Home | Community | Message Board

MagicBag Grow Bags
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: Unfolding Nature Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order   Kraken Kratom Kratom Capsules for Sale, Red Vein Kratom

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1 | 2 | Next >  [ show all ]
OfflineEchoVortex
(hard) member
Registered: 02/06/02
Posts: 859
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during war
    #1409493 - 03/25/03 04:44 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Bush's policies will add 1.82 trillion to the deficit (already over its previous designated limit of more than $6 trillion). So much for fiscal "conservativism".

News report:

By Andrew Clark

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress appears set this week to hand President Bush (news - web sites) a major, and possibly decisive, victory on his domestic tax cut agenda, even as a war rages in Iraq (news - web sites), analysts said on Monday.

House of Representatives Republicans, rallied by calls to back the president at a time of war, narrowly cleared a 2004 budget on Friday that included all of Bush's $726 billion tax cut plan, as well as deep spending cuts to pay for it.


And in the Senate, which is due to complete action on its budget blueprint on Wednesday, Bush's tax package survived a challenge last week from moderates who wanted to shrink it by more than half in the face of ballooning federal deficits.


Republicans say Bush's plan -- which would speed up scheduled income tax cuts and eliminate taxes on corporate dividends -- will jolt the anemic economy, boost government revenues and eventually shrink budget shortfalls.


Democrats argue it was his last round of tax cuts in 2001 that started the steep slide in the U.S. fiscal position. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites) forecasts Bush's policies will put the government in the red every year for the next decade and run up a total deficit of $1.82 trillion.


Congress' budget lays out the framework for its tax and spending decisions later in the year. The tax package will still have to be debated separately, but making room for it in the budget means it is more likely to be passed, analysts say.


"When the House and the Senate have approved essentially identical tax cuts ... the game is up at that point," said Richard Kogan, senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning research group.


The Senate did vote on Friday to set aside $100 billion from Bush's tax plan to help pay for the war with Iraq. But Republican leaders plan to reverse the move when the House and Senate reconcile the differences in their budgets, aides said.


Democrats had accused the White House of trying to delay an emergency war spending request, expected to top $75 billion, until the budget debate was over. Congressional leaders are now due to be briefed on the cost of the war later on Monday.


While opponents of Bush's full $726 billion tax cut appear to command a narrow majority in the Senate, they have not been able to unite to defeat it. Some in both parties refuse to vote for any new tax cuts at all, while others have instead focused simply on reducing their size.


In the House, Republican leaders had to work hard to win a 215 to 212 vote on Friday on their budget plan -- after facing a revolt from moderates in their own ranks.


The plan initially called for nearly $500 billion in spending cuts to government programs over the next decade to pay for the tax package while fighting rising deficits. But many of the cuts were dropped amid lawmakers' concerns about the political cost of targeting popular federal benefits.


"It is an absolute classic confirmation of why tax cuts are easy and spending cuts are hard," said Bob Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group. "Congress will vote for the tax cut and will talk a good game on controlling spending, but they won't actually do it."


Opinion: By William H. Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins
Tuesday, March 25, 2003; Page A09


Last week we saw something unprecedented in American history: a push for tax cuts targeted to the wealthy in a time of war. As U.S. jets prepared to bomb Baghdad, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) offered an amendment to the federal budget legislation accelerating the repeal of the estate tax. It is a provision that would benefit less than 2 percent of the wealthiest taxpayers. It passed by a narrow vote of 51 to 48.

There is something unseemly about Congress's obsession with repealing the estate tax, the nation's most equitable tax on accumulated wealth, at a time when life and death are at stake. The American history of estate and inheritance taxes is wound together with mobilizations for war. The first federal tax on wealth was levied in 1797, as our country was faced with the escalating costs of responding to French attacks on American shipping.

During the 19th century, federal revenue came primarily from excise taxes and tariffs. Income and estate taxes were imposed only in revenue emergencies, during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Wartime taxation, or the "conscription of wealth," was perceived as equitable at a time when many citizens were sacrificing their lives, sometimes as soldier proxies for wealthier citizens.

The 1916 estate tax was a fundamentally American response to the excessive inequalities of the Gilded Age and reflected the country's need to move beyond reliance on the regressive tariff and excise taxes as primary sources of government revenue. Yet it was given a tremendous push by the U.S. entry into World War I and the need for wartime funds. Even after the war, businessman Harlan E. Read argued in his book "The Abolition of Inheritance" that war debts should be paid off with heavy taxes on inherited wealth.

