Gov. Gregoire has signed the Working Families Credit, perhaps the most significant piece of legislation passed this session in terms of its real world impact on the 350,000 Washington families who will qualify for this tax break.
A national study released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that Washingtonians with the lowest income pay five times as much as the wealthiest in taxes, as a share of their income.
“The Washington state tax structure is singularly regressive. It is unacceptable for the poor to pay a significantly higher proportion of their income in taxes than the wealthy,” said William H. Gates, Sr., Chair of the Washington State Tax Structure Study Committee. “The Working Families Credit will help bring equity to our state tax system. It’s an investment we really need to make.”
How about that, a tax break for working families for a change, instead of wealthy special interests with high priced lobbyists. It’s a small step toward addressing the most regressive tax structure in the nation… but a step in the right direction.
It’s a baby step over a yawning chasm. We need comprehensive tax reform, period! Our century-old Rube Goldberg chewing-gum-and-baling-wire tax structure should have been buried 75 years ago. After Gov. Gregoire is re-elected, she should make tax reform the top priority of her second term.
Speaking of economics… let’s give you fucking idiots an economics test.
Big Oil making record profits. The marxists running for preznit decry it and want to steal their money for their goody goody programs.
So here’s the question: Let’s say one of the marxists is actually elected preznit. On the first day, an executive order is issued mandating gas to be $1.50 per gallon. They send out the national guard to enforce it.
What would happen down at your local gas station?
And let’s stop this horseshit about taxes being “regressive”. The bottom half pays only 4% of taxes, yet consumes an inordinate share of services.
How bout everybody pay the same share? Wouldn’t that be the most “fair” solution? Why is it OK to discriminate against me because I make more money than you? Or why is it OK to discriminate against the guy who works 70 hours a week because he wants to get ahead? Is that so bad that he needs to be punished?
I’m tired of carrying you fucking parasites on my back. Get off and pull your own weight.
Sounds all well and good, but who gets to determine exactly what “poor” and “rich” is?
It’s really a bait and switch money grab.
Next thing you know YOU will be classified as RICH and your taxes will GO UP and UP and UP.
Think I’m wrong? Look how they did the frog in the cold water trick they pulled with the seat belt law.
Mark,
The day they get big business off the government teat, I’ll agree with you about the little guy. Until then…
Fuck the fuck off.
That is all.
Mark,
Some light reading for you:
http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-sm063099.html
And you shouldn’t complain about the source, either, they’re conservative.
12 Worst Corporate Welfare Programs
* Market Access Program (Agriculture Department)
* Advanced Technology Program (Commerce Department)
* Technology Reinvestment Project (Defense Department)
* Export Enhancement Program (Agriculture Department)
* Maritime Administration Operating-Differential Subsidies
* Forest Service road and trail construction
* Export-Import Bank
* Overseas Private Investment Corporation
* International Trade Administration
* Small Business Administration
* Energy Supply Research and Development
* Agricultural Research Service
Cato Handbook on Corporate welfare
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-9.html
That “Families Credit” is a big handout to bums who don’t have jobs. They don’t have to even be paying taxes to get a big handout back.
Rip-off, vote-buying, commie-demo scheme. Just another theft of honest Americans’ money when we really need more roads and more prisons!
And you can go here to get a grip on the relative size of the problem:
http://www.taxpolicy.com/cwsearch/
Corporate welfare is approximately 4-5 times as costly as welfare to poor folks.
Hey Mark,
Learn to Google before you spout more BS.
This is for RR (and marginally on the subject of taxes):
Article link: http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani.....oliti.html
Look at this graph: http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani.....B21%5D.gif
It shows that real income grows more for every income group, including the rich, under Democratic administrations than under Republican ones.
Pull quote:
Oh, and Dino Rossi sucks.
This big give away today, yesterday $50,000 paying for their college educations yesterday, tommorrow Health care paid for.
I think I’m gonna quit working so I can take advantage of all these liberal give-aways.
Better hurry because lots of folks will be rushing into the state to grab up on these fat ass bennies.
There is certainly is no recession fear in this State government.
Helping families out of poverty helps us all, just as better educating even those awful people who can’t afford to drive their children to private school in their Bentleys does. Fewer families in poverty means better life outcomes for their children, so we don’t have to warehouse them in prison and mental facilities.
3 “Why is it OK to discriminate against me because I make more money than you?”
One, because we don’t like you.
Two, to quote Willie Sutton’s answer when asked why he robbed banks, “That’s where the money is.”
Mind you, that second item is based on several postulates:
First, that you personally, are the high-income “producer” you claim to be. If you’re actually a wino using one of the computers at the public library, or some pimply-faced 13-year-old in his parents’ basement in Burien, then you probably haven’t read this far anyway.
