Two Minutes Hate: Get your hands off my pie.
UPDATED because holy crap
My hunger for some fresh Michelle Obama quotes has finally been sated. It helps that she mentioned pie.
After law school, she and Barack were beset by loans they’d still be paying had her husband not written two best-sellers, “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams From My Father.”
Those debts early in their marriage, she said, equips her husband to better understand the problems many Americans face.
Should she become first lady, she said she’d focus on family issues.
“If we don’t wake up as a nation with a new kind of leadership…for how we want this country to work, then we won’t get universal health care,” she said.
“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.”
For one thing, bullcorn. It’s not a zero-sum game in a capitalist economy.
Even if it is true that I have to give up some of my pie so other people can have more pie, first of all, fuck them, and second of all, I already share too much of my pie. It’s called “having roughly a quarter of my income confiscated by the IRS every April.” In fact, the harder I work, they more they take! You’re welcome, poor people.
For another thing, Mrs. Obama needs to GET OVER it with that student loan debt mantra of hers. Does she really think truly poor people give a flying-squirrel shit about the cost of her and Obama’s higher education? Does she really think owing money for two Harvard law degrees is anything even remotely similar to having to scrape together money for food? Jesus on a muffin.
I’m still paying off my college debt, too. And oh GOD how it sucks. But do you want to know what one of the last things I would ever do is? Whine about that college debt to actual poor people every chance I got in some sort of massively pretentious effort to “identify” with them.
Still, though, the stories these articles chose to highlight to demonstrate the plight of the poor are really failing to get the job done if the goal is to make anyone feel sorry for them. Example:
A panel of five women, each with young children at Dixon Academy, told Obama that the cost of living was taking its toll.
Kim Neely said groceries once cost $40 for a week of meals. Now it’s triple that. Rising gas prices made it difficult to get to work. She and her husband work for the same company and worry outsourcing could kill their jobs.
Rebecca Allen, a registered veterinary technician, said her dog gets better health care than her family. “We’d like to have another child, but we have no maternity coverage and it would cost half of what I make in a year,” said Allen, whose husband runs a small business.
Then guess what Rebecca? No more babies for you! Tough shit.
See, because what Rebecca and all these other “folks” are saying is that they don’t make enough money to have everything they want. Not everything they need - obviously they have that much and more. I mean, if you can own a dog who receives health care, sorry lady but you’re doing just fine as far as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Trust me.
And the thing is, to talk about not being able to have another baby because of your health plan or lack thereof, in the context of a presidential candidate’s campaign, means one thing, and that is that you want the government to do something about it. And by “government,” you mean “taxpayers,” by which you mean “Rachl Lukis.”
Well Rachl Lukis is sick of paying for shit you want but don’t need. The number one reason I don’t have things I want right now is because this weekend, I have to write a check for about $10,000 to the IRS, just like I have every April for the last several years. Unlike most Americans, who have their taxes garnished right out of their paychecks relatively painlessly, I don’t delude myself into seeing taxes only in the context of how much I’ll “get back” when I send in my refund. Being self-employed, having to write an actual check quarterly or annually, cures that delusion right quick.
And you know, I’m cool with that money being used to pay Rupert’s salary via the Army. I’m cool with it being used to build roads and to help the truly needy and all the other worthy (but rare) things the government spends it on. What I am totally un-fucking-cool with is that money being used in any fashion whatsoever that enables YOU to have another baby.
I know, it’s more fun for people like me to give you some of my “pie” so you can reproduce at will, and there’s probably little I can do to ever change that, so good for you. In the meantime, I reserve the right to call people like you greedy communist-teat-sucking assholes.
Man, I get cranky at tax time. Parasites!
Which reminds me, my friend and frequent commenter Carbo suggested a poll asking how much you paid in taxes this year. And I do mean PAID, as in your total tax, as in line 63 on Form 1040, line 10 on Form 1040EZ, or line 37 on Form 1040A. Like he said, many people don’t even know how much they pay in taxes and “confuse their refund with actual tax liability”. You turkeys are smarter than most so that probably isn’t the case with most of you, but hey, let’s see if we can come up with a ballpark total for how much the readers of this site contributed towards the dreams and desires of poor people who need to quit making babies they can’t afford.
Loading …UPDATE: Holy crapping hell, people!
Out of only 174 votes as of this writing, you guys paid approximately $2,638,000 in taxes for 2007.
25% of you paid over $30,000.
Jesus. H. Christ.
Bravo… From my thoughts to your words… Thanks!! Now where’s the dog pics?
April 10th, 2008 at 10:50 amESTI answered with my line 63 amount, but i’d hardly call that my total tax liability. what about my employers payroll taxes that could instead go to me, my state taxes, the seperate taxes for social security that ill never see and medicaire that i’ll never use?
April 10th, 2008 at 10:58 amESTI actually try to not look at that line of the form, because then I’ll realize how much the government has fleeced me for each year; and then I get even more pissed off when I realize that I’m grateful to be getting less than 10% of that fleecing back.
Sure, I’m glad to get some of my tax dollars back, but ffs it’s like saying “thanks for giving me that five-spot back” to the guy who just beat you half to death and took $500 out of your wallet.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:59 amESTWell ladies you know Dixon Academy is not cheap, but then again your children are getting the most self-esteem your money can buy.
$40 dollars a week for groceries? What a total fabrication, no one has done that for about 30 years.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:10 amESTOoh, I’m already pissed about this. We just finished our taxes on Monday - it’s downright galling.
But I think it settles a long-held question for me…I need to hie my own little business off-shore.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:13 amESTLong time lurker, first time poster.
Given that the measure of a person’s intelligence is largely based on the degree with which they agree with me, Rachel is just about the smartest human being on the face of the earth.
I propose a new system. You get one vote for every dollar in taxes paid each year. Those who provide the freaking money should have FAR more control of the people who spend it.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:16 amESTWe haven’t gotten a refund in twelve years. Every month they slice off huge chunks to feed the Federal, state, FICA and medicare beasts, and then come April we learn that they want more. Bastards!
April 10th, 2008 at 11:19 amESTI made less than $8500 last year (ah, the joys of being a student), so I got everything back that I paid in. I don’t know why they make me go through all that paperwork just to mail back what they took out in the first place. I’ve been in some of the other brackets, though, before I went back to school, and it suuuuucks looking at your 1040 and realizing how much has been taken out, or how much you still owe.
I’m on the “other side” of things now (no health insurance, living off of student loans, already $50K in debt from those loans [because I go to private school, as was my decision], blahblahblah), and I’m STILL of the opinion that taking out roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of someone’s income to provide me with any of the things I lack is retarded. I’m choosing not to work while in school, except during the summer. I realize that I’m going to have a metric fuckton of debt. THAT WAS MY CHOICE. Michelle Obama can suck my ass, and so can Rebecca Allen (”Dixon Academy” says to me that you’re paying for a private school education…that money could go to health care for your kids, could it not? dumbass).