In order to pay for World War II, the income tax was broadened to many lower-income households. In 1942 Irving Berlin wrote a patriotic song called "I Paid My Income Tax Today" to mark the unprecedented tax collections. One verse went: "You see those bombers in the sky, Rockefeller helped to build them, so did I." President Franklin D. Roosevelt understood that national unity against Hitler depended on a sense of shared sacrifice, by both Rockefeller and Rosie the Riveter.

Top income rates were boosted, and the estate tax was increased so that fortunes exceeding $50 million would be taxed at 70 percent. FDR spoke out boldly against war profiteering, saying, "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster."

Today the lives of some of our citizens are at risk. Others are feeling the pain of the recession, losing their jobs, savings and security. State and local governments, facing the worst budget cuts since World War II, are laying off workers and cutting education spending, children's health care and basic human services.

Rather than facing these problems and appropriating the money to resolve them, congressional leaders are using the diversion of war to pass a tax cut for the wealthy that would exacerbate budget shortfalls at all levels. While the public's attention is riveted on Iraq, the Senate acts to accelerate the repeal of the progressive estate tax.

At a time when states need $70 billion in federal aid to close their deficits, federal priorities seem to be very different. Will the costs of war be paid by reductions in spending, mostly affecting our most vulnerable citizens? Will there be clear domestic economic winners and losers in the conduct of this war?

Political scientist Michael Lipsky observed a year ago that this war "will evidently exacerbate the divide between rich and poor." Wars have had this effect on the United States before, but absolutely without precedent is a push for a windfall tax cut for the wealthy as wartime expenses mount.

William H. Gates Sr. is co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Chuck Collins is co-founder of Responsible Wealth. They are the authors of "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes."


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblez@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: EchoVortex]
    #1409501 - 03/25/03 04:46 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Good. The rich pay too many taxes. Earning a lot of money should not lead you to be penalized.


--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblesilversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: z@z.com]
    #1409505 - 03/25/03 04:47 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Do you realize how far in debt we are??? Do you expect the poor to pick up the tab?


--------------------


"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineAngry Mycologist
Spontaneouslycombusting

Registered: 11/24/02
Posts: 1,282
Loc: Galapagos
Last seen: 20 years, 10 months
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: z@z.com]
    #1409508 - 03/25/03 04:48 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Quote:

Earning a lot of money should not lead you to be penalized.



Earning a small amount should?


--------------------
The proper penalty of ignorance, which is of course that those who don't know should learn from those who do... - Plato

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblez@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: silversoul7]
    #1409515 - 03/25/03 04:51 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

We should cut spending. That is what we need to do. I just wish someone had the balls to do it.


--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblez@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: Angry Mycologist]
    #1409516 - 03/25/03 04:52 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Quote:

Earning a small amount should?



Did I say that?


--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblesilversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: z@z.com]
    #1409522 - 03/25/03 04:53 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Quote:

We should cut spending.



I agree. Starting w/ the military budget.


--------------------


"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblez@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: silversoul7]
    #1409527 - 03/25/03 04:55 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Quote:

I agree. Starting w/ the military budget.



We need a strong military, but we don't need the enormous one that we have now. I think we should start with welfare and other socail programs (I know I'm going to get a lot of shit for saying that).


--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineAngry Mycologist
Spontaneouslycombusting

Registered: 11/24/02
Posts: 1,282
Loc: Galapagos
Last seen: 20 years, 10 months
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: z@z.com]
    #1409536 - 03/25/03 04:57 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Quote:

Did I say that?



It seemed to be implied...


--------------------
The proper penalty of ignorance, which is of course that those who don't know should learn from those who do... - Plato

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblez@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: Angry Mycologist]
    #1409542 - 03/25/03 04:59 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

It wasn't meant to be. I think everyone in this country deserves a tax cut including the rich (and possibly especially the top 25%).


