On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:57:01 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:08:05 -0800, wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:26:05 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:11:22 -0800, wrote:

Make up your mind, are you talking about "income" or "net worth"?
You show me the data on what the income is for those people if you
don't like my number. You have not "done that" once. You have linked
some opinions but you have not showed me any numbers. In fact I am
having trouble finding the number myself. I do know there are 1.6
million households (before the crash) that are making over 250,000 and
the NYT says 145,000 made more than 1.6 million (in 2004) so that
means we are still not talking about that many rich people. Certainly
not enough to make a dent in a 1.1 trillion dollar deficit with a 4%
tax hike. When you look at the 250k-1.6m people, most are on the 250k
end if the rest of income distribution models hold. I generously said
the median was 500k.

Anyone individual making more than $250K should be taxed a bit more on
the amount over the line... by a few percent as per what was proposed.
The Republicans fought tooth and nail to prevent that. The Democrats
even proposed pushing that up to $1M, but no go from the Republicans.
Why?

So you agree with my numbers now? OK

The answer to your question is simple. Rich people are the only ones
who can afford to buy congressmen. If the republicans were not taking
point on these tax loopholes, the democrats would be doing it.

Did you see this. A real eye opener about who is bribing whom.

http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpictur...Rep&Cycle=2008

Agree with which numbers? The fact is that the Republicans blocked a
reasonable tax increase and have made the situation worse.

I agree the Bush tax cuts should have expired, I always have, but I
also know it would not approach fixing this $1.1T deficit.

Yes, it would. OVER THE LONG TERM.

The projection for the whole thing (resetting to 2001 rates for
everyone) was only about $70B a year ($700B over 10 years)
That is why I put this in perspective and cited the total net worth
for the top 2%.
That would take care of the deficit for about 18 months and there
wouldn't be a US economy anymore because you liquidated all the big
companies.

You need to start thinking longer term.