Powerline debunks some of the BS in Obama's 2011 budget, pointing out that, when you get through the slight-of-hand and misdirection, some of the President's proposals appear likely to throw the recovering economy under the bus.
I'd like to add that if you look even closer (@ page 40), the following is just plain wrong:
You'd think the President could get the most basic elements of the tax code right in his budget, but that appears to be beyond his pay grade. It's just semantics, you say? Not exactly. And how are Americans to be expected to understand this stuff if the President clearly can't (or can't communicate it clearly)?
And still worse ...
The kicker is that the "millionaire" family actually doesn't get the whole buck, because there are already limits on itemized deductions that kick in way below Obama's "wealthy family" income of $250,000 a year. For 2009 (the year you're getting ready to do your taxes for now), a married couple starts losing the benefit of their itemized deductions once their adjusted gross income hits $166,800.
So if you're a not-quite-wealthy family with income of $200,000 and itemized deductions for taxes, mortgage interest and charitable gifts of $50,000, you only actually get to deduct 99 cents on the dollar. If you're a filthy rich capitalist pig family with income of $1,600,000 and the same $50,000 in itemized deductions, you only get to deduct 73 cents on the dollar. That's under current law. (You can check for yourself ... Publication 17, pages 207-08.)
What was that again about the millionaire enjoying a deduction that's more than twice as generous?
See also, Rick Richman at Contentions: Not Only Orwellian but Also Disingenuous. Yes, indeed.
Currently, if a middle-class family donates a dollar to its favorite charity or spends a dollar on mortgage interest, it gets a 15-cent tax deduction, but a millionaire who does the same enjoys a deduction that is more than twice as generous.Actually, if a middle-class family donates a dollar to its favorite charity or spends a dollar on mortgage interest, and if it itemizes, it gets a one dollar tax deduction (that would be 100 cents, not 15, Barry). And the millionaire (family ... they do have families, too) actually gets less (we'll get to that in a minute). The millionaire (family) does NOT "enjoy a deduction" that's any more generous than the middle class family. It's just that if the millionaire family's tax rate is twice as high as the middle class family's, the millionaires will probably (depending on a number of other things) get a larger tax reduction (not the same thing as deduction) bang out of their tax deduction buck. The buck, however, is still a buck. Not 15 cents.
You'd think the President could get the most basic elements of the tax code right in his budget, but that appears to be beyond his pay grade. It's just semantics, you say? Not exactly. And how are Americans to be expected to understand this stuff if the President clearly can't (or can't communicate it clearly)?
And still worse ...
The kicker is that the "millionaire" family actually doesn't get the whole buck, because there are already limits on itemized deductions that kick in way below Obama's "wealthy family" income of $250,000 a year. For 2009 (the year you're getting ready to do your taxes for now), a married couple starts losing the benefit of their itemized deductions once their adjusted gross income hits $166,800.
So if you're a not-quite-wealthy family with income of $200,000 and itemized deductions for taxes, mortgage interest and charitable gifts of $50,000, you only actually get to deduct 99 cents on the dollar. If you're a filthy rich capitalist pig family with income of $1,600,000 and the same $50,000 in itemized deductions, you only get to deduct 73 cents on the dollar. That's under current law. (You can check for yourself ... Publication 17, pages 207-08.)
What was that again about the millionaire enjoying a deduction that's more than twice as generous?
See also, Rick Richman at Contentions: Not Only Orwellian but Also Disingenuous. Yes, indeed.
