US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2353

On September 28 2015 19:19 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:


Thank you for saving me an hour of my life <3

Too few Americans are working, too many jobs have been shipped overseas, and too many middle class families cannot make ends meet. This tax plan directly meets these challenges with four simple goals:

Tax relief for middle class Americans: In order to achieve the American dream, let people keep more money in their pockets and increase after-tax wages.
Simplify the tax code to reduce the headaches Americans face in preparing their taxes and let everyone keep more of their money.
Grow the American economy by discouraging corporate inversions, adding a huge number of new jobs, and making America globally competitive again.
Doesn’t add to our debt and deficit, which are already too large.

The Trump Tax Plan Achieves These Goals

If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000, you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households – over 50% – from the income tax rolls. They get a new one page form to send the IRS saying, “I win,” those who would otherwise owe income taxes will save an average of nearly $1,000 each.
All other Americans will get a simpler tax code with four brackets – 0%, 10%, 20% and 25% – instead of the current seven. This new tax code eliminates the marriage penalty and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) while providing the lowest tax rate since before World War II.
No business of any size, from a Fortune 500 to a mom and pop shop to a freelancer living job to job, will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes. This lower rate makes corporate inversions unnecessary by making America’s tax rate one of the best in the world.
No family will have to pay the death tax. You earned and saved that money for your family, not the government. You paid taxes on it when you earned it.

The Trump Tax Plan Is Revenue Neutral

The Trump tax cuts are fully paid for by:

Reducing or eliminating most deductions and loopholes available to the very rich.
A one-time deemed repatriation of corporate cash held overseas at a significantly discounted 10% tax rate, followed by an end to the deferral of taxes on corporate income earned abroad.
Reducing or eliminating corporate loopholes that cater to special interests, as well as deductions made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower tax rate on corporations and business income. We will also phase in a reasonable cap on the deductibility of business interest expenses.

DETAILS OF DONALD J. TRUMP’S TAX PLAN

America needs a bold, simple and achievable plan based on conservative economic principles. This plan does that with needed tax relief for all Americans, especially the working poor and middle class, pro-growth tax reform for all sizes of businesses, and fiscally responsible steps to ensure this plan does not add to our enormous debt and deficit.

This plan simplifies the tax code by taking nearly 50% of current filers off the income tax rolls entirely and reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to four for everyone else. This plan also reduces or eliminates loopholes used by the very rich and special interests made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower tax rates on individuals and companies.

The Trump Tax Plan: A Simpler Tax Code For All Americans

When the income tax was first introduced, just one percent of Americans had to pay it. It was never intended as a tax most Americans would pay. The Trump plan eliminates the income tax for over 73 million households. 42 million households that currently file complex forms to determine they don’t owe any income taxes will now file a one page form saving them time, stress, uncertainty and an average of $110 in preparation costs. Over 31 million households get the same simplification and keep on average nearly $1,000 of their hard-earned money.

For those Americans who will still pay the income tax, the tax rates will go from the current seven brackets to four simpler, fairer brackets that eliminate the marriage penalty and the AMT while providing the lowest tax rate since before World War II:

Income Tax Rate Long Term Cap Gains/ Dividends Rate Single Filers Married Filers Heads of Household
0% 0% $0 to $25,000 $0 to $50,000 $0 to $37,500
10% 0% $25,001 to $50,000 $50,001 to $100,000 $37,501 to $75,000
20% 15% $50,001 to $150,000 $100,001 to $300,000 $75,001 to $225,000
25% 20% $150,001 and up $300,001 and up $225,001 and up

With this huge reduction in rates, many of the current exemptions and deductions will become unnecessary or redundant. Those within the 10% bracket will keep all or most of their current deductions. Those within the 20% bracket will keep more than half of their current deductions. Those within the 25% bracket will keep fewer deductions. Charitable giving and mortgage interest deductions will remain unchanged for all taxpayers.

Simplifying the tax code and cutting every American’s taxes will boost consumer spending, encourage savings and investment, and maximize economic growth.