--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Anonymous

Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: Angry Mycologist]
    #1409576 - 03/25/03 05:08 PM (21 years, 10 days ago)

Earning a small amount should?

no, not that either.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleCracka_X
Spiritual Dirt Worshipper
Male User Gallery

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 01/25/03
Posts: 8,808
Loc: Swamp
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during war [Re: EchoVortex]
    #1410196 - 03/26/03 01:35 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

Nigga, why is it a tax cut for the fucking rich. HE CUTS IT FOR EVERYBODY, its just the rich who get more money and have worked more to get that money. stop your bitching. Why don't you look at your paycheck next time and look how much more money is on it.


--------------------
The best way to live
is to be like water
For water benefits all things
and goes against none of them
It provides for all people
and even cleanses those places
a man is loath to go
In this way it is just like Tao        ~Daodejing

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleCracka_X
Spiritual Dirt Worshipper
Male User Gallery

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 01/25/03
Posts: 8,808
Loc: Swamp
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: z@z.com]
    #1410202 - 03/26/03 01:44 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

Quote:

Quote:

I agree. Starting w/ the military budget.



We need a strong military, but we don't need the enormous one that we have now. I think we should start with welfare and other socail programs (I know I'm going to get a lot of shit for saying that).




Well if good ol Clinton didn't fuck us out of a military and put us through 8 years of Socialism then Bush wouldn't have needed to spend so much to get the military back up to key. We don't need social programs, they are DUMB. Let someone create a business and join the free enterprise if they want something like that. And welfare didn't need to be where it was.

Liberalism isn't a political philosophy, it's a mental illness.


--------------------
The best way to live
is to be like water
For water benefits all things
and goes against none of them
It provides for all people
and even cleanses those places
a man is loath to go
In this way it is just like Tao        ~Daodejing

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisibleangryshroom
Stranger
 User Gallery

Registered: 12/18/01
Posts: 7,264
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: Cracka_X]
    #1410506 - 03/26/03 04:52 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

Quote:

Well if good ol Clinton didn't fuck us out of a military and put us through 8 years of Socialism then Bush wouldn't have needed to spend so much to get the military back up to key.




Riiiighhtt.. We needed that big fucking army to uhh... do all that fighting during a time of peace...

As for who will be picking up the tab, Id say Bush should have to pay for it. Hes the fucking idiot that got us here in the first place. Its funny if you look at a graph of the national deficit, its extremely high when Regan, Bush Sr and Dubya are in power...When Clinton is in there, he's got a surplus. Weird.

Oh and for my paycheck... I got 110 bucks taken out of it, and I only made $186.32... Thankyou fucking Bush..

Yeah, lets cut social programs, welfare...Uhh.. yeah.. THat will help. NOT. DO you realize its just going to cause more people to go under, more people that will have to steal from others...More hatred, more differences... We'll have the super rich and the super poor. I'd love to see your white ass loose a job, be unemployed, loose your money, car, home and see if you still agree that cutting social programs is a good idea... ***Post edited by Rono***




Edited by Rono (03/26/03 04:56 AM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisibleangryshroom
Stranger
 User Gallery

Registered: 12/18/01
Posts: 7,264
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during war [Re: Cracka_X]
    #1410526 - 03/26/03 05:00 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

Quote:

Nigga, why is it a tax cut for the fucking rich. HE CUTS IT FOR EVERYBODY, its just the rich who get more money and have worked more to get that money. stop your bitching. Why don't you look at your paycheck next time and look how much more money is on it.




BULLLSHHITTT

They just have better jobs cause they are fuckign white, and had the money to go to college. I know people who work MUCH harder, have 3 jobs work 12 hours + a day and still can't afford to live healthy.

They do not work harder... They are just more privelaged . ***Post edited by Rono***You have probably never been on the wrong side of the tracks, you like Bush dont have a clue what most of America is really like and living through..

Edited by Rono (03/26/03 05:03 AM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisibleluvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
 User Gallery


Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: angryshroom]
    #1410528 - 03/26/03 05:00 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

Actually, the easier it is to get on welfare, and the more welfare and other social programs pay, the less incentive there will be for scumbags to actually work rather than live off the public teat.

***Post edited by Rono***


Quote:

Oh and for my paycheck... I got 110 bucks taken out of it, and I only made $186.32



Bullshit. That would put you in the 60% tax bracket. So, I'd say two things.
1. Either you lie.
2. Or you're suffering some hideous mental disease.

And if you are only making 186 bucks per check..... then I can see why you would support welfare and the like because you'll obviously be on it soon enough.

