The bill is funded largely from a 5.4 percent tax on individuals making more than $500,000

Cry me a fucking river.

Lucky sperm can keep you in good health and complexion. Apply daily.

Yeah, well thats nice and all that they worked sooooo haaaard to earn all this money, but what have many of them done for this country lately? And I mean except to fuck it up?

Also what Lesley @1 said.

And Bill Gates ain’t exactly a rocket scientist. His only code contribution was as a co-developer of BASIC. Then lucky accident to get the MS-DOS contract from IBM (cobbled together from various, and often questionable, sources). Then captive audience for Windows, which, as a technical product, is *not* subject to free-market survival of the fittest (people would never buy a car that breaks down every 20 miles, but we’re quite cheerful to do so for an operating system – same situation as VHS over Betamax). Then various and sundry acquisitions – Money was bought from a third party, and Microsoft SQL Server began life as Sybase.

Sharp businessman – sure (but again, captive audience). But producer? Not by a long shot.

Why? Probably because when taxes go down we see an increase in work effort and less tax avoidance by entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists, and others top income earners. That, of course, greatly benefits the rest of us.

Okay, I’ll bite, Miss Moulin Rouge, if that is your real name. First, I never knew the scientists were part of the uber-rich elite class. Makes sense now, and no wonder they are making up all that shit about melting ice. You know this, I’m sure, because the ice in your morning martini pitcher hasn’t melted yet. But do you have any supporting evidence on how it benefits us all?

I know what I am talking about: In France, high-income and wealth taxes have led to a brain drain and a wealth drain (think about rock star Johnny Halliday, top model and French Marianne Laeticia Casta, French tennis players….

Oh, you know what you are talking about. That settles it. French rock stars and athletes have settled in the US. So if we raise taxes, the Frenchies may leave? You might want to cut that piece out, or your southern conservative base may actually start pushing for higher taxes.

People who are true “producers” don’t just produce for profit. It’s what the wingnut welfare crowd doesn’t get because they only produce Internet columns and bulk-purchased screeds so they can pick up a check.

Entrepreneurs, inventors, etc., almost always have a drive to create products or start up enterprises. Sure, the money is nice if something goes big, but it’s the process that motivates them. A few % points of tax won’t change their desire to do that stuff.

I have an idea. We eliminate this tax increase and instead impose a 50% tax on all inheritances over $1 million, 90% on estates over $5 million, and 100% on estates over $10 million.

It’s also worth pointing out that Bill Gates (or William Gates III, as it were) is the son of a wealthy, prominent Seattle lawyer.

The bill is funded largely from a 5.4 percent tax on individuals making more than $500,000

Actually, if it’s a 5.4% marginal tax increase (and I’m not at all sure it’s that large) it’s a percentage extra on the part of their taxable income that exceeds $500K.

So, with the given figures, our $800,000 TAXABLE income (minus all deductions, like home mortgage interest on their 12 million dollar houses, etc.) would be taxed an additional….hmmm….800,000 minus 500,000 = 300,000 x .054 = 16,200, not 24,000.

About a week’s worth (1/49th) of that 800K taxable. Yeah, that’s a real Boo. Hoo. situation.

I know what I am talking about: In France, high-income and wealth taxes have led to a brain drain and a wealth drain (think about rock star Johnny Halliday, top model and French Marianne Laeticia Casta, French tennis players….

And then there’s Johnny Depp. Oh wait. He moved to France.

Heresy. *Everybody knows* that the only reason to produce anything is to make a shitload of money. Isn’t that what we keep getting told over and over again?

Listen, Ms. Freedom Fries. I’ll spell it out for you. I don’t give a shit how a person makes/inherits his/her millions. Tax ‘em! Seriously. A ball player gets paid millions (and I’m a sports nut) while a maid, who, you know, does actual work, gets minimum wage? That’s the outrage right there, not this trumped-up bullshit wah wah wah for the poor little rich people.

She’s right you know. Had these taxes already been in place we wouldn’t have had the innovation that led to hybrid cars. No, wait, those came from Japan. Okay, we wouldn’t have high efficiency, quiet, diesel cars. Shit, that’s Germany. Okay, we wouldn’t have high definition flat screen TV’s. Oops: Japan again. I’ve got it: we wouldn’t have had the Veg-o-Matic, Option ARM’s, Credit Default Swaps, or the Big Carl.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants the uninsured.”

Besides, since the tax isn’t indexed to inflation, sooner than later it is going to make its way to many more taxpayers’ bills than planned today

Could someone please run some numbers to calculate how high the minimum wage would have to go in order for “more taxpayers” to get hit with a surtax on income over $500,000?

I’ve got it: we wouldn’t have had the Veg-o-Matic, Option ARM’s, Credit Default Swaps, or the Big Carl.

And the Sham-Wow.

Then Warren Buffett who is not-so-fond of pointing out that his secretary pays a higher percentage of her income taxes than he does, so… not good example

Actually Buffett uses the “my secretary is taxed at a higher rate than I am” as an example of how fucked tax rates [and particularly the regressive social security tax/ss tax cut-off] are.

He also was a loud opponent of CA’s Prop. 13 because of its unfairness. That got him “un-invited” to be an adivsor to Schwartznegger.