April 10th, 2008 at 11:24 amESTGoing on what Bryan said, for the past seven years, I have paid out more in fed tax, state tax, FICA, and Medicare than I have kept. Usually around 53%. Self-employed people get to pay the full 12.8% FICA, too, for a program that is completely insolvent and it will be close to another thirty years before I begin to draw from that whopping 0.67% investment.
And as far as the Obama’s college loans are concerned, they supposedly paid them off when Michelle received a raise at University of Chicago Hospital than amounted to almost three hundred percent when Barry was elected US Senator. She went from a salary of 122k to 317k. The job was started in 2003, so she was given a 100% raise every year. Suhweet. No, no, no corruption there at all.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:26 amESTSales taxes, property taxes, gasoline taxes, phone taxes (both cell and land line), and probably at least a dozen more that I can’t think of off the top of my head.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:27 amESTRebecca Allen, a registered veterinary technician, said her dog gets better health care than her family.
Did it ever occur to her that perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the government is relatively uninvolved in veterinary care?
April 10th, 2008 at 11:27 amESTWhat Rachel said about Rebecca Allen reminded me of an argument I had recently about government health care. The other party was talking about how many people in America can’t afford health insurance. I pointed out the logical flaw in his argument - the fact that you don’t have health insurance doesn’t mean that you can’t afford it. I don’t have any sympathy for people who say they can’t afford health insurance but have cars, color TVs, cable, cell phones, designer clothes/sneakers, bling, rims, etc. What these people are saying is that they want to buy all the things they want and they want me to pay for their health care, since they neglected to do so. I’ll pass.
I don’t have any problem with helping people who, through no fault of their own, are in desparate straits. However, if you are able-bodied, you should be taking care of yourself. Period.
Put another way: If I come across someone who has fallen down in the road, I will help them to their feet. That doesn’t mean I want to give them a piggy-back ride for the next ten blocks.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:29 amESTThe federal tax burden question is misleading. I have three children, a mortgage, property taxes, etc… and by the time I take all the deductions I am entitled to my federal tax is under $1000.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:29 amESTBUT I pay over $4000 in property taxes to the state, county, village, and school district. I pay state income taxes that were 4 times my federal burden. I pay some of the highest gas taxes in the country, and they go up every year, automatically, without action by the state legislature. I echo what Bryan said about all the taxes my employer pays that are monies I SHOULD BE GETTING. Overall I would say I pay closer to $10K in taxes evry year.
I won’t be able to check until I get home. I never know exactly how much gets taken. Some goes to the DPRC, some goes to the FEDS, but in my mind I conflate the other deductions on my pay-check, with the taxes, and I shouldn’t. I wonder though, charitable giving gets us tax exemptions. So I may have paid less in taxes than some one who makes less than me, because of my charitable giving. This won’t play well to your poll though.
Sorry if some one else said something similar.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:30 amESTIf I had been drinking anything my computer would be throwing sparks right now.
Obama scares the piss out of me. A couple of my friends actually like the guy more than McCain. I’m not a huge fan of McCain, but the amount of double-speak coming out of Obama’s mouth is making me want to buy a car just so I can put McCain ‘08 bumper stickers all over it.
I think tax season pisses off any red-blooded American who can see that their hard earned money is being forcibly removed from them in order to help people who really don’t need help. Having been in the military, I don’t mind paying Rupert’s salary. As a matter of fact, I think if we have to pay taxes at all, we should get a choice of where that money goes. I’d feel a lot better about forking over what I have to pay in taxes if I know it’s going to pay the wage of a soldier.
I am unashamedly with you on that. People call me heartless and cold. I DON’T CARE. It’s my money, I worked my ass off for it. My dad has six mouths to feed on his salary and keeps getting sued every six months by a man who seriously needs to be introduced to the front end of a bread truck going 60mph into a brick wall. And I’m supposed to care about people I don’t know and are living comfortably, they just want more? Fuck them, indeed.
*steps down off the soap box*
Edit: My dad doesn’t complain about having six mouths to feed at home and I not complaining about that, either. As a matter of fact, his salary would be more than enough to take care of the family and have fun with if the government would leave him the hell alone and stop treating him (and many others like him) like a money-well to buy votes from people who simply need to get off their asses and find a job.
Now I’m really done.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:33 amESTI live in W NY. My county, town, village and school taxes are over $10,000. State income tax is ~$2300. This pretty much wiped out my fed tax liability. Till I lost my good job I used to have to the alternative minimum tax because my NY taxes were so high. My current job doesn’t cover my local tax expenses that I can’t reduce without selling my house. I can’t sell my house because the tax bill is so high and the economy so sucks here.
The W NY economy is in a death spin. NY state pushes mandated funding such as medicare down to the county level. Counties raise taxes to cover. This drives people out of their homes (never mind mortgage crises, realestate hasn’t increased in 20 years here). Homes devalue, county expenses increase, taxes increase, people move or lose homes and go on welfare, companies close to evade personal taxes. Repeat.
Try to grow economy by bringing in jobs. Companies look at the personal tax base and flee.
Obamamama is an ass. I have 4 kids, my choice. One in college now. #2 starts in 2 years. #3 3 years after that, #4 2 years after. So that twelve years of college. I’ve personally lost 15 pounds because I’m not eating as much to save money. What the hell does she know about being poor. I’ll probably eventually lose my house to the tax man, because liberals have given so much away here in NY that people move here to get the benefits. Shit, fucking Rudy G bussed indegents here from NY city and dumped them. What the fuck is Obama or Clinton going to do to improve this?? Sorry about the rant, but I’m fucking pissed that I’m stuck here.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:38 amESTVicarious blogging!
I’m shit-faced drunk with power, and it’s not even noon.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:42 amESTI’m one of those people who think a couple of things should happen:
–”tax day” should be moved to November 1st - Just before elections
–there should be no automatic withdrawal, everyone should have to write the check to the IRS. It’s more real, it makes us crankier about the waste. I realize that’ll never happen. As a business owner, I don’t want to impose more on us, but in my fantasy world, the least painful way to pay would be for the employer to write a second check to the IRS payroll taxes and each employee would have to endorse it over to the IRS, see it taken back out of their hands and sent in to Uncle Sam. It should not be a passive process.
I’ll stop ranting now - Or else my really unreasonable ideas will spout forth.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:45 amESTMichelle received a raise at University of Chicago Hospital than amounted to almost three hundred percent
And, she was promoted from executive director of community affairs to Vice President of Community and External Affairs.
I’m not even sure why a hospital needs one of those (and why is anyone who works at a hospital that does not have a medical degree making over $300,000 a year?). But to make things worse, her salary was raised (supposedly) to be similar to sixteen various other vice presidents at the hospital.
No wonder health care is expensive.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:46 amESTFair Tax/ Flat Tax, Anyone?
April 10th, 2008 at 11:47 amESTTaxes and gun control. These are the only 2 things that make me so pissed I bleed from the eyes and punch old people.
