Deep Thought

3 Comments

1. 

   robertdsc on March 4, 2009 at 7:40 pm

   What would happen if a 2 cents per share fee was added to every stock transaction every day? Could such a fee be what we need to get out from under the mountain of debt we have?

2. 

   dada on March 4, 2009 at 9:07 pm

   these terrible burdens on the upper crust don’t even take effect until 2011, after the midterm election, which ims, was the sunset date on most of them anyway. l would surmise from the blue balls dogs agitation that they’re all more worried about their personal fortunes, vis-a-vis campaign donations, than they are about representing their constituents.

   as molly said, ya gotta dance with them that brung ya…and it wasn’t meant as a compliment…and the people what brung obama to power weren’t these folks:

   Obama seeks to jack taxes on hedgers [2.26.09]

   All carried-interest distributions from private-equity funds and hedge funds would be taxed as ordinary income instead of capital gains — thus more than doubling the tax rate of 15% — under the budget President Obama unveiled today, Treasury Department officials said.

   The controversial provision, which has been discussed in Congress over the past several years and would start in 2011, would raise $2.7 billion in fiscal 2011 and $4.3 billion in fiscal 2013…

   …

   The proposal would apply to all partnerships, including real estate, oil and gas, and all other types of partnerships.

   “We made a decision that if you’re applying something like, this it should apply across the board, and not picking some industries versus others,” an official said.

   The Obama budget “does not treat any particular industry different,” another official said. “If you have carried interest, it would be treated as ordinary income under our proposal.”

   While this official acknowledged that high taxes could deter entrepreneurial activity, he said that higher taxes put in place during the Clinton administration also coincided with economic growth and productivity gains.

   link

   this is a very ill advised political gambit on their part, and as things are not likely to improve significantly any time soon…3 million more umemployed in 2009 projected…this could very well open a number of seats that might otherwise be safe, to a progressive challenger.

   the stupid, it hurts.

3. 

   Dongi 2 on March 5, 2009 at 4:04 am

   Progressives chances increase directly with continued economic disasters and as job losses soar into the stratosphere, rank and file Americans get more and more pissed.  Increased taxes for the rich, indeed, graduated income taxes are long overdue.  This means that the more you make, the higher percentage tax you pay. This was a key idea in the New Deal and was a powerful idea until Ronnie Raygun began the task of dissembling it.  Time to cut through the upper class bs and bring back those old time taxes.