Lower the top level 35% to 23-29%???????

[underpants]

The plan would simplify the tax code by reducing the number of tax brackets from six to three, lowering the top rate from 35 percent to somewhere between 23 percent and 29 percent. That could provide a windfall for wealthy taxpayers because the 35 percent tax bracket currently applies to taxable income above $379,150.


http://news.yahoo.com/bipartisan-tax-plan-trims-mortgage-deduction-191345875.html

For example, current law allows homeowners to deduct the interest they pay on home mortgages of up to $1 million. One proposal would lower the limit to $500,000 and exclude mortgage interest on second homes.

Starting in 2018, the new health care law would tax high-priced health insurance plans. There are several proposals to adjust the tax to include more health plans while sparing lower-income families with more modest coverage.

[piratefish08]

1. Yay for rich people!

Trickle on me please.

[onethatcares]

2. that's my next job

to be a piss boy for the rich.

gaud it's gonna be a great end to a fine life.

[gratuitous]

3. The dead giveaway that this is a specious proposal

The people putting this forward do so on the theory that lowering tax rates and closing loopholes will magically result in (ta-dah!) higher revenues. These are the same people who think that the government has too much money as it is - so why do they want increased government revenues? There's a giant disconnect, but nobody in the media seems interested in pointing that out.

The second obvious giveaway is that loopholes closed in 2011 will almost surely be re-opened in 2012 or 2013. There is absolutely no talk about how permanent the closing of the loopholes is supposed to be. And again, nobody in the media can be roused even to wonder about this.

[n2doc]

6. I'd love to see the economic projections that went into this

I know in the Ryan proposal, he assumes an incredible boom, far faster and greater than ever before, in oder to cover up for the tax cuts. He predicts something like a 3% unemployment rate by 2016. Yeah, right.....

[KamaAina]

8. That's almost literally impossible

there will always be a certain amount of what economists call "fringe unemployment", that is, people who are between jobs at the time the survey is taken. That has always been assumed to be around 3 percent. And now with more and more people working as independent contractors and changing jobs more frequently, if anything, it's higher than that.

Then again, we kind of already knew that Ryan is a :dunce: , didn't we?

[flamingdem]

4. I love the term "simplify", yes the rich could simply invest more in the market, nice for Wall St nt

[slipslidingaway]

5. knr nt

[many a good man]

7. My counterproposal would be 70%

But first I'd demand 90% and let them bargain me down to 70. That's right were it was before Reagan took office.

[markpkessinger]

9. What's wrong with that, so long as you've still got catfood . . . and peas n/t

[indepat]

10. Looks like BHO will get to pull off his second big tax cut for the uber-wealthy: never has a

president had so much success in such a short period of time in getting major far-RW agendas enacted. :patriot:

[creeksneakers2]

11. They are also plotting something called

"Competitive territorial tax system." That means multinational would no longer pay one cent of US taxes on money earned abroad.

http://www.jeffersonwells.de/InControl/Fall2010/International-Tax-Reform.htm

On top of that, they'd slash the corporate tax rate. There's a list of deductions they'd cut for ordinary people but nothing specific would be taken from the rich.

[TheFarseer]

12. How the $@#(%@#% does that balance the budget????

Cut spending yes, but where the Republicans completely lose me is cutting taxes . Taxes already got cut. What do all the countries that are loaning us money think when they see us cutting taxes? Christ sake, let's balance the budget if we're going to balance the budget. If we're going to just say screw it and default, then let's cut taxes to zero and crank up spending as much as we can.

[Telly Savalas]

13. "Simplifly the tax code by reducing the number of tax brackets from six to three"

Really?

Our tax code is thousands of pages long. I can put a formula in a single cell in an Excel spreadsheet to compute a tax given a taxable income input. So don't bullshit me by telling me that this transparent attempt at making our tax code even more regressive "simplifies" things.

I mean I guess I can see how somebody that's really fucking stupid might think six brackets is overly complicated, but should we really structure our society to appease the lowest common denominator?

[Faryn Balyncd]

14. Their inventivess is unlimited.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. It boggles the mind, doesn't it?

I don't recognize this country anymore.

[NM Independent]

16. That entire article was one saddening thing after another...

and this proposal was "lauded" by our POTUS. I don't have a voice anymore, and I don't recognize my country.

The knife is stuck pretty deep in our backs now, eh?