I don’t remember the exact figures, but they (the Obamas) have been making nearly 7 figures for at least the last 7 years. They paid off their Harvard law degrees, and they are complaining? I have friends that joined the Navy in order for the gov’t to pay for his med school and he still owed $40K. I’ll be paying mine off for a looooong while, and I’m fine w/ that b/c it is what I expected.
And on the second block of quotes: I used to work w/ a guy who knocked up his girlfriend. On purpose. It was planned by both. One day, during a work party, he asked my wife and I why we didn’t have kids yet (mind you we hadn’t been married a year yet) and we started listing the reasons: We barely made over $50K combined. We aren’t ready for kids. We want our own house and not a shitty apt. We don’t want to raise him/her in OKC schools. And on and on. The only one he refuted was the money. His exact words were, “Don’t worry about the money thing. The gov’t pays for the baby. That’s why we had one. We wanted a baby, found out we could get gov’t assistance, bam. Had a baby.” In order to keep from strangling him and making his baby fatherless (which in hindsight probably would have helped the kid out), I looked at him and said “So you are the reason that the gov’t takes 1/4 of my already disgustingly low income. Thanks a lot, asshole.” And walked away. He never spoke to me again, thankfully. But it is this OWED UTOPIAN SOCIETY that will be the downfall of us all. Mark my words. When people stop having a reason to go out and work, they stop working. Then the taxes stop flowing to the gov’t. Then the gov’t system collapses ontop of itself, leaving all the leeches to die but no one to clean up after them. The the gov’t makes us work. I think you see where I’m going w/ this.
And Rachel, dear. No one could have said it better: They are, in fact, parasites.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:48 amESTI’ll describe it like this, because I found my W2 at the office:
Income about $63000
Federal Tax Withheld +
Social Security Tax Withheld +
Medicare Tax Withheld +
State Income Tax +
Property tax is approximately
________________
$20000.
From all of that my total tax refund was $4800. So I paid about $15000 in taxes this year. That is not from line 63, but that is how I voted. The three main reasons my refund is “so high” is that I give a full 10% of my take home money (after deductions) in charitable giving (slightly more, but that is to make the math easier), I have a relatively new mortgage, so the interest that I’m paying is deductible (and the monthly payment is mostly interest at this point), and I put a full 15% of my pre-deduction paycheck into a 401K.
All of those deductions, and I still lose about a full quarter to taxes (not counting sales, or gasoline, or phone useage). It is disgusting to look at.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:49 amESTHey, I was paying $40 a week for groceries not that long ago, but that was for just me. The wife and I try and keep groceries down to $70-80 a week, although its getting harder. You can eat cheap if you plan ahead and get creative.
I ended up only paying $783 this year, which is alot less than I paid last year. See…Im a cop, and married (no kids, thank god). If I wasnt married, my standard deduction would have been half of what it was and I would have been paying alot more than a paltry 3%.
Oh, did I mention that I have more in student loans than I make in a year? Thats what I get for having a misspent year and a half of college, $30k in and still not done.
If your thinking about feeling bad for me, dont. I made my bed and Ill lie in it. My wonderful wife graduates in may and will start out making the same amount hourly that I make in overtime. By ‘09 well be debt free and by ‘10 well have enough in savings to put a sizeable down payment on a house…if we can put up with living the way we do (like the poor college students we are) for a little longer.
Well…maybe well flush out the grocery budget a bit…
April 10th, 2008 at 11:49 amESTWe pay all the different taxes other commenters have mentioned, but that’s not the worst of it. Every manufacturer, every transport company, every middleman, every store also pays taxes and those taxes are included in the price of the goods all the way down the line. Let’s say, I am able to buy the new windows I need this year (not likely). The company that makes the glass pays taxes and includes the cost of those taxes in the price charged to the window company. The truck used to transport the glass was made by a company that pays taxes and passes that cost along. This goes on ad infinitum. If someone smarter than me could figure it all out, I’m sure they would discover that 90% of the cost of everthing is taxes. And the end payer is us, the consumers.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:53 amESTBecause of what I wrote earlier, I voted for the $15000 dollar option (the 13-15 one, not the 15 to 20). I mentioned one of the reasons my refund is “so high” is the money I put into my 401k (because I’m 26, and I sure as shit know I’m not getting social security). If I weren’t putting that money in, I’d have an extra six to seven hundred dollars, A MONTH, to work with. That is nearly 3/4ths of my mortgage. I could have bought a nicer house, or a nicer car, or whatever else I may want. I’m not complaining too much. I am comfortably middle class, and feel no pinch. I simply don’t have all the luxuries I’d like to have. I am by no means struggling financially.
I like pie, I want my pie to be my pie. Rachel I love your first point. We need no other argument than “fuck you, my pie is my pie.” We can give of it freely to other people that is our right, but to have the government stick their diseased hands into it to take a slice “for some one else” while taking a wet bite out of it themselves, for the service, irks the hell out of me.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:06 pmESTRachel,
Do you want to start a church? Hell, a country? Because I want to join. Everyone should have to be self employed and write those blankety blank blank checks quarterly. Oh, and have employees too. It even gets more complicated and fun with employees.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:08 pmESTFederal, $10,316.
State, $3,990.
Crap knows how much in sales/gas/bullshit tax.
And I think we got off lucky.
Oh yeah, forgot:
Social (in)Security, $5,817.
Medicare, $1,360.
And I don’t even want to get into property tax.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pmESTI get a full refund of my federal income tax this year (thanks to tuition deductions), but next year will be a doozy. I’ll probably be paying 25% or so, and that’s just to the federal government. You folks in TX are a bunch of lucky dogs, having no state income tax to pay.
I’m with Anne: elections should be held right after we file our income taxes. Although as early as the campaign season starts nowadays, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to move election day to May?
And as for spending $120/week on groceries, how in the world is Obama supposed to do anything about that as President? Is he going to be pressing Congress to put price controls on food? Rations? There’s a great way to send the economy down the toilet.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pmESTFederal alone, family of four, incuding self-employment taxes, a bit over $10K. And we’re not remotely rich. That doesn’t include property taxes (home and cars), state income tax (about $1300 this go-round), or the cumulative sales taxes and franchise taxes and….
There’s also the joy of state withholding schedules not matching up with the federal ones, so that if you withhold the right amount for the state, you’re overwithholding your federal. Pick your penalty–do you prefer to pay the state a bit extra, or the IRS a bit extra, or do you just love doing your taxes quarterly and overpaying both throughout the year, effectively lending money to the government(s) without interest?
Don’t forget your SS taxes and Medicare taxes, folks. Even with your employer paying half of that tab, they are still TAXES.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:23 pmESTMelissa, I admire the idea, the goal of people understanding just what is being done to others, but how is it that everyone should have to be self employed, with employees? If everyone is self employed, there is no one left be an employee for anyone else.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pmESTI’d usually be at top of your range, but this year have gone back to school so my deductions and cetera far outweigh my income. Here’s the scoop, though, Rach… we have a system that rewards those of us who are married, have kids and own a home (that’s me) over those who do not (that’s you). I am for flat tax if the IRS will ever give up power.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:30 pmESTThe rising generation of asshats, gobbling at the trough of Obamsic glamor, the twentysomething millenials mesmerized by St. Barack, seem to expect the world to provide them with free education, free medicine, paid maternity and paternity leave, subsidized housing and mortgages, on and on and on… What will they do when the bill arrives? What will happen when enough taxpayers figure out that working twice as hard only gets you 5% more income, after the government steals the remainder? Where will the money come from to pay for all the Obama goodies? If this clownweasel gets into the White House with a solid Democrat Congress, there will be one hell of a hangover.