Second, the presumption that any civilized society has to have some means to further the common goals of its citizens, ranging from protecting them from “terr’ists” to educating their children, to making it possible for them to live and get around and enjoy “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
Third, that it’s a hell of a lot easier to get money from people who have it, than from people who don’t.
Fourth, (and you ain’t gonna like this one) that more affluent people by the way they generally live have a larger “footprint” on the landscape, and that providing the infrastructure and services to accommodate them costs more, so they should damn well pay for it.
7 You forgot the real biggie: the Federal Reserve.
I would love to know what the HA fringe considers
“poor” and “wealthy”.
Anyone care to play that one?
12 GS
Shocking, I know. Paying for education and health care? When will the madness end?
16 RS
According to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/package.....ex_01.html), using figures from the US Census Bureau (http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro.....05_000.htm), the top 5% of households in the nation have incomes above $157,176.
The “poor,” according to the legislation in question, consist of the households of all workers who receive the federal EITC.
There’s a start.
@16
I’ll pass, Right Stuff. We adults will continue looking for ways to fix the problems we face, while you can keep playing word games in order to continue celebrating your belief in irresponsibility.
Of course, $600 million in EITC tax credits was available to over 350,000 workers, which comes out to about $1714 per worker, but not all of it was collected because of lack of knowledge of the program, etc. But ignoring that, the additional 10 percent that would be refunded to these workers under the Working Families Credit Act would add only $171 per elegible worker to their annual income. Not exactly a fortune.
#2
After you identify yourself as a Republican at the gas station, they would then send you to basic training to prepare you for your mandatory 3 year commitment to the war in Iraq?
Happy hunting, “point man”!
The Washington Post reports on a new GAO study of Pentagon weapons systems:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....id=topnews
But, you know, helping poor families pay the rent and heat bills is just too damn expensive.
“I do not believe it is fair or accurate to blame our regulatory structure for the current market turmoil.”
Henry Paulson
US Treasury Secretary March 31 2008.
With that statement, the Republicans declared themselves to be either idiots or anarchists.
2 MTR
First, that’s not how Bill Clinton got the price of a barrel of oil down to $11. It wasn’t ‘mandated,’ dipshit.
Second, let’s say a Democrat is elected president. Not hard to imagine this year, really. On the first day, an executive order is issued withdrawing from Iraq. Oil markets, relieved, drop the price of oil futures. Soon the Iraqis, needing foreign currency and trade, are pumping their own oil into the world market, easing the strain on supply. Oil prices drop.
Weird, I know.
Maybe they should just deliver a small pallet of cash to every doorstep of low income families in America.
Because it worked so well in Iraq.
MTR @ 2:
At the very least, do you think American Tax Payers should be subsidizing Big Oil companies to the tune of $18 BILLION dollars?
It was the Republican Congress and Bush who got that passed at a time when oil was below $50 per barrel and even Bush said they didn’t need “tax cuts” when oil gets above $50 a barrel.
I guess the Government knows better how to spend your money than you do, huh? Big Tax breaks for Oil Companies who generated $123 Billion dollars in PROFIT.
Yeah, padding the bottom line of oil companies is a GREAT way to spend our tax dollars.
Nice call, parasite.
Love to see all the trolls AGAINST tax breaks for the poor and FOR tax breaks for the rich and for Bear Stearns and other corporations like Exxon- freekin’ hypocites.
by the way – total maroon at #2: How about we just fairly tax Exxon for the record profits instead of giving them tax breaks? Gee – and how much have they reinvested in oil refineries – Nothin’. they are a monopoly – there is NO SUCH thing as free enterprise in oil or in health care – it is just in the imagination of conservatives.
Just a reminder to these idiots who say the poor don’t pay taxes – we live in Washington state with a regressive sales tax that hits the poor disproportionately. They pay sales taxes for all non-food items.
@26: GBS – quit reading my mind!
MTR:
The cost of oil has anywhere from $37-$45 of “speculation” built into the cost due to geopolitical instability in the region due to, oh yeah, the Iraq War.
And you call yourself a “producer” as if you actually wheel and deal in the equities or commodity markets.
Tell us again, I want to LAUGH OUT LOUD, how your crack whore wife took you for $500,000 in VAGIMONY!!!!
Baaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa
Oh, damn, that is funny.
Loser.
25 I don’t believe I’ve heard Halliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater referred to as “low-income families” before.
@ 28:
It’s my new mantra. I’m using it with every social conservative Christian I discuss Global Warming with.
So far, I haven’t lost yet. Especially with my peeps — the Catholics.
Recognizing Global Warming and trying to correct the problem puts you on the side of God.
Disavowing Global Warming while the planet dies puts you on the side of Satan.
As they say in traffic court “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” And, neither is believing in the bat shit crazy rants of the immoral right wing conspiracy. Or voting Republican – Same thing.
Pick a side; you are either with God or with Satan.
