Hot tip: Both parties should stop bribing voters with tax cuts

[Jacson6]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/13/harris-trump-taxing-tips-2024/

You get a tax cut! And you get a tax cut! And you get a tax cut!

Both major-party presidential nominees sound pretty Oprah-esque these days. They’re pledging lower taxes to bribe important voting blocs, including all the tipped service workers in Nevada.

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Perhaps “bribe” sounds harsh. To some extent, politics is always transactional. Politicians often try to win votes by promising to improve people’s material interests. Maybe they pledge to deliver lower gas prices or a higher minimum wage. But usually those politicians at least offer the fig leaf of improving the greater social welfare or promoting equity or efficiency. Or something else similarly public-spirited-sounding.

This opinion article is paywalled.

[spooky3]

1. Here's a gift link:

https://wapo.st/3WHUEvB

[Walleye]

2. The billionaires enjoying a good life in America under the protection of the United States government.don't want to pay

Their instinct is to get all the money they can and hold onto it. The IRS should take some of it away from them. They’re not only against paying tax taxes, they hate paying payroll

[Think. Again.]

3. Remember when gwb literally paid everyone $300 when he won?

Ah, good times.

[unblock]

8. Yup. A Lexus for the billionaires and floor mats for the rest of us.

[yardwork]

4. The data shows that the poor and middle classes pay more taxes now in real dollars.

Billionaires and corporations pay virtually nothing. My wife and I paid a lot more in taxes last year than Donald Trump did.

It's wrong, it's undermining our society and democracy itself, and I'm fully in favor of tax cuts on everybody earning, say, $250k or less.

[jimfields33]

7. I thought president Biden wrote an EO saying corporations were required to be mandatorily taxed 15 percent

We should be seeing huge revenue coming in from that. He signed it a few years ago.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Two Elephants in the Room She Avoids

Or lies about . . .

1. Regarding Taxing SS earnings. I'm not a retiree - but I saw that hurt my mom. It's hurts A LOT of Boomer Career Woman who first -never made as much as their male counterparts or husbands and second - are now being punished again for working hard.

2. Lifting the SALT cap even by another 10K is not a tax cut - it's making an attempt to put back the tax break for those of us who live in communities and states that fully fund our own education, police, emt, fire, roads, etc. etc.

Buy our self governance - we don't have to ask for all the money states like Mississippi do. But - that means we the people in NJ are paying a higher state and property tax.

The deal was if one paid state and local property taxes - they could deduct that from their tax bill. Goes back to 1924.

It's tax cut back to the way it was for almost 100 years. It stops punishing middle class families in NJ making $110K a year with 10K in property taxes.

[getagrip_already]

6. Whats the point of that article?

That tax cuts are only for the rich?

Dont bother offering them to the middle or lower class?

Really?

I dont get that.

There is a stark difference in the tip proposals for example. Under tsf's, you could see hedge fund managers and even lawyers restructure their comp plans to reclassify much of their oncome as tips, thus avoiding taxes.

Under harris, its only applicable to service workers making under a minimum amount, and it accompanies an increase in the minimum wage. It would have almost no impact since there is no taxable income below $15k anyway, which is where most servers and service workers fall. It would just simplify the tax code for them.

So again, what is the point of the article? Status quo? Leave the rich alone?

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Honestly, with the Federal Debt at $35 trillion,

I don't believe ANYONE can be given tax cuts for a long while.

[getagrip_already]

11. Sure they can, when it costs the govt little to nothing

And what it does cost is offset by taxes on higher wage earners as well as more productive lower wage earners.

Money kept and spent by the lowest wage earners and lower middle class goes right back into the local community. That creates jobs and opportunities for others.

They pay so little anyway it isnt a burden on society in the least.

And no, im not in a lower income bracket and wouldnt benefit. But i believe the country would.

Even a few hundred a month to a lower wage earner is a huge deal.

[unblock]

10. The Republican Party would have nothing left!

That's literally their one legislative proposal that might get actual majority support.

People hate their policies.

[patphil]

12. The difference between giving tax cuts to the lower and middle classes instead of the upper class is simple.

Tax cuts for the lower and middle classes get plowed back into the economy, very often locally, in terms of doing those things like home or car repair, new furniture or appliances, new clothes, or a real vacation instead of a stay-cation.
In other words, the money is spent to make up for some of the things they couldn't otherwise afford to do.
With the rich, it goes into investments that don't generate anything for the local, regional, or national economy. Often the money leaves the country to be parked or invested somewhere else. In otherwise, it is excess money not needed except to enrich those who get the tax break.

The difference is between needs and wants. Most people need that tax break to take care of things that need to be done to remove the stress of wondering how they are going to hold on to the standard of living they have or are trying to get back.
The rich want that tax break so they can have an ego rush of earning even more money than they could possibly hope to ever use. For them wealth translates to ego fulfillment, putting them in a position where they can separate themselves from virtually 99% of the rest of us.
For them, only the little people pay taxes.
Establishing a more equitable balance of wealth isn't a bribe, it's necessary to see to the future stability of the country.
When a guy like Musk talks about giving hundreds of millions to a superpac to help elect Trump, he is effectively destroying the whole premise of one person one vote.
Money becomes votes when you can buy elections, and thus own politicians and judges.
We see that in people like Trump, Clarence Thomas, and thousands of others who rely on the super rich to get what they want.

More equitable tax laws are just one small step in bringing balance back to our government.