Tax Increases

Parados when people think of Reagan they think of tax cuts without realizing that he may have cut the taxes on the ungodly greedy but he offset that by raising taxes on the vast majority of Americans. When I was child my mom and dad had always paid the maximum social by September meaning the rest of their income was not subject to social security or Medicare taxes for the last 3 months of the year. In 1980 when Reagan was elected $25,800 was maximum that social security and Medicare tax was paid on. By 1989 when Reagan left office the first $48,000 in income was subject to social security and Medicare tax. In 1980 social security was 5.08% and Medicare was 1.05% that means you paid 6.13% total. 25,800 X 6.13% = $1581.54. But by 1989 when Reagan left office social security was 6.06% and Medicare was 1.45% a total of 7.51% but the first $48,000 would now be subject to the taxes. By then it was $48,000 X 7.51% = $3604.80. In 8 short years Reagan had raised the social security and Medicare taxes effectively 228%. This is a far bigger tax increase than the 60% tax cut for the ungodly greedy and none of the social security and Medicare tax increase was subject to tax deductions.

But Reagan wasn’t through yet because he reached up and grabbed another two years of people’s lives require them to work to 67 before they got their social security.

In federal government all of these taxes are thrown into the same pot and counted as “taxes.” How could any one man have raised taxes by 228% and still tripled the National debt?

ZarZar can't survive on his own, he can only survive by sucking the tax payers dry.

H2O I have worked and paid taxes all my. I have never drawn any unemployment or so called government assistance. I never drew a pay check that I didn’t pay taxes out of. I paid income tax, social security, and Medicare for over four decades. I doubt you could say the same.

H2O when people think of Reagan they think of tax cuts without realizing that he may have cut the taxes on the ungodly greedy but he offset that by raising taxes on the vast majority of Americans. When I was a child my mom and dad had always paid out of social by September meaning the rest of their income was not subject to social security or Medicare taxes for the last 3 months of the year. In 1980 when Reagan was elected the $25,800 was maximum that social security and Medicare tax was paid on. By 1989 when Reagan left office the first $48,000 in income was subject to social security and Medicare tax. In 1980 social security was 5.08% and Medicare was 1.05% that means you paid 6.13% total. 25,800 X 6.13% = $1581.54. But by 1989 when Reagan left office social security was 6.06% and Medicare was 1.45% but the first $48,000 would now be subject to the taxes. By then it was $48,000 X 7.51% = $3604.80. In 8 short years Reagan had raised the social security and Medicare taxes effectively 228%. This is a far bigger tax increase than the 60% tax cut for the ungodly greedy and none of the social security and Medicare tax increase was subject to tax deductions.

But Reagan wasn’t through yet because he reached up and grabbed another two years of people’s lives requiring them to work to 67 before they got their social security.

In federal government all of these taxes are thrown into the same pot and counted as “taxes.” How could any one man have raised taxes by 228% and still tripled the National debt?

The Reagan legend is a lie plain and simple he wasn’t a tax cutter he raised taxes on the majority and lowered them on the ungodly greedy. The statement that Reagan cut taxes and raised revenue is a lie, he simply raised taxes on the vast majority to provide tax cuts for the elite few.

One of the major battles for social security is getting ready to be waged as the debt ceiling approaches. The commie/conservative argument will be that spending absolutely must be cut and since social Security and Medicare make up almost 40% of so called “spending” social security and Medicare will have to take major cuts to slow the deficits but the spending pie chart is built on lies. There is no spending on social security; social security is now almost entirely funded by current social security taxes and a fraction of interest on the $2.7 trillion trust fund. Medicare is funded out of current taxes and the Medicare trust fund.

This generation saw Reagan raise their social security taxes by 228% to create a $2.7 trillion social security trust fund and raised the retirement age by 2 full years. The commie/conservatives slogan is that we have a “spending problem.” But it is pure propaganda to say social security is causing a “spending problem” since it has a funding source and interest off of a large trust fund to fund it. Medicare also has current taxes and a trust fund to fund it. So if there is a spending problem it is the military which consumes by far the largest amount of the Federal budget.

Let the commie/conservatives cut the military budget by 50% to solve the “spending problem.” The middle class standard of living was lowered for 30 years by the 228% increase in social security taxes that was used to underwrite humongous tax cuts for the ungodly greedy. Now in order to prolong the 60% Reagan tax cuts for the ungodly greedy the commie/conservatives plan on cutting social security.

In his last TV presser:

Obama came very close to admitting that his policies are going
to force this country to endure another Obama financial crash.

Of course he went on to blame Bush and republicans, but that's what he does.

When will the community organizer in chief accept responsibility?

Meanwhile; Obama is sticking to his guns... he is raising taxes on everyone and raising expenses for everyone.

What a douchebag!

Damn that Obama... He let the Bush tax increase happen.

