Obama considers $75,000 wealthy! The median income in NJ is about $67,000and the reason it’s so high is because we need it to pay the multiple taxes the state legislatures have burdened us with so they can run up a huge deficit. We pay income tax, property tax and sales tax. Not to mention all the other hidden taxes like a gas tax and a phone tax and even a special 9-11 tax when you rent a car. We are paying more than enough taxes at the state level alone and yet the idiots from my state will vote for this guy and he will carry NJ:
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama went after the “We’re not paying enough taxes to the government” vote today during a television interview in New York.
First, he said the Bush tax cuts ought to die. He likes that top marginal rate of 39%. Although the non-partisan National Journal recently declared him the most liberal of the 100 senators, Obama denied being a “wild-eyed liberal,” which wasn’t what the Journal called him, but it sounds good on TV where everything moves by so quickly.
Maria Bartiromo on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” asked, “Who should pay more and who should pay less?” Predictably, the politician chose to talk about who would benefit from his higher tax plan, not who would get socked the hardest. But from his answers it sounds like the “wealthy” in his mind are those making more than $75,000.
“I would not increase taxes for middle class Americans and in fact I want to….provide a tax cut for people who are making $75,000 a year or less,” he said. “For those folks, I want an offset on the payroll tax that would be worth as much as $1,000 for a family.
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posted March 28, 2008 at 1:24 pm
the reason it’s so high is because we need it to pay the multiple taxes
The reason NJ income is so high is that NJ people commute to Manhattan with the best and the brightest and earn those salaries. And you’re supposed to be a capitalist, sheesh.
posted March 28, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Well, $75K gross on an indivitual does put that person in about the top 20% on income nationwide. Definitely not rich, but few enough that he can pretty much throw that vote away.
Hoefully he means $75K AGI. With tithing and mortgage, the majority of Christians are probably below that. With so many spouses working, lots of FAMILIES have AGI above $75K, but their filing status is different.
What people don’t realize is, that while there are a few people out there making stratospheric incomes, there are so few of them that taking all their income and giving it away would just not make a dent overall.
posted March 28, 2008 at 4:39 pm
As an example, the top 1% of earners get $350K or more a year. If you took ALL their money, leaving them with nothing, and doled it out to everybody else, that would be only $1700 more per person.
posted March 28, 2008 at 4:43 pm
And of course, that $1700 would come at the expense of impoverishing most of America’s heart and brain surgeons, lots of our best airline pilots, lots of small businesses, etc. So the impact on the rest of us would undoubtedly be a net negative.
posted March 29, 2008 at 2:14 am
“idiots” is a synonym for fool, a derogatory term expressly forbidden to followers of Jesus because it is unloving/disrespectful of ones enemies. Judge not lest you be judged says Jesus. Of course if you are in reality a money worshiper(Capitalist/Darwinist-survival of the fittest type) then your outrage with the weaker brother/sister is quite understandable. Which is it?
posted March 29, 2008 at 7:55 am
What I am, Bob, is someone who’s tired of having money stolen from me and not being able to do anything about it. The idiots in NJ think nothing of ganging up on the “rich” and stealing their wallet. They are nothing but a bunch of thugs. How about you aim that “money worshiper” comment at the politician who would steal the money of the “rich” to buy votes from the poor and middle class (and the lefty rich who feel guilty about their wealth) and the voter who wants to burden the “rich” so they can get more money and services and less tax burden.
BTW, I don’t aim the “idiot” comment at anyone in particulate which is what Jesus was referring to and he never says enemies, it’s in the context of brothers. And I certainly don’t view my fellow New Jerseyans as a brother, especially those who vote in politicians who steal my money.
Moonshadow, the reason the income is so high is because of the cost of living in NJ and one of the cost of living in NJ is the high taxes we pay. And I am a capitalist, that’s why I’m ticked off by the taxes.
ZZ, do you realize that since Obama is rolling back the Bush tax cuts we’ll paying the marriage penalty again? Making it even worse for married couples filing jointly?
posted March 29, 2008 at 12:42 pm
A lot of the Bush income tax cut were an illusion. The AMT rate was unchanged and would kick in once the AMT was higher than your regular tax with the new lower rates. This happens to someone not really all that affluent once deductions mounted up: examples would be property tax, state income tax, and dependent deductions. Basically anyone living in a coastal city.
There’s an even bigger issue here than griping about taxes. If we want lower tax rates then we need less government spending. The worst possible thing is to deficit spend because it makes big government appear to be free. The sad fact is that you’ll pay even high taxes in the future to service the debt and maintain the big government.
Given how responsible our society has been with credit lately I’m not hopeful.
posted March 30, 2008 at 2:38 pm
No worries – $75,000 is, in fact, about 150% of the median household income. So, that’s not rich any more than $37,500/year makes you poor. However, you’ll get your money back in $2500 per household in healthcare tax credit, as well as the relief of knowing that your kids will get $4000 each for college tuition tax credits. What a relief!
Wages need to go up. Period. It’s silly to pay $3/gallon for gas and not have the income to pay for your trips to the grocery store to buy $1.50 loaves of bread or $3.50 gallons of milk. And with the declining dollar, we need to worry more about our place in the global economy than anything else.
posted March 31, 2008 at 9:55 am
What I am, Bob, is someone who’s tired of having money stolen from me and not being able to do anything about it.
Your money is not being stolen from you. By living in this nation, you consent to be governed by its laws, and taxes are the price you pay to live here.
posted April 2, 2008 at 3:40 am
Who but the rich can be taxed? The poor by definition don’t have money. Are you a follower of Jesus that does not want to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and house the homeless? Aren’t all humans your “brothers”?
posted April 5, 2008 at 9:54 am
meh, I believe that I should be taxed a reasonable amount and anything above that is excessive.
“Who but the rich can be taxed? The poor by definition don’t have money. Are you a follower of Jesus that does not want to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and house the homeless? Aren’t all humans your “brothers”?”
Where in anything have I said that the poor should be taxed?