This is frustrating. TBogg is clearly right, as are the foregoing comments. Yet the people in Jersey hated douchebag Corzine enough to elect an even bigger douchebag who’ll be worse for them. In New York, no one’s touching that poisonous little asshole Bloomberg, who wants the whole town, minimum, to consist of $2 million one bedroom apartments. When the fuck are the voters gonna wake the fuck up?

BTW, here are some facts:
“Atlas Shrugged” has sold 6,500,000 copies in 50 years (according to Penguin & Random House).
“Bioshock”–a video game that openly mocks Rand’s utopian paradigm– sold 19,500,000 copies in its first 2 months.

This Lucky Sperm Club sounds fun. How do I join?

I’ve got it: we wouldn’t have had the Veg-o-Matic, Option ARM’s, Credit Default Swaps, or the Big Carl.

And the Sham-Wow.

No, actually, the Sham-Wow, as Vince CONTINUALLY tells us, is made in Germany, “and you know the Germans make great stuff.”

Accept no substitutes.

In 2011, a family of four with an income of $800,000 a year would get a $24,000 tax increase [...] That’s a 12.5 percent increase in federal income taxes.

I hate when people play games like this. If the tax on 800K is going up 24K, that’s a 3% increase. She’s talking about the percentage increase of a (percentage increase that’s already been translated into dollars). Every Republican political ad does this shit. If someone proposed raising the tax on 100K from $1 to $2, they’d bitch and moan about how it was a 100% increase. Ya know, it really fucking isn’t. It’s a .001% increase.

First, be born lucky….

a family of four with an income of $800,000 a year would get a $24,000 tax increase

Oh, sure, it seems so painless. Well, let’s see you decide which member of the kitchen staff to sack. O the heartlessness of it; I feel I must go mad– Beulah, dear, the brandy. Beulah!

Yeah, me too.

Is Montana Wildhack already a member?

But we really should be grateful to Veronique for so poignantly articulating the essence of modern-day republican compassion: Woe unto the family of four making $800K a year, who may have to pay $24K more in taxes. While we give not a flying fuck about the family of four making $80K a year, who is at risk of getting stuck with a $24K medical bill thru no fault of their own.

Let’s see, what’s going to hurt more — both on an individual level and on a societal karmic level — Mr. & Mrs. Trustafarian having to forego the 24 carat gold faucets in their cabin in Aspen, or a family of four going bankrupt because of their kids’ chronic illness? You can certainly make a legitimate argument for lower taxes, but it gets old real quick if all it boils down to is really a blanket statement of “we’re rich and we deserve it — you’re poor and you deserve that, too”.

Uh, tbogg? With that graphic? That probably wouldn’t be too good of an idea – probably way too much fat that would be worse for you than a pure bacon diet.

The best use for the rich is feeding them to our pets.

People who go broke do so because they’re lazy, and they vote for Democrats, and they’re not super-producers, and God hates them also. Don’t you know anything?

I would not want to poison my cats like that. Use them as supplementary fuel in power plants.

Yeah, but they’re really delicious.

OT: Is Gun Counter Gomer really so fucking ignorant that he doesn’t know Guy Fawkes was a real person? Does he really think Fawkes was just an alter ego of the “hero” of “V” for Vendetta?

OK, I agree. They probably burn better than they bake, yes?

Damn. That boy’s dumber than a bag of hair.

Yes, he is.

I’m waiting for him to tell us that the Fort Hood shooting could have been prevented if everyone had been armed, trained and ready.

And there were fully developed versions of BASIC in use years and years before Bill Gates hit college. Although apparently he was good at assembly language. Well, there have been a lot of smart people, and the best of them don’t think that their smarts confer the right to rule the world.

With all that fat, they will burn with a bright, hot flame.

I stand corrected.

Thank you.

Mr. Tbogg sir? Can I join the lucky sperm club? Please, sir?

You are still the master of teh funny.

Oh yeah… where’s the fucking dogs?

And his initial ventures were bankrolled by the many, many influential business connections Mommy Gates already had.

People who are true “producers” don’t just produce for profit. It’s what the wingnut welfare crowd doesn’t get because they only produce Internet columns and bulk-purchased screeds so they can pick up a check.

Entrepreneurs, inventors, etc., almost always have a drive to create products or start up enterprises. Sure, the money is nice if something goes big, but it’s the process that motivates them. A few % points of tax won’t change their desire to do that stuff.

Ever notice how the fundies always conveniently forget how those very openly socialist, evil Scandinavian countries are all quite technologically advanced, despite the lack of buttload of tax-free $$$$ “incentive”?

…meaning that he was among the earliest in his generation to use computers in school (at Seattle Prep.)

But his dad (for whom Bill III built and named the new UW Law School, replacing the earlier concrete bunker, and yes, I’m still bitter and damaged…) became the chief spokesman against Bush’s ‘kill the Death Tax forever turn regressive tax policy up to 11′ crusade.

You know, I’m wondering why the whole nation didn’t just go Galt when that communist Eisenhower was president.

I know my truck driving Dad didn’t. He still worked his ass off and I don’t think he gave a shit what the guys making $200,000 in 1959 paid in taxes. Just didn’t give a shit.

I guess that’s the consequences of a world without Limbaugh or a nutbag French woman to tell us how tough it was to afford a nanny at those tax rates. Seems like the country did pretty well back then, too.

It’s pretty much a fact by now: The more you make the more time you spend in meeting and the less time you spend actually producing anything worth the paper it is written on.