We made more in 2007 than 2006, about $35000 more… and given our various tax circumstances, we have to fork over more than half of that. Should I bitch about that? Damn right. We worked hard for that extra income, and you know what, Mrs. Obama? F— you, and you can stuff your abysmal piehole with someone else’s money next time. I’m not killing myself again this year, just so vampires like Obama and his friends can gorge on my labor. Tax policy has consequences on behavior, and I bet I’m not the only one who will decide to work less… because there is less and less reward for one’s efforts, the more one works.
One more edit… I should note that I’m talking about the tax situation with a *Republican* in the White House… I don’t think my darkest imagination can conceive of how much worse it will be with a left-wing Obama hectoring the Congress for more pie.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:33 pmESTAnd guess what Michelle Obama has in mind to fix that?
Taxing big business so that even MORE jobs get outsourced to other countries.
I’d like to drive a Corvette but I don’t have enough money for one. So I don’t buy a Corvette.
God, it’s like dealing with toddlers.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:38 pmESTFaraday, there are a fair number of my generation like that (20 somethings, I’m 26). Based on your text I’d guess you to be the previous generation (40 to 60 years old). You’re generation had ass hats and worse (dirty hippies) that got us into this (you people elected Carter, idiots
).
My point being simply this, stupid breeds. My generation’s stupid is spawn of your generation’s stupid, spawn of previous generation’s stupid (though it was less socially acceptably back then, so stupid seems to breed better, to win with numbers).
April 10th, 2008 at 12:41 pmESTHey Chris_RC, you got that right. I’m from the generation responsible for some of the biggest asshats out there. It was my generation who ensconced much of the attitude of entitlement in their offspring, and by now it seems so pervasive I wonder how we will ever get back from there. Yup, people from my generation elected the execrable Carter, and it looks like your generation are ready to elect Carter 2.0. Sigh. I am not proud of much of my generation.
And I like what you said:
>but to have the government stick their diseased hands into it to take a slice “for some one else” while taking a wet bite out of it themselves, for the service
My wife is a teacher, and while the total tax dollars going into education only go up and up, year after year, by after all of the middlemen, administrators, textbook publishers, management and other people have helped move the precious pie on its way to the classroom… well, she gets a plate with a few crumbs and a smear of filling. Not much to work with.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:50 pmESTWhy dont you have an over 60k line?
April 10th, 2008 at 12:54 pmESTFaraday, on this we can agree. Of course the generation previous yours, and the one before it elected FDR (4 times), so not too brilliant there either. His policies extended the depression, great, and he got us into a world war (I’m glad he did). Looking at that, how can the lefties can do anything but hate him seems a mystery. Oh wait, social security and the new deal. Yep, he bought there love, and helped weaken the people, permanently with those little gems.
I know he had a complicit congress, but still, he gets the blame historically, for he was the single man that had a veto pen.
The generation before that was responsible for Wilson. An isolationist, that after the Germans sank our ships, agreed with the Germans that if they surfaced their subs before attacking, we’d not enter the war. Then the Germans abandoned this position and sank more of our ships. He still wouldn’t enter the war and join the allies. He had to be shown a note, intercepted by the British, with instruction to the German ambassador in America telling him to get Mexico to start a war to regain the US South west, and to bring Japan in, via the Mexican friends of Germany, to attack the Pacific. The Germans wanted to start a war with Mexico and Japan allied against the US, to keep the US entering the war against Germany. It was this intercept by British intelligence that finally got us into WWI. Because of this, I don’t care for Wilson much either.
Hind-sight is of course 20-20, but it seems every generation elects, and even re-elects, presidents that we thing bad in the years after (or at least I do).
Stupidity breeds, and does not die.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:00 pmESTI like to tell myself that all my taxes are part of the portion used to buy ammunition, F-16s and laser-guided missiles.
To paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke, *that’s* how you waste taxpayer dollars.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pmESTAnd don;t forget all the lovely sales tax that you pay AFTER income tax…
April 10th, 2008 at 1:02 pmESTRachel next poll should be the % of our income we pay in taxes.
I bet that would knock your socks off as well.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:03 pmESTFarday, I have a comment back to you, at 1:00 PM (by the time stamp on the message) but it is held up in moderation for some reason. I don’t know why.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pmESTI answered 12-15k, but this includes state taxes, and all the taxes that aren’t counted as part of the income tax on that. God I hate even thinking about that.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:19 pmESTThis should be required viewing for every student, politician, and welfare recipient.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pmESTNOW you know why I keep telling people-”Get back to work - millions on welfare are depending on you!”
April 10th, 2008 at 1:29 pmESTI just found out that I’m getting socked for over $2,000 in state income taxes, thanks to a mistake I made in filing a couple of years ago. Right at the moment, if they were having a revolution, I’d so be there.
A big part of the problem, at least IMO, is that ‘way too many people expect there to be a government-provided safety net…and for someone else to pay for the things they want, like health care. I’ve never had a job in my life (except for the year I worked for the local university) where health care was included, and guess what? I survived!
And being in a situation where it’s de facto legal to steal from me, thanks to the way the laws are set up, does not improve my disposition.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:31 pmESTRachl - I agree with 99% of what you say. I don’t mind paying for Rupert’s salary via the Army either. I think that is what the Fed taxes should be for - to pay for the defense of our country. But, I also have come to realize that the Armed Serices might be the biggest socialist program going. I have employed several single moms who joined the service (in non-war time) to have a baby. They joined up for no other reason other than to have a baby on the government dole. WTF?
April 10th, 2008 at 1:31 pmESTYea babbby!! You get your paycheck at work-taxed then leave to go home in your car you had to pay taxes on and realize you need gas. Get gas-taxed then stop at the grocery store-taxed drive home on bumpy potholed roads, get to your house you pay taxes on EVERY YEAR! Turn on the lights-taxed electricity, then start up your gas-taxed stove. Cook dinner wash dishes with taxed water, take a shower with taxed water (again). Call your sister on the phone which is also taxed. Go to bed.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pmESTRefund? What the fuck is a refund?
I haven’t gotten any money back from the government in nearly 30 years.
Currently I pay enough in taxes each year that I could purchase the average priced house here in Atlanta every 3 years.
What the fuck do I get for it? Nothing!
I’m getting close to that age where I am starting to move assets off shore before I retire so that the government can’t go after them when I do.