H2O you’re one of those people who think they can run up higher and higher bills and then file bankruptcy and keep the stuff that you didn’t pay for cheating all the people that extended you credit. While there are many people with extremely high medical expenses or other circumstances beyond their control that the Bankruptcy law was designed to give a fresh start there is another group of self-indulgent dead beats who buy everything in sight with the bankruptcy in mind.

The commie/conservative mind set comes from their philosopher/saint Ayn Rand, a product of the Russian communist revolution. Ayn Rand, even though she was from Russia decided she knew what was wrong with America and she knew just how to fix it, selfishness. Counter to what our parents taught us Ayn believed that selfishness was not a vice but a virtue. She even wrote a book called the “Virtues of Selfishness.” No longer would Americans work together toward common goals each American would simply maximize his selfishness and it would be an economy based on what each American had the power to take.

Were you on Mars the last decade? The finical crisis took place in 2007-08 when all the major banks in America failed and had to be bailed out. It was called the “Great Recession” and far more wealth was lost than in the Great Depression. The Bush Depression, and it was a Depression not a recession, was the finical crisis everything else has been trying to repair the damage that was done by baby Bush and the commie/conservatives.

If you came upon a huge train wreck would you blame the people that had to clean up the mess?

You are speaking of Obama

Obama didn’t triple the National Debt during his term in office however Reagan did by cutting taxes on the ungodly greedy by 60%. Obama didn’t forge documents to start a $3 trillion dollar war, the first war in history that was not paid for by raising taxes and worse Baby Bush cut taxes on the ungodly greedy during the war. The Regan and Bush tax cuts caused a major change in distribution of wealth from the middle class to the ungodly greedy that caused the biggest finical disaster in history. Crime might have paid before but after the elimination of most of the regulations put in place on Wall Street after the Great Depression crime in America paid better than any time in history.

Now Obama has no choice but to pay 40% of each and every dollar in income in interest on the Bush’s unnecessary $3 trillion war and Reagan’s tripled National Debt. Obama has only 60% of the money needed to run the country. When Bush was running the National Debt up to record levels with a $3 trillion dollar war Vice President Cheney said, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” At least deficits don’t matter as long as you are cutting taxes on the ungodly greedy it seems however if it involves paying social security the commie/conservatives think deficits are extremely important.


Most of Obama spending is paying interest on the Reagan and Bush record dficits.

If you want to raise tax revenues, you need to lower tax rates for everyone.

H2O what part of tripling the National Debt don’t you understand? Lowering tax rates and increasing revenue was just a slogan it didn’t happen. However what did happen was Reagan raised tax rates on 99% of Americans increasing the amount of money he American people paid into social security by 280%. Does that sound like a reduction in tax rates for the vast majority of Americans? If you cut taxes for a few and increases tax dramatically for the vast majority you can claim that cutting taxes increased revenues but that. The fact is taxes go up and down during economic cycles. Taxes are low during recessions and much higher during economic expansions that has happened since America began. Reagan and his voodoo economists simply claimed credit for something that occurs through all of the economic cycles.

But when you get to the bottom line Regan tripled the National Debt during peace time something no other president did. The countries in the world that are progressing share one thing in common a 70% tax rate on the ungodly greedy.

H20 you must still be trying to figure out how Reagan managed to triple the National Debt during peace time. After all if by cutting taxes Reagan increased revenue he should have been able to finish paying off the national debt or at the very least he should not have increased the national debt at the very least with increased revenue it should not have tripled the national debt. However if cutting taxes by 60% on the ungodly greedy decreased revenue coming in we would expect to see the National debt tripled during peace time and that is exactly what happened when Reagan 8 year term is taken into account. An economic snap shot taken between the extremes of a recession and during the height of the recovery gives a very misleading picture of what happened long term. It is easy to come up with a slogan and repeat endlessly but in the end Reagan tripled the National Debt. Much of the 40% interest we are paying today is because Reagan tripled the national debt. Reagan borrowed money at 13% interest to finance his tripling of the National debt. The last of my mom US treasury bonds she bought during Reagan term at 13% are being paid off. The interest rates were at record heights during Reagan’s term in office this was by far the worst possible time to triple the national debt.

H2O just when the commie/conservatives were posed to mount a major offensive against social security as a “spending problem” but they found reality staring them in the face. They found that only 26% of the American people have a positive view of republicans the lowest since the republicans completely collapsed the American economy in 2008. The House commie/conservatives went to a retreat in Virginia where the tea party crazies were told flat out by powerful outside commie/conservative groups, corporate executives, and republican strategists if they mount a major offensive against social security as a “spending problem” when social security in fact has a $2.7 trillion trust fund it will be the end of the Republican party. The commie/conservatives have simply lied to the American people one too many times. The wind beneath the wings of the commie/conservative movement has always been the ignorance of the American people.

