AntigoBuzz Blogs

“The Rich” by Ben Drinkin,

How often have we all heard “It is about time the rich start paying their fair share of taxes” ?

Well I did a little research, I went right to my tax preparer, and asked for the facts.

Here are the facts. Federal tax withholdings for 2010. Income minus deductions = taxable income. Example below is for a married couple filing jointly.
First $17,000 of taxable income is taxed at 10%
The next $51,000 is taxed at 15%
The next $69,000 is taxed at 25%
The next $ 72,00 is taxed at 28%
The next 165,000 is taxed at 33%
And anything over $374,000 is taxed at 35%.

Fact: nearly 70% of federal taxes paid in this country in 2008 were paid by the wealthiest 10% of the U.S. population. Fact: The top 50 % of wage earners paid over 97% of federal taxes in 2008. Fact: The bottom 50% of wage earners in this country paid only 2.7% of the total federal income taxes collected in this country in 2008.

http://www.ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html

When I hear people say the rich are not paying their fair share of taxes I wonder, what exactly it is they want or expect from those who earned their money. What, half ? 60%, 65%, 70%?

The really rich people out there who pay less federal tax than you would expect is because their taxable income is much smaller related to significant (legal) deductions like donating tons of money to charity, i.e. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. They also place large parts of their income into tax sheltered retirement plans etc. no different than you or I contributing into a 401k. Eventually, when that retirement money is withdrawn, taxes will be paid on it just like you or I will pay taxes on our 401k at retirement. In the end, everybody pays taxes based on real dollars at their current tax rate.

The Bush tax cuts for the rich are often brought up as if it is some kind of sin or free pass for those who earn high incomes. The Bush tax cuts were initiated because the rich were over taxed in the first place as those folks are already paying 35% of their taxable income in federal taxes. Add to that, states taxes, social security tax, medicare tax and property taxes and they pay half of their income in taxes. Isn’t that enough ?

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The hot topic of the day in the Legislature is the onerous task
of determining the best candidate for “State Motorcycle”.
Apparently our knuckle-headed State Legislature has too much
time on its hands.

We already have a State Soil, and even a State Bacterium.
Where does it end? What’s needed is a debate in the
Legislature to select a State Dummy. All the legislators could
get in a circle and each point to his or her neighbor.

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By now, many of you may have had volunteers of this organization knock on your door. Just the other day I had a discussion with a man that came to my door telling me that CAW is raising support to ‘hold our elected representatives accountable’ for the current Health Care discussion. However, what they do not tell you is that they are actively working towards a more liberal direction for our country. The man made it sound like he was against the current state of the much publicized ‘Public Option’ that so many Americans have risen up to voice their opposition. This is not true. This organization is in full support of the public option and many of the other far-left causes being pushed by the current administration. According to their website, they are actively training people to become ‘progressive activists.’ They hide behind the code words economic, social, and environmental justice. Here are a couple of quotes from their website:
Citizen Action of Wisconsin organizes people to make Wisconsin a better place to live and work. Citizen Action employs an integrated strategy of grassroots organizing, public education, earned media, professional research, voter engagement, and political lobbying to advance progressive values and shape the public and political debate around health care, economic development, and consumer protection.
One-on-One Organizing: Citizen Action continues to recruit and train progressive activists and leaders in all regions of the state through face to face communication at a grassroots level.
Now, is there anything wrong with organizing people to progressive values? No. However, by not disclosing their true agenda and giving the full picture of what this organization stands for, one can argue that they are misleading the public. Do we need more ‘progrssive activists’ at this time of record spending and an out of control administration? I write this only to give the public a more clear picture of who is knocking on their door, asking for donations and signing up for their newsletters. This is a liberal organization that supports the very candidates that they are now vowing to ‘hold accountable’. Here is their website for those who want to check them out further.

http://citizenactionwi.org/

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As reported in the Wausau Daily Herald, there seems to be some
issues involving a few Antigo residents in the race for the GOP
nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Dave Obey.

Mentioned in the story, are Sean Duffy, Dan Mielke, Pete
Pospichal, and Mike Monson.

Read the full story HERE.

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Another piece of the legacy of the Tommy Thompson “government
by suspension of ratiocination” era bobbed up to the surface,
according to news reports. A re-interpretation of a state
constitutional amendment pasted-in during the Thompson years
asserts that it’s now okay to carry a handgun in the open “as
long as you’re not doing anything wrong.”

