About your "tax cut"....

[cinyc]

She raises a good point about people making say 200K-500K where in NYC isn't much at all.  I've proposed this before- creating a whole new tax bracket for those over a cool million a year.  Most of them voted for Obama knowing they were going to get socked with a tax increase and some, even Warren Buffet, think they pay too little in taxes. 

Nobody is stopping Warren Buffet or anyone else who claims that they pay too little in taxes from sending a check payable to the United States Treasury to Washington, D.C.  That they haven't says more about their true politics than anything else.

The top 1 percent have 19% of the income but pay 37% of the total income taxes.  But that's clearly not enough.   We need to tax them more, until they pay 100% of the total income taxes!

And then Atlas shrugged.

[cinyc]

She raises a good point about people making say 200K-500K where in NYC isn't much at all.  I've proposed this before- creating a whole new tax bracket for those over a cool million a year.  Most of them voted for Obama knowing they were going to get socked with a tax increase and some, even Warren Buffet, think they pay too little in taxes. 

Nobody is stopping Warren Buffet or anyone else who claims that they pay too little in taxes from sending a check payable to the United States Treasury to Washington, D.C.  That they haven't says more about their true politics than anything else.

The top 1 percent have 19% of the income but pay 37% of the total income taxes.  But that's clearly not enough.   We need to tax them more, until they pay 100% of the total income taxes!

And then Atlas shrugged.

Who in God's name would pay more in taxes then they have to???  NO ONE!  IIRC, Massachusetts has a voluntary tax option and not a person checked yes and it's known as Taxachusetts.

Anyone who claims that their taxes are too low should put up or shut up.  Absolutely NOTHING is stopping them from paying more to the government.  Nothing.

[cinyc]

Anyone who claims that their taxes are too low should put up or shut up.  Absolutely NOTHING is stopping them from paying more to the government.  Nothing.

I shall leave aside the utter idiocy of your position and point out that, simply not having any money prevents the great majority of people from sending any money to anyone.

Reread the statement again: Anyone who claims that their taxes are too low should put up or shut up. 

Anyone who claims that their taxes are too low AND doesn't have the money to pay the tax increase they propose is an idiot.

[cinyc]

That's true to some extent, but there is the free rider problem. That's why taxes are mandatory. Suppose that I would be willing to pay 30% of my nominal income in exchange for a functioning government similiar to the current government.

Under a strictly voluntary system, would I pay the 30%? Of course not, because whether or not I pay the 30% has no bearing on whether there is a functioning government. I, and millions of others, even if we were all willing to pay and would all be better off, would end up not paying, and we would all be worse off.

This is why, some people may be willing to pay more taxes, but it is always contingent on others paying.

If you honestly believe that your taxes are too low and state so publicly, the free rider "problem" shouldn't be an issue.   Perhaps the "others" don't think their taxes are too low, and ought not to be forced to pay more just because one of their peers wrongly thinks they are not paying enough.

If I were king for a day, I'd tax Congressional pay at the highest rate, subject to the same nonsensical phaseouts and limitations as those in the top group.  I'd also tax political donations at the highest corporate rate, subjecting them to the same nonsensical deduction limitations as companies in the real world.