The internet has put all the world information just a few key strokes away from any American it will never wipe out ignorance altogether but it will significantly lessen its impact. When the commie/conservative baby Bush stood beside the cabinet holding the $2.7 trillion social security trust fund held in U S treasury bonds and declared it just “worthless paper” people took him at his word and panicked many were ready to divert social security to Wall Street where the sharks would have had a feeding frenzy cheating the elderly out of every cent. Today I am going to my broker who managed to lose every cent of my investment to get a statement to claim the total and complete loss of my Roth retirement account on my taxes. Between the management fees which are thousands of times higher for small investors, bad advice and outright theft several thousand dollar investment was wiped out. When told to buy one stock they simply sold me another that their company owned and they knew was soon to be absolutely worthless. This would have been repeated 100s of millions of times if the Bush lies had been successful in privatizing social security. There was a huge building boom in the stock brokerage firms when they though the commie/conservatives were going to privatize social security. Sooner or later the shortage of ignorance beneath the wings of the commie/conservative dream liner is going to cause it to crash.

H2O are you against socialism like your commie/conservative role models? You know things like social security, Medicare, workers compensation, unemployment. Are you like Rush Slimbaugh and believe that you should work till the day you die and if you can’t work you should be sent to the gas chambers, no that not right Slimbaugh doesn’t want to pay for the gas, he would be satisfied if they just quietly went into the woods and died. Slimbaugh has said he will not pay one penny into a retirement fund for any of his employees. The commie/conservatives were readying for a last stand but went on a “retreat” and decided to retreat instead.

“As the world turns” or more aptly “as the commie/conservatives cave” but there is very little attention being paid to the commie/conservative cave in over the debt ceiling. At the first of the month the commie/conservatives were circling the wagons to ready themselves for Custer’s last stand where they would bring the government down if they could not destroy social security and Medicare. Currently social security replaces only 40% of a retiree’s income the commie/conservatives believe that social security and Medicare are a socialist programs that should be eliminated altogether but realize that is not politically practical so the best alternative is to cut them down so the names will remain but the vast majority of the benefit will be eliminated.

For instance social security had a death benefit that was designed to pay funeral expenses of someone who died in 1940 it averaged a $145.79 today the death benefit is just $255. If a person pays into social security all his life and dies at 65 years and 11 months after his spouse died and no underage children all he gets out of the $50,000 or more paid into social security is $255 dollars. In 1960 the cost of a funeral was $708 now a funeral with vault costs $7,775. In 1940 no doubt the $145.79 social security death benefit would bury you. Social security tax stood at just 2% in 1940 and now the tax is more than tripled and stands at 6.2%. In 1940 only the first $3,000 income was subject to social security tax now the first $113,000 is subject to social security tax. The $255 death benefit was set in 1954 and has not gone up once cent since 1954 even though social security taxes have gone up several hundred percent during the time period. If the $255 in 1954 were adjusted for inflation it would be $2,103.69. The death benefit should mirror the social security tax increases or at the very least the inflation rate.

What happened to the social security death benefit was, death by inflation, and that is the intended fate of the social security program if the commie/conservatives have their way. They know they can’t kill socialism in America, and make no doubt about it, commie/conservative believe social security is socialism. The commie/conservatives just want to do like Grover Norquist wanted to do to our government just weaken social security to the point the commie/conservatives can drag it in the bathroom and drown in in the bathtub.

H2O if you could use excess social security taxes to cut your taxes would you? If once you had used all the social security trust fund for tax cuts for yourself would you then cut social security benefits for retirees so you could keep your tax cuts? The commie/conservatives in Congress have answered these questions with a resounding yes.

The commie/conservatives insist we have a “spending problem” even though marginal taxes on the ungodly greedy had been as high as 93% to pay off the National debt ran up to pay for WWII. But a decade before the WWII debt would have been paid off Reagan cut the taxes on the ungodly greedy by 60% and instead of continuing to pay off the WWII debt Reagan tripled the National Debt. When the national debt is graphed as a percentage of GNP it shows that Presidents, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter had all paid the National debt caused by WWII down until Reagan tripled the National Debt. Reagan ran the national debt back up to point where it stood when Eisenhower took office. Reagan set the country back almost three decades. The National debt was run up during the biggest world war ever fought but Reagan ran the debt up nearly that high during peace time.

Since Reagan ran the National Debt up so high so fast did he have a “spending problem?” Or did he have a “tax cutting on the ungodly greedy problem.” We can all look back and see there was no great building of infrastructure during Reagan’s term in office it was the tax cuts on the ungodly greedy that caused the National Debt to triple and even though a small percentage of Reagan’s tax cuts on the ungodly greedy have been rescinded the vast majority of Reagan’s tax cuts on the ungodly greedy remain in force. The ungodly greedy tax rate stood at 70% when Reagan took office and even with the last tax increase it now stands at 39.6% still more than 30% lower than when Regan took office.