A spokesman from Nuts Running Amuck (NRA, but no relation to
the other NRA, of course) explained to me, off the record, that
anyone packing heat would, of course, unbuckle and drop his
gun-belt before “doing anything wrong”, because that would be
the right and legal thing to do. And, of course, anyone asserting
his alleged Second Amendment rights always has legal behavior
first and foremost in mind, of course.

When I suggested that everyone packing pistols would make
communities look like Dodge City of the Wild West, my NRA
spokesman said, “Of course. That’s the point. If everyone is
armed, no one is harmed. Think about it. If the passengers on
those 9-11 airliners had been armed, they would have taken
out those hijackers who only had box-cutters anyway.”

“But,” I butted, “wouldn’t it be dangerous to have all those firearms
around, loose, where kids could get their hands on them?”

“Dangerous? Hell, no! You’re not thinking, man! Don’t you read the
papers? Don’t you know all those cases recently, where some
nut father kills his wife and kids, the whole family? There have
been, like 60 people killed by nuts with guns so far this year. I’m
telling you, if those kids had been properly armed with handguns,
they could have off’ed their old man as soon as he started acting
bonkers, and all those families would be alive today!”

Well, he’s got a point. I guess I just never thought about it that
way.

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I have read some interesting news lately about other states
slowing down their disbursement of income tax refunds, due
to the economy  and state budget issues.  I hope that
Wisconsin is not becoming one.

I understand that normally, in Wisconsin, refunds that are derived
from electronic filing usually take about one week to receive with
direct deposit.  It has now been over 2 weeks since I filed mine,
electronically and with direct deposit.  I called the WI Dept. of
Revenue today and was told that the “Homestead” returns are
backed up and taking longer than usual.  I should call back next
week if I do not receive the refund this week.  I hope that this is
truly the case, and it is not a “cover up” for any other reason, like
we have heard about in other states.

An article about this subject that I found today is here.  I had
heard about problems in California, but this article is referring
to Missouri.  We are in an economic crisis and now in some
places, you can’t even be certain on receiving your state income
tax refund- unreal!

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The Canadian government is now requiring seal hunters to make
sure their seals are dead before skinning them. Seal hunters have
always just clubbed their prey unconscious, then taken their pelts
before the seals wake up, apparently in the belief that the seals
would re-grow their fur and be available for harvesting again next
year. Now they have to cut the veins under the animals’ flippers
to make them bleed to death before they can start skinning.

This strikes me as being unwarranted government interference in
free enterprise. The notion of incremental harvesting really needs
to be expanded, not constrained, especially in these parlous
economic times. Mink farmers could skin their mink alive, and
come back for more pelts when the fur regrows. Fishermen could
slice off some filets from their catch, and throw the rest back to
regenerate. Puppy mills have shown that animals don’t really need
much room or food or care to breed, so you’d think pig farmers
could slice off a sow’s hams and shoulders, and maybe a loin or
two, and still use her for breeding.

This Canadian model of interference in harvesting could put a real
crimp in the animal products business. What if we were required
to kill chickens before taking their eggs? Or kill cows before
taking their milk? I would predict some serious price increases
when that happens.

The last thing we need in this economy is for ethics and morality
to take command over common sense profitability . A resurgence
of morality would not only damage the economy, but it would
doom all politics, as well! We had better knick this one in the butt
before it gets out of control!

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Wisconsin legislators are giving themselves a 5.3% salary
increase to celebrate their competence and devotion to duty,
just like the Wall Street executives collecting bonuses for their
finely-honed financial acuity. While it’s nice to see someone
making out all right in these trying times, my enthusiasm for
supporting our legislators is tempered by my unfortunately
fondness for rational thinking.

These well-over-paid legislators are the same folks who kow-tow
to the misguided tavern owner’s league and think they are
standing up for Second Amendment Rights by refusing to pass
smoking bans for Wisconsin’s public-access businesses. It’s
interesting to note that Wisconsin is surrounded by states that
have already enacted such bans, putting us once again at the
lonely end of the science, health, and enlightenment train.

This is the same gaggle of clowns who, in 1998 sold our 25 year,
$5.9 billion tobacco settlement payment in exchange for an
immediate $1.3 billion cash deal to squander on inept budgeting
and administration. That’s right, folks – you voted for a gang of
idiots who gave away four-fifths of a bird-in-hand for a one-fifth
transitory chirp in the bush.

But, after all, the well-dressed and carefully neck-tied legislature’s
salary increase is nicely packaged, carefully worded, and
completely legal, proving once again the truth of Voltaire’s
assertion that, “To succeed in today’s world, it is not enough to
be stupid. One must also be well-mannered.”

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