For those of you who don’t know, The IRS passed them a little rule allowing them to continue taxing your ass for up to 10 years after you have left, and if you try to move too many assets before up and calling it quits, they will “accelerate” the amount of taxes they claim you would have owed.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:41 pmESTI hate adding up how much I paid. It’s not that I don’t know, once I file, it’s just that I hate to think about it. It depresses me. I keep wondering what the hell I’m getting that’s worth (in 2007) over $11,000. I mean, for God’s sake. I got less in equity on the house in the past year and I trust my house more than I do the government.
Which isn’t saying much.
I’ve been paying less in the last few years (because I’m making less, duh), but the most I ever paid in taxes was years ago when Clinton was in office. I paid $16,000 and for that I got Bill Clinton. I want my money back.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:42 pmESTOur taxes also are in the “You want HOW fucking much of my pie, Marx?” bracket. I *could* delude myself into believing that 100% of the money taken from LabRat and I was going to buy cool shit to blow up sandy assholes, but the gubmit had one final fuck-you kick in the balls to remind us just how much they love us.
We had to mail our check to San Fucking Francisco.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:52 pmESThttp://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer
April 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pmEST“Those debts early in their marriage, she said, equips her husband…”
Nice grammar…
Those debts…equips
April 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pmESTOne way to avoid income tax: Live in a combat zone.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:59 pmESTSnowdog, I’m with you about people who don’t buy health insurance. And to that, I’d like to add that just because you don’t have insurance, doesn’t mean you don’t get care. ER care is given pretty much no-questions-asked. Free clinics are available for many other health concerns. Medicaid and Medicare take care of a good chunk of the rest. For those with the means to pay as they go, doctors sometimes offer a discount– because they don’t have to file paperwork or wait to get paid (this happened to me as well, and at a specialist’s office, no less).
To the tax discussion in general, I would add this story: I have a relative who works for one of those high-end consulting groups and makes quite a lot of money. The job did not just drop into his lap like a prize plum; he gained his expertise and most of his connections through a 20+ year career in the military, not exactly the cushiest of jobs. Then, when he went private, he built on it with more hard work, to the tune of 12+ hours per day and hundreds of travel days per year. I think he pays more in taxes than I make in a year.
Oh yeah– and I’d also like to give a big shout-out to the well-meaning former co-worker who worried over my status as an insurance-less grad student, by saying, “just think, if it weren’t for this awful war, people like you could have health insurance!” After I picked the carpet fibers off my chin, I gently explained to her that I didn’t share her viewpoint on either subject. But her assumption that I did was absolutely breathtaking.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:02 pmESTI’m lazy and have to finish my work on Turbo Tax tonight. Based on the last 3 years, though, I’m gonna fall into one of the two highest categories. Hurray! I just paid for 10 years of midnight basketball.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:06 pmESTYou for got to include the option for people who get refunds greater than what they had paid, Rachel. Gotta love the Earned Income Credit…
April 10th, 2008 at 2:17 pmESTCombat Zone Tax Exclusion is your friend. =) 2006 was easy for me.
But I was actually in this country for 2007, so I paid a little. I don’t have the paperwork handy. An E-5 doesn’t pay that much, but then again, I don’t make that much, either. But no complaints here.
I would like to thank the taxpayers for funding–via the Department of Defense–the whole birth process of my new son. I’ll try to raise him to be a good citizen in return.
SGT Sig
April 10th, 2008 at 2:19 pmESTCrap am I depressed now. Just checked my tax paid this year? $16,170.
And, instead of a return that so many of you revel in, Uncle S says that they’d like me to send them an additional $2500.
WTF? We have a mortgage, we donate to charity, we both have a bunch held out of our paychecks. How do we owe “more” money at the end of the year? A lot more money.
Fucking able-bodied but weak-minded non-working stiffs…you’re welcome.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:19 pmESTDearRachel,
And I paid that over $30K as Federal income taxes only, not including the other plethora of taxes the other commenters noted. Part of what causes this is that your income reaches a level where you can’t take deductions anymore and there is a rapid rise in taxes with income.
So, despite paying for two kids in college, I cant take the education deduction for them because I made too much money. I made too much money because I cashed in mutual funds to get the money to pay their tuition.
I also made so much money that I had to pay Alternative Minimum Tax. I must be one of the top 1% richest Americans, although I dont feel like it as I drive my 2000 Toyota van or my 2001 Toyota Camry.
And the final insult is the “economic stimulation” “tax rebate” that the government is going to pay people - including people who dont actually pay taxes. I probably made too much money to get any of that either.
Eagerly awaiting the Rachelucion,
April 10th, 2008 at 2:21 pmESTmike
My income taxes were $15,306.oo last year on top of that I paid $700.00 to my useless union. Add the 6% sales tax we pay in Michigan as well as approx .70 per Gallon Gas tax and property tax. To top it all off I’m a criminal investigator for the State so I get taxed to pay myself. I keep asking myself for a raise but the Gov. and I say it’s not in the budget.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:38 pmESTThank you! OMG, thank you.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:49 pmESTChris_RC,
I should have been more specific. In the haze of rage, I typed blind. What I meant was that everyone should have to file quarterly. Forget automatic deductions. If people would have to write a check to the government four times a year and then again when they surprised themselves and against all odds had a good year and owed huge duckets on April 15, there’d be a lot more concern over how it’s spent.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pmESTAT one point in my life, I worked at a hospital and spent some time on an L&D ward. I live within a couple of hours of a Canadian border. It just did my heart proud to know that some North of the border citizens timed their vacations to the US to deliver a new little US citizen. Guess thats kidn of tangential to this disucssion….but….
I also had several parents tell me that they were having another baby, and because it was the opposite sex of the first child - they could now have the State (me) pay for a larger apartment with an additional bedroom.
It seriously makes my brain hurt.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:59 pmESTSounds like I’m in the same boat as Mike financially. He’s mad about the education deduction; I’m mad about the medical deduction. Even if you are itemizing for things like mortgage interest, property taxes, charity, etc…you can’t deduct medical expenses until they alone are 7.5% of your salary. I don’t get there because I have pretty good insurance, but I have chronic health problems and spend a couple thousand bucks (in addition to insurance premiums) a year on prescription drugs and doctor’s visits.
Rather than this ridiculous tax rebate, why don’t they shave a couple of percentage points off the federal tax rates? Oh, wait a minute. That would actually stimulate the economy and generate more revenue, but it wouldn’t buy any votes. What was I thinking?
(Lie down with cool cloth on forehead.)
April 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pmESTBecause a full time army of IRS dorks can’t even calculate what “Married 0″ means for withholding in their own damn system. We hit the same thing after getting married and blindly updating our I9s (or whatever india-dot-stroke-alpha form it is that says how far you’re planning to bend over).
So then we track down the IRS withholding calculator website! *sigh* on so many levels. That thing doesn’t work either, of course, but instead errs on the side of giving the fed gov a nice interest free loan out of our checks each year. We get money back now.
