Right on. Why is the medicare so high...I guess since you're self employed? Also, there is federal unemployment insurance? When did that kick in? That's crazy.
If we could opt out of Social Security and Medicare, that's a 15% difference! But if you are an employee you'd save something like 7 1/2% and the employer about the same. That's why they say when the government cuts income taxes, it's a regressive shift in taxes to the working people of America...we pay that huge amount in Social Security on the first $76,500 or so and Medicare and that has nothing to do with income tax. The really low wage earners may not pay any income taxes at all, but that 7 1/2% is still coming out and the company has to match it. If you invest money for a living, like Terisa, you get all stock sales and dividends, don't pay any social security, and get a special lower income tax rate for capital gains. Republicans took to calling it double taxation, so they made it even lower for the rich. And they raised the estate tax exemption from what was about $750,000 to something crazy, so now people like the Heinz can just pass on all their money from generation to generation to people who didn't earn it without any inheritance taxes being paid (what the Repbulicans like to call now the "death tax"). Amazing. And it will keep earning interest and profits at lower rates than income. So the guy at McDonalds has to pay taxes on what he earns, but the richie who's listed in the will pays nothing when he "earns" gifts? The family farm scenario is a joke, cuz that's been exempted for years.
Here's my proposal....tax the richies on their inheritance...i'm not gonna go so far as Bengamin Franklin suggested which was a 100% inheritance tax since he believed it was immoral to accept money from your parents, that you should earn your own. Instead I say something modest like 50% goes back to the public, the children of the richies can have 50% of what their parents hoarded...then use that money to pay off the cry-Baby Boomers disability, social security and medicare and new drug benefit and let my generation save in personal retirement accounts (with some regulation to keep Wall Street from cheating even more, or the idiots who will put it all in Enron).
If we could opt out of Social Security and Medicare, that's a 15% difference! But if you are an employee you'd save something like 7 1/2% and the employer about the same. That's why they say when the government cuts income taxes, it's a regressive shift in taxes to the working people of America...we pay that huge amount in Social Security on the first $76,500 or so and Medicare and that has nothing to do with income tax. The really low wage earners may not pay any income taxes at all, but that 7 1/2% is still coming out and the company has to match it. If you invest money for a living, like Terisa, you get all stock sales and dividends, don't pay any social security, and get a special lower income tax rate for capital gains. Republicans took to calling it double taxation, so they made it even lower for the rich. And they raised the estate tax exemption from what was about $750,000 to something crazy, so now people like the Heinz can just pass on all their money from generation to generation to people who didn't earn it without any inheritance taxes being paid (what the Repbulicans like to call now the "death tax"). Amazing. And it will keep earning interest and profits at lower rates than income. So the guy at McDonalds has to pay taxes on what he earns, but the richie who's listed in the will pays nothing when he "earns" gifts? The family farm scenario is a joke, cuz that's been exempted for years.
Here's my proposal....tax the richies on their inheritance...i'm not gonna go so far as Bengamin Franklin suggested which was a 100% inheritance tax since he believed it was immoral to accept money from your parents, that you should earn your own. Instead I say something modest like 50% goes back to the public, the children of the richies can have 50% of what their parents hoarded...then use that money to pay off the cry-Baby Boomers disability, social security and medicare and new drug benefit and let my generation save in personal retirement accounts (with some regulation to keep Wall Street from cheating even more, or the idiots who will put it all in Enron).
![[chair]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_chairshot.gif "Chair Shot [chair]"){kind=icon}