@ 31:
Ooooooops, wrong comment on the wrong thread: Never mind.
@31: This “pick a side” thing is putting our trolls in a quandry GBS….so hard for them to decide….
@ 33:
All I know is that al Qeada wants more Global Warming.
You are either with the Liberals and God, or with the Republicans/Terrorists and Satan.
@31 Your premise is valid only if man-made global warming is true. As that has NOT been established, your argument is false.
@ 35:
WRONG!!
Whether or not the Global Warming issue is entirely man-made or not is moot. We are contributing to the problem that is a FACT. We cannot continue to sin by polluting God’s gift to mankind our planet.
Besides, there are over 800 SCIENTIFIC peer reviewed studies to back up the Global Warming phenomena is mostly, if not entirely due to mankind.
Can you site scientific PEER REVIEWED studies to back up your claim? Let alone 800??
@35
C’mon, I-Burn, you’re smarter than that.
@36: Of course the flat-earth deniers can’t cite any data refuting global warming by humans – but they can keep repeating the same lies.
Go to whackynation.com – the Washington headquarters for idiots that believe global warming isn’t caused by humans and doesn’t even exist.
They also don’t believe:
the earth is a sphere
evolution
Because there is not enough of a “scientific consensus” for them on these topics.
iBurn smarter than what? The energizer bunny? Maybe – but doubtful.
Back to the subject:Gregoire signs Working Families Credit
All this is, is a response from the state demo’s because of President George W. Bush pushing the stimulus package. The Washington demo’s felt they had too do something in response.Tired of our give away demo state, Vote Republican
@39 Which would still leave me your intellectual superior. You really shouldn’t be denigrating anyone else’s intelligence ByeByeGOP. Seriously!
@38 CNR Wiki, among others, has all kinds of papers and opinions submitted by “deniers”, so don’t go thinking they don’t exist. The globe may indeed be warming, but if you think there is enough evidence to conclusively state that it’s caused by human activity, then you’re operating from emotion, not logic.
Roger Rabbit says:
It’s a baby step over a yawning chasm. We need comprehensive tax reform, period! Our century-old Rube Goldberg chewing-gum-and-baling-wire tax structure should have been buried 75 years ago. After Gov. Gregoire is re-elected, she should make tax reform the top priority of her second term.
04/01/2008 at 1:38 pm
Hell rabit you must had to pay taxes this year, now why the change of heart?
Your premise is valid only if man-made global warming is true. As that has NOT been established, your argument is false.
WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Now, how many times do I have to post the link to the IPCC report for you people? Let me explain, since you don’t seem to have figured this out: The IPCC report is the international scientific consensus regarding climate change and its causes. The consensus is that average temperatures have increased, the changes are not explained natural fluctuations, but are largely due to human activity.
I’m sorry if you have no understanding of the scientific process works, but the consensus is our best working understanding of what is happening. If you deny this, you might as well deny the germ theory of disease (so next time you have bacterial pneumonia, you shouldn’t mind if your doctor declines to write you a scrip for those antibiotics due to the fact that you don’t deserve any because you are a dumb shit, superstitious moron).
I’ve read up on this bill and if I understand it correctly, the money isn’t there so the government can put it on the back burner (as the plan for this year since the 1st possible credit won’t be til late 2009). I have read that it may or may not actually happen at all, just that the bill has been passed? Is this correct or have they found the money to support this credit?
@44 Are you one of the authors? Didn’t think so. Since you don’t know me, or anything about me, save whatever I’ve written here, that you happened to have read, jumping to any conclusions about me do nothing but prove your own ignorance. Fortunately for you, ignorance is curable. At least it is if you pull your head out of your ass and work at it.
Yay!
42 I
So who peer-reviewed the “CNR Wiki?”
And do read the Fourth Assessent report of the IPCC at http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-syr.htm
For more information on this report, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_report
Read the science, not the deniers.
Are you one of the authors? Didn’t think so.
And how would you presume to know that?
Talk about jumping to conclusions. Projection man, that’s what you rightards are good at.
So tell me, what is your expertise that you get to lecture me about climatology?
We’re in the midst of a Great Depression folks! It’s time to sock it to the greedy rich now and help working families. No mercy on the evil, greedy rich. No mercy.
@49 By the same “expertise” that allowed you to do the same. Lecture? Hardly. I leave that to dims who have to read what they should be thinking in Kos, or DU, or HP – you believe in “Global Warming” based upon ideology, not something so mundane as actual evidence. That you become so antagonistic when your particular orthodoxy is questioned tells me what I need to know in that respect
@50 Sock it to the “greedy rich”? So does that mean that the non-greedy rich are okay?
Can you define who, exactly, you think we should “sock it to”? Oh, and what does “no mercy” mean? Could you be a little more precise, so that I’ll know whether I agree with you, or not?