"JimH" wrote in message
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"NOYB" wrote in message
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"JimH" wrote in message
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"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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NOYB wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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NOYB wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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NOYB wrote:
"WaIIy" wrote in message
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On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:05:46 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:

The best thing that can happen to smug righties is horrific
personal
disaster, such as loss of a good job and inability to find a new
good
job, loss of a close family member with devastating bills to pay,
loss
of a home due to a natural disaster, et cetera.

You are a true nutcase.


Smart people plan for the disasters. Although I've been blessed
with
good
fortune, I know that things could change in an instant. That's
why I
spend
tens of thousands of dollars every year on insurance...for life,
disability,
natural disasters, etc.



It's wonderful when the taxpayers subsidize you, eh?

The interest on half of my student loan was subsidized...but ONLY
WHILE I
WAS IN SCHOOL. But none of the interest is subsidized for the next
25
years
that I'm paying it off.


What? You don't write off the premiums on your many insurance
policies?

A write-off is not a subsidy. It's my money that I'm saving...not the
government's.




A write-off is a subsidy.

If you write off insurance or depreciation, it comes off your gross
income and lowers the number on which you pay taxes. It is a subsidy.




Agreed.

A write off means you get to keep more of *your* money. It's not the
government's money until you pay it to them. If the government let's you
keep more of *your* money, then how are they "subsidizing" you?

To put another way: Did Bush give you a subsidy when he passed the tax
cut, Jim?




Lets look at write offs in another way using a real life example.

Theresa Heinz Kerry has a reported income of $5,073,554 in 2003, on which
she paid only 12% in taxes. The write offs and tax loop holes she used,
while apparently legal, left some 13%~18% of taxes out of the government
coffer, costing the government money. They subsidized her some 18% of her
income with the write offs and loop holes.

They didn't subsidize anything. The government let her keep 88% of her
money instead of only 70% of it. How grand of them! It's still her
friggin' money!

I realize that taxes are a necessity. However, to declare that the
government is subsidizing someone by taking only 12% of their money instead
of 30% is ABSURD!