How Obama is ‘Saving’ the Middle Class
Latest update: January 3rd, 2013
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The death tax is just as unfair to those who do not operate a business but have saved diligently all their lives. Inheritors will be forced to sell stocks, bonds, land, and even precious family heirlooms to pay the tax.
And what happens to all of this money — the proceeds from the family farms, the franchisees, the retail shops, the estates of small investors? It goes to fund the greatest pay-to-play scheme ever concocted. It rewards the welfare class, the union bosses, the trial lawyers, the crony capitalists, and the armies of lobbyists and community organizers who support the Democratic Party.
And for this, the entire middle class is to be ground into the dust. And the country as a whole will be condemned to generations of poverty and serfdom.
That is what is at stake in the current negotiations. Of course Obama is intransigent. He is determined to destroy the middle class and force them into dependency, where they will join the mushrooming welfare class — the 47 million on food stamps, the 23 million still looking for work, and the 100 million who have dropped out of the labor force altogether. He is far more concerned about renewing unemployment benefits than he is about creating jobs.
Obama’s idea of “saving” the middle class is extending unemployment benefits, increasing welfare payments to single moms, and boosting the earned income credit for low earners. That kind of assistance doesn’t save the middle class — it just turns them into welfare clients. But, of course, that’s the point. Move them out of the middle class and into dependency. And while you’re at it, make them actually believe you’re saving them.
Originally published at the American Thinker, under the title “‘Saving’ the Middle Class.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Dr. Jeffrey Folks is the author of Heartland of the Imagination (2011).
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Why does the JP continue to run uninformed columnists? No US State has state and local income taxes as high as 15%. Dividends and capital gains continue to get a massive tax break, with a top marginal rate approximately half that of those of us who work for a living. (Remember also that dividends and capital gains are also exempt from social security tax.) The estate tax rate is 40%, not 55%, applying to estates over $5 million, not $1 million — and that threshold is adjusted for inflation. Furthermore, the law continues another massive tax break: Not only does an estate of $5 million get exempted from the estate tax, it continues a total exemption from capital gains taxes up to the value of the estate at the time of death.
Why does the Jewish Press continue to publish such motzi shem ra?
Economics is hard. They know they don't like the president so they hook around for reasons to hate him. Since the facts confuse them, they don't value them; instead, they just make up what they think the facts should be and use their made-up b.s. like they do here, to denigrate the president.
Why? Because they're uninformed .. and that's very bad for a newspaper! It appears to me that this article was partially written before the recent tax agreement, and partially written after. In other words, it's a hodgepodge of incorrect facts mixed with a few correct ones. #badjournalism
Comments on this one? :
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323320404578216583921471560.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
How sure are you on your info
100% certain.
State tax rates:
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/corp_inc.pdf
New estate tax rules:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/01/02/after-the-fiscal-cliff-deal-estate-and-gift-tax-explained/
And the big exemption for estates that are subject to the estate tax (even if too small to pay estate tax):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepped-up_basis
George Steinbrenner died during 2010 when there was no estate tax. His sons end up paying much more in capital gains taxes than they would have in estate taxes when they finally sell the Yankees.
The only part of this that is obscure is the Stepped Up Basis rule. But anyone who doesn't know about the Stepped Up Basis rule should not be writing about tax policy.
Crony Capitalism is a long-established tradition in American history, going back at least to the 1770s. We forget that the First Bank of the United States, the Erie Canal, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the transcontinental railroads, and 2/3 of the New York City Subway were a product of Crony Capitalism. Its use declined with the rise of the Public Authority in the 20th century; there is a good argument that Crony Capitalism actually provides more accountability (and the third alternative is out and out socialism).