock, 63.8% of financial securities, and 61.9% of business equity.
The top 10% have 85% to 90% of stock, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate.
Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America…
…According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% receive nothing (Kotlikoff & Gokhale, 2000). Thus, the attempt by ultra-conservatives to eliminate inheritance taxes—which they always call "death taxes" for P.R. reasons—would take a huge bite out of government revenues for the benefit of less than 1% of the population.
…Here are some dramatic facts that sum up how the wealth distribution became even more concentrated between 1983 and 2004, in good part due to the tax cuts for the wealthy and the defeat of labor unions
:
Of all the new financial wealth created by the American economy in that 21-year-period, fully 42% of it went to the top 1%
A whopping 94% went to the top 20%, which of course means that the bottom 80% received only 6% of all the new financial wealth generated in the United States during the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early 2000s (Wolff, 2007).
BTW: Will someone please ask how much does the adopted U.S. citizen Mr. Murdoch pay in the U.S or does he shelter it in the Caymans.
The average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years,”[/b] allowing the wealthiest 1% of Americans to garner “the highest share of the nation’s adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929.”
The “average tax rate in 2006 for the top 1%, based on adjusted gross income, was 22.8%,” down from “28.9% in 1996, and…24% in 1988″:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121677287690575589.html?mod=special_page_cam
paign2008_leftbox
Now, once a person has made 106K (aprox)they no longer pay payroll taxes.
Guess Heritage left that one out
Along with state taxes like sales taxes, excise taxes, gasoline taxes paid to the feds of around 18.0 cents a gallon to fund roads.
Wonder who pays more in gasoline taxes ?