I swear, there’s a being someplace making this crap up each year and feeding off the frustrated rage.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:06 pmESTHM Says:
OK, if you’re not including pets, that means that your mom was such a hot MILF that dad hit it every chance he got. Pay to play baby!
Ok, seriously, we’ve been so ready to revolt against these tards at the state and federal level for so long, I can’t remember when I wasn’t pissed off at the gov’t.
Rachel, you can be our Betsy Ross. A flag with a fat pooch skull-fucking a liberal might be a good place to start.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:20 pmESTI cannot conceive what “skull-fucking a liberal” might look like, but I’m having a jolly good time trying…
April 10th, 2008 at 3:33 pmESTDid you see the Bunk study stating 2/3 of doctors in America want National Health Care. The doctors who did this study also conducted one in 2002 and found that the majority of doctors did not want national health care, the problem with this is that the 2 question surveys drastically differ in there 2nd question. I found this article, 60% of Physicians Surveyed Oppose Switching to a National Health Care Plan, It’s worth a read.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:50 pmESTA little over $7,000 in income tax.
Dunno how much I paid in sales tax though. I added it up and it was not worth it to do the itemized deduction thingy, but now I’ve forgotten what the number was. It was surprisingly high.
A little over $3,000 in social security tax, which counts as income, wtf? That is so damn messed up.
And about $1000 in medicare tax. Which also apparently counts as income and is taxed. Again, wtf?
So I guess I paid about $11,000 in federal taxes, and some number I can’t recall in local/state sales tax. Oh, and property tax was…$5,000-ish.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:59 pmESTFigure $20,000 in taxes should cover it. Which was…ugh, a very large portion of my salary.
I teach my students that how much you make is less important than how well you manage your net income. Case in point: I am a “poor” teacher with exactly one debt, my mortgage. All bills are paid in full every month. I lack for nothing and pay less than $2000 in total federal taxes. The trick? I worked for the IRS for about six months after graduating college, without question the best investment I ever made. Personal finance is a simple math equation. If you don’t like the answer, change the variables.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:04 pmESTJesus on a muffin. Have you trademarked or copyrighted that? I’d like to use it, what a great expression.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:22 pmESTOver $50K net in Federal income tax alone. And that’s after giving 25% of our income to the charities WE choose.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:27 pmESTSorry, I would have paid more except they take out less taxes when I’m deployed to the AOR. Can I just write a check so Michelle Obama will spend it wisely?
April 10th, 2008 at 4:28 pmESTAnd what do we get from this wonderful government we pay so much for ? An ever-growing bureacracy, ready and eager to think up new and endlessly convoluted ways to get more $ out of us, all the while screaming about how greedy we are. I feel seriously like a prey object.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:50 pmESTRachel,
Because I earned about $28,000 extra on my part-time work, most of which is not taxed, I ended up having to pay $10,000 or so. This is over and above the $11,490 that was held out for Federal State, Social Security, etc. for 2007.
By the way, for people who are millionaires, yet give only about as much to charity as I do on $75,000, who the hell do they think they are, telling the productive members of society that they have to give up more of the pie than we already do for the unproductive members. If they feel that strongly about it, let them write a check to the feds for a few thousand bucks over and above their own taxes.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:00 pmESTHey Rachel:
Re your comment:
Out of only 174 votes as of this writing, you guys paid approximately $2,638,000 in taxes for 2007.
Up that to at least $3 million. This year we sold a start-up business and developed property, and had an outstanding run with our primary business income, so we are paying the Federal Government over $400,000.00 (yes, four HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars) in taxes this year. (And that is AFTER a large chunk of change for charitable donations and AFTER taking advantage of legal tax deferrment opportunities etc etc.)
This is why the IRS no longer has tax collectors that show up at your door. My husband gew up hunting in rural Michigan. Do the math on what you’d do to protect your $400K.
We’re blessed to have so much. But it really, REALLY hurts to surrender it to the feds.
And don’t even get me started on pooooor Michelle. We aren’t living in a 1.6 million dollar house.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:18 pmESTI need to stop reading all this. It’s driving me bonkers! I can’t believe we paid over $14k!!! Good grief.
If I didn’t love making jewelry SO freaking much we may have gotten a little bit back but since I work full time, hubby works full time, AND I have my own business we are truly screwed. So much for rewarding hard work and small business people.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:05 pmESTI didn’t work at all this year or in 2006. I did in 2005 though.
It’s rough here in Michigan.
So, I’ve decided to try it as a writer. hopefully, I can make it.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:37 pmESTI try to think of how many JDAMs my taxes will pay for, and how many Muj they will kill. It is the only thing that keeps me from puking on the 1040.
The funny thing is, the government probably could fix Rebecca’s high mat care bill, and it would not cost you a dime - it is called tort reform. Of course, it varies from state to state, but in some places like West Virginia, the tort “lottery” system has led to med-mal insurance being insanely expensive such that doctors either pass that bill along to patients or just get out of the state or out of the business, causing a scarcity and even higher prices. Of course, the tort bar is the Dem’s largest voter group, so there will be real national tort reform about 15 minutes after they start playing ice hockey in hell.
You don’t like high food prices? Well, then stop trying to make fuel for cars out of food - it is inefficient, expensive, causes scarcity of food and is nothing but a sop to the moral vanity of rich white liberals. How about drilling for oil offshore and in ANWAR (fuel is a big component of the cost of food).
April 10th, 2008 at 6:51 pmEST“Jesus on a muffin.” — Now I need a kleenex (drinking tea and reading Rachel — will I ever learn??????)).
“in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system,” I freaking homeschool my kids (one kid now — got the first one into college a couple of years ago), and we have an HSA with a $10,000 deductible.
My pie, MINE!
BTW — you don’t WANT to get a refund. All that means is that the Socialists on Capitol Hill got an interest-free loan from you all year!
April 10th, 2008 at 6:54 pmESTIn 26 years of marriage we have gotten a refund ONCE and that was maybe $50. We have written checks every year and this is AFTER a year of withholding. One year we even got penalized for (and I kid you not) paying too much in taxes. We are not horribly wealthy, we work hard, invest what we can, don’t get over extended and I drive a 12 year old car that my kids have torn the hell out of inside. My husbands Volvo is off of ebay and my daughter attends a state college. My son goes to a public charter school and I have returned to the local community college to become a nurse when my son goes off to college. We’ve chosen to be responsible and I am tired of paying for those who choose not to be.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:54 pmESTI’m a student and make very little at my job, so I always pay little and get it all back. Rachel, your update about how much your readers have collectively paid in taxes makes me positively *ecstatic* to be graduating in a year and going out into the real world-not. *sigh*
April 10th, 2008 at 7:07 pmESTWe own our own businesses.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pmESTWe pay. Alot.
This year, our “personal” check to the IRS was $11,000 more than my husband brought home for the family for the entire year.
Let’s not even go into the business side. I pay the accountant a ton of money to keep that information from me.
