Comments on: GOP deficit plan: Limit deductions, tax health insurance

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:58:36 +0000

Of course, the best tax break is religion. 100% off.

The “Crystal Cathedral” near LA is being sold to another church for ~$57 million. And ne’er a penny of tax.

The Catholic diocese buying it pointed out that it was about four times cheaper than building their own cathedral; i.e., $200 million, and not a penny of tax.

Somehow I don’t think those tax breaks are going away anytime soon, though.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:07:25 +0000

More tax foolishness. Just dump the whole mess and start over again.

By: Hal Brown

Hal Brown — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:47:56 +0000

Let’s take these Republican proposals one at a time:

1) Limit mortgage deductions: What a slam against the old mantra about promoting the American dream of the aspiring upwardly mobile house renter to own their own home. As Woody notes, this results in less spendable income needed to stimulate the economy.

2) Limiting charitable donations: This flies the the face of the Republican pillar of wisdom that the good hearts of Americans in donating to charity can replace the government funding the social safety net. On a personal note, I donated a lot of money to the high school student council and the library in memory of my wife this this year and was able to donate more because I knew it would be tax deductible.

3) Tax employer health benefits: Supposedly the government has no business legislating a health insurance mandate but they can essentially levy a surcharge on individual health care insurance? This doesn’t even benefit businesses, it is a way to lower the net income of working Americans. That, as Woody says, is spendable income that the economy needs.

By: woody188

woody188 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:06:28 +0000

I can’t think of a better way to kick the middle class in the teeth while they are down. Someday perhaps they will realize that the rich do not create jobs, demand for products and services does. Demand that is generated by an affluent middle class.

I guess it’s only class warfare when the 99% fight back. ¡Viva la Revolución!

By: Pondering It All

Pondering It All — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:28:05 +0000

Big surprise: Republicans are not opposed to raising taxes, as long as the rich get a tax cut in the process!

By: SDRSr

SDRSr — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:25:22 +0000

Yea, don’t tax the 1%, but raise taxes on the 99% and stick it to the middle class. Anybody not understand why voting for a Republican is like begging a thief not to take you silver.

By: Carl Nemo **==

Carl Nemo **== — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:21:07 +0000

This confirms my belief that the the ‘rethugs’ don’t have their oars in the water.

Notice neither side of the aisle is for pulling the plug on our uber expensive and wasteful military adventurism on a worldwide basis including our obviously failed thirty year ‘war on drugs’.

The MIC gods as well as bankers of the same stripe must be coddled and exalted while John and Mary Q. Public gets screwed over again and again as always.

Wut a bunch of slugs…!

Carl Nemo **==