We do not having a “spending problem” in America we have a “problem caused by cutting taxes on the ungodly greedy.” Presidents, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter all paid the national Debt down but Reagan tripled it. The reason is unmistakable lowering income far below operating costs.

How did Reagan get by with it? Slogans, he ran on slogans and most people never looked at facts just Reagan’s slogans. Regan ran on the slogan that said he would “Cut taxes, increase spending on the military, and pay off the National Debt.” Most people realize you can’t cut your income, increase spending and pay off your debt. But when you make it a slogan and repeat endlessly the masses soon believe it and even after 30 years have passed and the hard statistics are undeniable people still believe Reagan’s slogans.

Now the commie/conservatives stand poised to pick the pockets of those on social security to maintain the artificially low taxes on the ungodly greedy. The return of the $2.7 trillion social security trust fund to those who created it is not a “spending problem” it is in no way “spending problem” it is simply the return of deposits and interest on the accounts due and payable.

We actually have an “accounting problem.” The books have been a lie for generations. In order to solve the problem the actual expenses of running the country and the actual income from taxes other than payroll taxes must be separated from social security and Medicare taxes, their trust funds and interest on those trust funds. What you have left is what you have to run the country on. If choice you have to make is to cut the military in half or double the taxes on the ungodly greedy that is the choice that will have to be made. For 30 years over payments into social security and Medicare programs have been used to underwrite the general fund budget. The hard cold fact is there are no longer overpayments and the interest on the trust funds and the trust funds themselves will be needed to pay current retirees. This creates a double edged problem for the general fund as the social security and Medicare trust funds have been borrowed by the general fund and must be repaid by the general fund.

If you can get the public to believe that social security is creating a “spending problem” you can cut benefits below the current income from social security and free up more money for more tax cuts for the ungodly greedy. Will the public believe the slogan “we have a spending problem?” Hitler slogans are the most powerful form of propaganda.

H2O the country has some hard choices to make are we going to take from social security to continue huge tax cuts for the ungodly greedy. For the last 30 years the social security trust fund has been used to keep taxes on the ungodly greedy artificially low. Reagan raised social security by as much as 280% on the middle class to help pay for his 60% tax cut for the ungodly greedy. The problem is that $2.7 trillion social security trust fund will be needed to pay social security, the purpose for which it was intended.

The choice we will be faced with is to cut social security benefits to free up social security money so it can be used to underwrite tax cuts for the ungodly greedy as it has been for the last 30 years. When Reagan cut taxes by 60%, the military should have been cut by 60% as well as other expenses. When Reagan raised social security taxes by 280% he did not raise social security benefits they remained at 40% of pre-retirement earnings. Now the commie/conservatives are mounting a major offensive to cut social security because “social security” is causing a “spending problem.”

The proposal to kill social security involves replacing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) with the Chained Consumer Price Index. The difference is the CPI measure inflation while the Chained CPI assumes that when the price of beef goes up they will switch to something cheaper like chicken. If the price of electric went up you would switch to kerosene lamps. If the price of housing went up you would sleep in a cardboard box. The social security lost to the Chained CPI would be small at first but cost thousands of dollars over time.

This generation that was required to pay 280% higher social security taxes will take a 50% cut in their social security benefits over time if the millionaires in congress get their way. Not to worry the millionaires in congress say this is not a cut. We live in world of illusion where a millionaire can say a 50% cut in social security benefit is not a “cut” and people will believe it.

H2O commie/conservatives come up with schemes to defraud the middle class. Do you believe predator economics should rule in America?

In the Enron scam Enron sold its debt to subsidiaries to make it appear Enron was making money when it fact it was losing money. This allowed them to sell stock to the public at high prices when the company was bankrupt. Laws should have been made to prevent this from happening again but commie/conservatives don’t want any regulations on corporate thieves. Now two of the biggest corporations in the world Arch Coal and Peabody Coal are using the Enron model to rid themselves of their debts. Each created independent subsidiaries and offloaded their liabilities of over $500 million a peace each to the subsidiaries. Then the subsidiaries were merged the combined liabilities were well over a billion dollars. Next step bankruptcy court where all of the debt could be unloaded. The liabilities were of course the health insurance and pensions of the miners who worked for Arch Coal and Peabody coal. Ninety percent of the miners who will lose their medical benefits and pensions never worked for the subsidiaries, they spent their life lives working for Arch Coal or Peabody coal and the liability for their benefits were off loaded in an effort to defraud them.

Will the bankruptcy court let two biggest corporations in the world defraud the men that created fortunes for the companies? That remains to be seen but in most cases the corporate bandits stuff $100 of millions in their pockets and in campaign contributions to politicians that help them. Welcome to commie/conservatives virtues of selfishness.