Right on Rachel! Very timely post, it makes me NUTS how much taxes I pay, I am VERY aware of it even though not self-employed. In my 1st year out of college (a while ago) I actually had an OK 1st out of college job for my field and made 16K that year (gross). 3 years later I PAID 20K in taxes. It seemed IMPOSSIBLE to me, that amount of money to me was just unreal, not a real number, just totally incomprehensible.
On a previous commenter -
That’s not completely accurate — goods (in texas anyway) are tax exempt for resale, so middlemen don’t have to pay tax on the goods they buy from manufacturers and then resell to customers. As far as I know everyone else has to pay (manufacturer’s specifically have to pay taxes on the parts they buy and then use to manufacturer goods)
Rachel - on a personal note - have you looked into a Simple IRA? Assuming that you are set up as a small business, I believe that you can put quite a bit into it per year and it should directly reduce your amount of taxable income. Anything that reduces your taxable income is essentially extra money saved as well as sticking it in the eye of those tax-crazed govermunt types.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:20 pmESTThis has got to be about the coolest site evah. Short clever comment posts. No flaming. Hardly any profanity, and even then usually done with humor. Useable information, on occasion. Similar but varied takes with interesting rationales.
There. Made a post after an article about taxes and my head didn’t burst into flames.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:40 pmESTMy line 63 total was $4802.00, but when adding in SS, Medicare, state, and local taxes it came out to $9834.45. That of course doesn’t count sales tax, gas tax, property tax, school tax, tobacco tax, alcohol tax, etc., etc., etc.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:52 pmESTThat’s exactly it, Casto. The more you earn, because of the harder/longer you work - the more they take. It drives me to rage sometimes when I see my husbands checks and how much they take when he forfeits his weekend to work and earn more.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:10 pmESTI know a guy who lives in the local low income (federally subsidized) apartments. The rent is supposed to be $850 per month. After all his benefits kick in for his housing allowance, he gets paid about $250 to live there. This doesn’t include his food stamps, or his SSI and disability payments. He hasn’t ever paid taxes as far as I can see, and he was just bitchin’ to me that he’s only getting back about $5000 instead of the $7000 he was expecting from filing his “taxes” this year. Grand total income every month - approximately $3200 dollars. Plus the $5000-$7000 annually in April. Never worked a day in his life, and he makes close to what I do (working full time with a 4 year degree) for sitting on his butt and watching judge judy. He says he doesn’t know how to keep on living on such a pittance. To be fair, about 80% of his “income” does go towards alcohol and then the corresponding fines and court costs…
April 10th, 2008 at 9:46 pmESTThere’s a new EZ Tax form that’s in the works:
April 10th, 2008 at 10:27 pmESTF*****g communists–both of them. And you can lump the Hildabeast in with them, too.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:42 pmESTThe very subject of taxation makes me so angry I could spit nails.
First, I’m angry because I’ve had my money stolen.
Second, I’m angry because most of said money is wasted. I have no objection to the 26% of my tax bill that goes to roads, defense, medical research, Mars rovers, and so on. I’m angry about the other 74% that goes to “social programs” — dirty fucking parasites.
But most of all, I’m angry because paying taxes reminds me that I’m a giant fucking pussy. I let them get away with it. I bend over and take it. It’s the same anger/guilt that victims of violent crime often describe. Same origin — rage at the inability to defend your personal sovereignty.
Fuck, fuck, fuck I’m mad.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:26 amESTI paid between 10% and 12% of my income in social security all my working life and now I get social security….sort of…..it is mostly taxed away. I also put 10% to 15% of my income in IRAs, TSA’s, 403’s, etc. I have a great income for retirement and it would be even better if I had been able to put the stinking social security money to work, as well.
I would rather the government just send me a note every month telling me that they are keeping my social security for earmarks and tadpole research than to send it to me and then make me send it back.
No one should count on any part of social security. If you do not have a strong retirement plan, you will be slinging hash at the truck stop in your eighties. Get used to the idea.
My taxes take nearly 40% of my retirement income.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:05 amESTI’m pleased to see that I’m not the only one who realizes that social security is a tax, not a retirement plan. Please note that the employee part of SSI is taxed twice. If our congress critters had wanted a real stimulus plan, all they had to do is exclude all FICA withholding from taxable income. But, that is too simple. Imagine, a tax cut for people who earn money and pay income taxes! What a concept!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:22 amESTSocial Security
max for my husband
self-employed double dip max for me
FIT
$40k
property tax $6k
April 11th, 2008 at 9:41 amESTI make less than 30,000 a year - luckily I live very frugally. And I still had to pay more taxes.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:55 amESTLine 63: $12K (reported on the poll)
MA State Total Tax: $5K
FICA + Medicaid: Don’t have that with me. $xK
I get less upset about FICA and Medicaid b/c my 80+ year old MIL lives with us. Plus, the other parents of special needs children in my area can collect Social Security payments to help offset the extra care their children need. I, myself, don’t take advantage of that program b/c I don’t need it. Social Security is in enough trouble without me siphoning money from it.
Line 63 doesn’t bother me *too* much as my tax liability has only been 7-8% over the past few years. I put at least that much away pre-tax into my retirement accounts.
What does piss me off though is that I pay a good chunk of money into the state. This same state will not let me take advantage of some programs to help pay for services my autistic son needs b/c I make too much money. So, I have to pay out of pocket for my son’s services and pay via taxes for everyone else’s. Public programs should be available for everyone. Discrimination based on income is still discrimination.
And let’s not talk about the quality product our public schools have become.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:23 amESTI paid just under $18k this year and I’m 26 years old– no kids, still paying off college debt because I became a self-sufficient adult at 18 and didn’t want to rely on mommy and daddy. I can only see this growing to be a larger and larger burden as I get older and build experience… Wow, really makes you want to work hard to get ahead, eh?
April 11th, 2008 at 1:03 pmESTI’m going to be honest - I don’t care how much in need my neighbor might be. A need (much less a want) does not give somebody the right to take something that doesn’t belong to them. I don’t care if your child doesn’t have care. I don’t care if your parents are dying. I don’t care if you’re going to default on your mortgage. I don’t care if your car is falling apart. I don’t care if your view is getting ruined. I don’t care if you want to go on a hike through pristine wilderness that you don’t own. I don’t care. That’s your problem, and I’d greatly appreciate it if all these needy little assholes stop making their problems my problems… because, in doing so, they’re making it that much harder for me to deal with my own problems. Does that make me a selfish asshole? You goddamn better well believe it does, and don’t you forget it!
Sorry. Tax season. Needed to rant. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try and avoid thinking about how, if I simply had half of the money I’m sending to the government this year, I’d actually be able to pay for my student loans at the same time that I’m paying for the copay on the hospital bill for an oncoming child… thank goodness for forbearance and the wonderful interest that’s going to build up on those loans for the next few months…
April 11th, 2008 at 4:01 pmESTFIT = $36K and probably will send in another $15K
SIT = estimated $12.5K
Property Tax = $7K
SS + Medicare = $16K (both sides, wife and I each have a business)
Sales Tax = estimated $4K
true total tax rate north of 45%
just bought a house in FL and plan to become a resident - will save $20K per year. Can even pay the cap gains on my expensive current primary residence and that only offsets two-three years savings in State and local taxes.
