About your "tax cut"....

[paul718]

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. 

Even in NYC over $250,000 is quite a bit.

If you have a family to support, not really.  It's comfortable in the Philly area for a family of 4-6, but not wealthy.  For a place like Shamokin, PA, you'd live like a king with that.  Then again how can you tax regionally?

I do agree that we should perhaps have another bracket at the million mark, but someone who is making over $250,000 is still well off.  Obviously they aren't going to be as well off as other parts of the country, but they are still doing rather well.  Hell look on Long Island (one of the highest income and cost of living parts of the country) its only the top 4-5% that make over that amount.

I always have trouble with this debate.  Does the $250K level relate to individual income, or household income?  Also, do "median income" stats refer to individual or household?

[paul718]

I do agree that we should perhaps have another bracket at the million mark, but someone who is making over $250,000 is still well off.  Obviously they aren't going to be as well off as other parts of the country, but they are still doing rather well.  Hell look on Long Island (one of the highest income and cost of living parts of the country) its only the top 4-5% that make over that amount.

I always have trouble with this debate.  Does the $250K level relate to individual income, or household income?  Also, do "median income" stats refer to individual or household?

The $250,000 refers to the married filing jointly income, but not always household income, for example having grown children who still live at home wouldn't be included.   Median household income would take all the income earners into consideration.  For example lets say you have a married couple which have a combined income of $175,000 and two grown children making $50,000 each still living at home.  The household income would be $275,000, however they wouldn't be in the 250,000 + tax bracket.  The married couple would pay based on the $175,000 they made, and the children would each pay on the $50,000 they make.  Not sure if that answers your question.

Yup.  Thanks!

So when you say that the top 4-5% of Long Islanders make that amount, you're referring to joint income, right? 

[paul718]

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.

While the government may take their money, do they have a visible program for that?

I mean, Buffet is hardly greedy with his money, willing to drop 40 billion here or there for charity etc.

If you were a rich person who hypothetically believed in higher tax brackets [not that I do either], would you pay that amount anyways to the government?  I'm not trying to make an argument about taxes but rather whether his lack of writing large checks to the Treasury proves anything about his character.

I believe there's a clause in the revenue code that allows for voluntary payment to the federal government.  In fact, I think it might be specifically for paying down the national debt. 

Edit:  http://www.coxwashington.com/reporters/content/reporters/stories/2008/02/09/PUBLIC_DEBT09_COX.html