And blaming Bush for the amount of taxes you pay helps to explain your moronic position on things. No tax increases have passed while Bush has been in office. Or did the gov pass one just for you?


--------------------
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers

Edited by Rono (03/26/03 05:04 AM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineRonoS
DSYSB since '01
Male User Gallery

Registered: 01/25/01
Posts: 16,259
Loc: Calgary, Alberta
Last seen: 1 year, 30 days
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: luvdemshrooms]
    #1410543 - 03/26/03 05:05 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

Keep it civil kids...I would prefer to actually be able to read these posts without having to edit out the petty name calling.


--------------------
"Life has never been weird enough for my liking"

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisibleangryshroom
Stranger
 User Gallery

Registered: 12/18/01
Posts: 7,264
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: luvdemshrooms]
    #1410546 - 03/26/03 05:07 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

No, you are the *post edited before rono*. I know many people who work hard for their money. You are under the impression that people who are poor dont work hard? That is just fucking ignorant...You're just being extremely stereotypical.

Go to hell for saying that shit.... See, obviously you'd change your mind if you were going to be on welfare. I work fucking everyday, 8-10 hours per day. Yeah, thats Monday through Sunday... Dont have a day off. I work my ass off. I have just not been as privileged, and blind as you.

Open your mind. Even if I was rich Id still support welfare. I have morals, I care about other people, just not myself, like so many selfish bastards.

I got that amount taken out of my paycheck, thats what I had left over. I live in CA, we have higher taxes.

Edited by angryshroom (03/26/03 05:08 AM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblez@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: angryshroom]
    #1410551 - 03/26/03 05:10 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

I have an aunt who was on welfare. She was college educated and all that good stuff. She stayed on welfare for 10 years despite several job offers because she made enough on welfare to get by and she didn't have to work for the money. Welfare in its current state encourages joblessness. It is abused constantly and should be abandoned by the federal gov't and given to the states to manage as they choose (or do away with it). There is almost no accountability for those on welfare.


--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisibleangryshroom
Stranger
 User Gallery

Registered: 12/18/01
Posts: 7,264
Re: Bush sneaks through more tax cuts for the rich during wa [Re: z@z.com]
    #1410553 - 03/26/03 05:14 AM (21 years, 9 days ago)

Okay, well, I have known, and do know people who have not abused welfare...I've actually only known one woman who abused it... Mainly 'cause she was extremely fat and couldnt do much with her life.

In cases like your aunts... There should be some modifications so maybe you can have it for 6 months, and hten not be eligible for another 2 years or whatever.

I dont support people who just sit on their ass not doing anything. Why would I support that? I would like it to support single mothers, single fathers, and parents who have children to feed, but, do not make enough money for their children.

Im just saying I work my ass off for the money I make... a few of the comments siad earlier really hit me personally.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1 | 2 | Next >  [ show all ]

Shop: Unfolding Nature Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order   Kraken Kratom Kratom Capsules for Sale, Red Vein Kratom


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* W.House: Tax Cuts to Create 800,000 Jobs
( 1 2 3 all )
Ellis Dee 5,728 40 03/03/02 09:53 PM
by sparafucile
* Income Tax checks!!
( 1 2 3 all )
Innvertigo 6,213 52 08/21/01 12:04 AM
by capncracker
* The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies
( 1 2 3 all )
RonoS 4,990 49 06/12/02 07:15 PM
by Jammer
* Post deleted by Moe Howard
( 1 2 all )
Macey Howard 2,355 29 09/27/02 09:53 PM
by mntlfngrs
* George Bush does something right!
( 1 2 all )
carbonhoots 3,214 20 03/12/02 01:31 PM
by tomldp
* Bush's Speech
( 1 2 3 all )
Senor_Doobie 4,282 40 09/22/02 06:59 PM
by Jammer
* Was Bush aware of the attacks prior to 9/11?
( 1 2 3 all )
RonoS 4,516 42 06/04/02 10:41 AM
by Rono
* All Hail Emperor Bush!
( 1 2 all )
delian 4,776 36 06/27/01 06:31 AM
by Innvertigo

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Enlil, ballsalsa
4,856 topic views. 2 members, 10 guests and 5 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.025 seconds spending 0.004 seconds on 14 queries.