Help! Can a DU expert on taxes help me out with this article?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121781236115708865.html

What is wrong with the analysis and what is good about Obama's tax plan? I have a friend whose RW sister e-mailed the article to her and told her that her banker husband said this was why McCain is the better candidate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121781236115708865.html

be the next to close.

it is an article by the WSJ which is more concerned with the welfare of Wall Street and not Main Street and that we are already in a recession, but she is asking for something more solid and I can't produce that for her.

because of these failed policies.. Somewhere around theirs a breakdown of the tax plans.. If they make less than a 250,000.00 they will see more savings.. if they make more, then yes, they will pay more.. and maybe that concerns her husband... Pugs always want the lift up, but once they get there, they forget to return the favor.

Stock Market from an investment facility into a speculative institution.

Which did, at first, increase the amount of taxes collected through Capital Gains.

But special treatment of certain kinds of income are not in the best interests of an Egalitarian Society, which, I gather, is what this country is all about.

Look at it this way. If you earn a dollar from wages you are taxed at one rate. If you earn a dollar via investing in the stock market, you are taxed at a lower rate. I thought a buck was a buck no matter where you earned it. And then people wonder why their is a faltering work ethic in the US.

The special rate was originaly in place in order to compensate for inflation and what used to be called "bracket Creep". They indexed the tax tables to inflation so that Bracket Creep would no longer be a problem. But then Clinton slashed the rate by 8% and Bush cut it further.

The second point is a larger one about the effect of tax policy on economic growth. Bush's tax cuts have been followed by the weakest two-term economic performance a president has seen in U.S. history. We have only had slightly over 2% annual GDP growth for his eight years, which is absurdly weak. Clearly, the effect of tax cuts on the economy has not been as advertised.

The third point is that he is incorrectly stating the Obama tax plan. Obama clearly stated that he is going to only raise capital gains taxes from 15% to 20%, not back to 28%. The same goes for dividends.

His math sucks. That should be simple enough for even a banker to understand, but somehow I doubt it will help you friend in convincing her RW sister.

Boskin is an unrepentant job outsourcer, a friedmanite of the first order. That's not a personal opinion, they guy is the T. M. Friedman Professor of Economics of the Hoover Institute!

Yes, HERBERT Hoover. :rofl:

http://www.hoover.org/

*edited to add link.

Eisenhower was a Republican, and for two years there were Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. They could have cut that rate, but they did not - because it worked well. The economy did absolutely fine.

In Eisenhower's day, the richest Americans paid, all told, about 50% of their income (including earned income and "capital gains") in taxes, while the middle class paid under 10%. Today, the richest Americans pay, all told, only 17% of their income in taxes, while the middle class pays more than 30%. An our economy is a basket case, and the middle class has been decimated.

The current situation is a catastrophe.

The author of your referenced article is either ignorant or evil. Probably both.

made here in a reply to her. I really appreciate the feedback. Taxes are not my area of expertise. I know how to install TurboTax and answer its question.

1. This article only focuses on the top income bracket (>$250,000) when it talks about taxes on personal income.

2. Boskin ASSUMES that Obama will raise the Captial Gains Tax to 28% because he said he would raise it no higher than it was under Reagan. Obama has not said that is what he would raise it to, but that is the upper limit.

The fact remains that if you make over $250,000 per year, Obama will raise your taxes. He believes that we can't keep sending our grandchildren the bill for things we should be paying for now.