The couple who paid $400K on sale of a small business? I feel the pain. I sold one of my businesses during the reign of Bubba. Paid the super extra special tax rate - effective rate for FIT alone over 38%. As I sent off the check, it occurred to me that I could have a Porsche for each week day and a Corvette for each weekend day.
The state tax could have bought a Bentley if I ever needed to transport more than two…. Actually I would have used that money to pay for 12 years of private schools for my two kids so they could get a decent secondary education.
Wish I could be one of those ‘rich’ folks who don’t pay taxes. Oh, wait, I AM an evil under-taxed rich guy…..
April 11th, 2008 at 7:32 pmESTThis year under 2k, for the 5 years previous our joint was over 30k consistantly. We have made some changes in our lives, obviously. This year we have & take weekends off. This year we are working 40 hour workweeks & have time to see our relatives, visit the (self supporting offspring) & garden & donate time to charities we believe in. Thanks to the federal goverment & the fact that we were paying more in taxes than we make now, my standard of living (by which I mean whether I am enjoying myself!) has increased in an amazing way. & since we saved like crazy when we were in the upper limits (regardless of whether it was a “taxfree savings acct” or not!) Paid off the residence -because saving 2k in taxes by spending 7k in interest on a mortgage doesn’t really make sense. Thanks IRS-I am semi-retired at 40- never would have made the effort if it hadn’t pissed me off so much paying in to support those who were enjoying weekends all week long on my dime!
April 12th, 2008 at 12:05 pmESTRachel - Why the hell aren’t you running for some local office in government - you have to start somewhere!
No. Let me start over.
Rachel - Why the hell aren’t you running for President!?!
Jeff B. said, “I have no objection to the 26% of my tax bill that goes to roads, defense, medical research, Mars rovers, and so on. I’m angry about the other 74% that goes to “social programs” — dirty fucking parasites.” Social programs AND earmarks. Yeah. That Woodstock Museum is a necessity. The bridge to nowhere in Alaska for 24 people to use. And what about what Murtha’s raked in over the past few years for some company in PA that Mary Katherine Ham couldn’t even find!
I think we all have a right to be pissed. I have no idea what our taxes come out to be this year. The rules have changed in the past couple of years for Americans living overseas, and I honestly don’t know what we are going to pay this year because our taxes aren’t due for another three months due to living overseas - or some later date, whatever it is.
Doesn’t seem like enough folks are pissed enough to revolt, though, yet. And it seems like an awful lot of folks out there still believe that by voting for the right candidate they’re gonna get something for it - health care, someone to pay their mortgage on the house they never should have bought to begin with because it was beyond their means, whatever. Our politicians certainly haven’t been looking out for us the past eight years and it’s unlikely the next set will look out for us in the coming four or eight years. [What'd the Clinton's make this year? How much did they pay in taxes? And, about those charitable donations straight back to themselves... Nice.]
Oh well, I’ve ranted too, and enough.
Rachel - Seriously - YOU NEED TO CONSIDER running for a government office to get out there and get known!!!
April 12th, 2008 at 12:29 pmESTOatworm,
April 12th, 2008 at 1:21 pmESTYup. I am still paying off my student loans while I am paying my daughter’s tuition, so she isn’t saddled with the same shituation that I am. That is MY choice, and I know it, because I opted to be poor for 10 years while I stayed home and raised my youngest two children MYSELF (with their FATHER, to whom I am still married), rather than dumping them off at daycare and letting them turn into the kind of entitled little shit bags I see getting into trouble every day.
And yeah, my oldest was an accident, I did it with her really supportive father’s family, and/but I didn’t take ONE GODDAMNED DIME from the government for help. So yeah.
My tax check this year would have paid for my remaining student loan balance six times. Gotta love my self-employed, reinvest every dime in the family business for the future of the children husband. No, I am serious, even though it can be a real pain in the ass when my paid-for 15 year-old car breaks down or I need a plumber to come out to my paid-for country living double wide trailer.
Fucking fucknuts FDR. This “entitlement” society didn’t exist until he started implementing these types of “positive rights” programs. Prior to the new deal, we all paid our taxes just to have the basics.
Tea party, baby. How about a mass protest — I bet if NO ONE in the country paid their taxes April 15th, 2009, just ONE YEAR of an April 15th revolt, the IRS would damn sure pack it in if their paychecks dried up … Yeah. I’d like to see those little puckered assholes come after all 300 million of us. The second they stopped getting paid, they’d be waiting online for a welfare “card”. Yeah, not a check, a card. Bastards get a reloadable credit card now. It is automatically reloaded at the beginning of the month, so they don’t even have to stand in an actual line anymore.
Total bullshit.
Sigh.
Do some research, the problem in this country is not welfare for poor people, it’s corporate welfare via subsidies. That’s where your tax dollars are going. A starting point for some research would be Bush and the texas rangers. All his profit was via a salestax and his cronies in high places enacting eminent domain to take land for a stadium. You can argue that the voters approved the subsidy, however that’s another sham. Bush and his cronies spent upwards of 150k on a professional PR and advertising agency before the vote. A midsize city like Arlington can’t compete with that. In the end, Bush and his boys sold the rangers and made a hefty profit, however the amount they profited and sold it for was less than the actual subsidy. In essence they walked away with money given to them from sales tax and eminent domain. On top of all that, they city let them rent to own the stadium, with NO interest. When a poor person wants to buy something, they pay through the roof in interest to enrich the bankers. Why don’t the rich people pay interest? Because the government works for them and the rules were written by them. Who pays the interest on their loans? You the tax payer!!!! Now ask yourself again, where are your tax dollars going?
Most all of your arguments sound like they were made over a six pack and some hannity. I do like your point about Michelle Obama saying she knows what it feels like to have debt because of harvard loans, that was funny, the rest of your rant was mainly boloney though.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:41 pmESTThe tax code for this nation is out of control. It’s enough that they take 1/3 or more of our money, but you also need to be a CPA or Lawyer for even the most simple filing. Why cant we institute a simple flat tax for every fricking person in the US. 10% across the board, no deductions, credits, exemptions whatever. It’s proportional to everyones income, and can be declared or filed on a single form. This seems so simple. If it needs to be 12%, then make it 12%, but I have no doubt that our government would have a much better handle on the amount of money it has, than what they use today.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:16 amESTEverybody complains. You’re telling Mrs. Obama to not complain about her college loan, but you complain about your $10,000 tax bill. That’s more than I paid, so be happy, because that means you are making more money than others. Based on my income and exemptions, you are doing well.
April 18th, 2008 at 2:37 pmESTDamn straight
You want it - earn it.
I hope all my money go to Iraq, I feel better if it is used to weed out poor bastards rather than help them multiply
P.S. And another thing, call me racist all you want, but I never owned a slave so I do not owe you jack shit black people and stop telling me that i do!!!
April 24th, 2008 at 1:40 amEST