Business Tax Reform To Encourage Jobs And Spur Economic Growth

Too many companies – from great American brands to innovative startups – are leaving America, either directly or through corporate inversions. The Democrats want to outlaw inversions, but that will never work. Companies leaving is not the disease, it is the symptom. Politicians in Washington have let America fall from the best corporate tax rate in the industrialized world in the 1980’s (thanks to Ronald Reagan) to the worst rate in the industrialized world. That is unacceptable. Under the Trump plan, America will compete with the world and win by cutting the corporate tax rate to 15%, taking our rate from one of the worst to one of the best.

This lower tax rate cannot be for big business alone; it needs to help the small businesses that are the true engine of our economy. Right now, freelancers, sole proprietors, unincorporated small businesses and pass-through entities are taxed at the high personal income tax rates. This treatment stifles small businesses. It also stifles tax reform because efforts to reduce loopholes and deductions available to the very rich and special interests end up hitting small businesses and job creators as well. The Trump plan addresses this challenge head on with a new business income tax rate within the personal income tax code that matches the 15% corporate tax rate to help these businesses, entrepreneurs and freelancers grow and prosper.

These lower rates will provide a tremendous stimulus for the economy – significant GDP growth, a huge number of new jobs and an increase in after-tax wages for workers.

The Trump Tax Plan Ends The Unfair Death Tax

The death tax punishes families for achieving the American dream. Therefore, the Trump plan eliminates the death tax.

The Trump Tax Plan Is Fiscally Responsible

The Trump tax cuts are fully paid for by:

Reducing or eliminating deductions and loopholes available to the very rich, starting by steepening the curve of the Personal Exemption Phaseout and the Pease Limitation on itemized deductions. The Trump plan also phases out the tax exemption on life insurance interest for high-income earners, ends the current tax treatment of carried interest for speculative partnerships that do not grow businesses or create jobs and are not risking their own capital, and reduces or eliminates other loopholes for the very rich and special interests. These reductions and eliminations will not harm the economy or hurt the middle class. Because the Trump plan introduces a new business income rate within the personal income tax code, they will not harm small businesses either.
A one-time deemed repatriation of corporate cash held overseas at a significantly discounted 10% tax rate. Since we are making America’s corporate tax rate globally competitive, it is only fair that corporations help make that move fiscally responsible. U.S.-owned corporations have as much as $2.5 trillion in cash sitting overseas. Some companies have been leaving cash overseas as a tax maneuver. Under this plan, they can bring their cash home and put it to work in America while benefitting from the newly-lowered corporate tax rate that is globally competitive and no longer requires parking cash overseas. Other companies have cash overseas for specific business units or activities. They can leave that cash overseas, but they will still have to pay the one-time repatriation fee.
An end to the deferral of taxes on corporate income earned abroad. Corporations will no longer be allowed to defer taxes on income earned abroad, but the foreign tax credit will remain in place because no company should face double taxation.
Reducing or eliminating some corporate loopholes that cater to special interests, as well as deductions made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower tax rate on corporations and business income. We will also phase in a reasonable cap on the deductibility of business interest expenses.

On September 29 2015 00:20 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:


Touche. Maybe I'll put it on in the background while grading papers or something. For some reason I figured that it was 60 minutes long because it was on 60 Minutes or something lol



Trump does some pretty funny stuff; I've certainly laughed good-naturedly at a bunch of things he's taken part of... especially the Roast of Donald Trump lol.

I just hope that people entertained by him realize that that's less important when it comes to him actually running the country.

Royal Dutch Shell said it will cease exploration in Arctic waters off Alaska's coast following disappointing results from an exploratory well backed by billions in investment and years of work.

Shell will end exploration off Alaska “for the foreseeable future,” the company said, because of the well results and because of the “challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska.”

The announcement was a huge blow to Shell, which was counting on offshore drilling in Alaska to help it drive future revenue.

Environmentalists, however, had tried repeatedly to block the project and welcomed the news. Hundreds of “kayaktivists” in Seattle took to the water in May and June in an attempt to stop Shell's exploratory drill rig from beginning work.

Critics of the project argued that it would exacerbate climate change, threaten a sensitive ecosystem, and that cleanup of any potential spill would be difficult or impossible in the Arctic's unpredictable weather conditions.

“Polar bears, Alaska's Arctic and our climate just caught a huge break,” Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Here's hoping Shell leaves the Arctic forever.”

Shell has spent upward of $7 billion on Arctic offshore exploration, including $2.1 billion in 2008 for leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast, where an exploratory well about 80 miles off shore drilled to 6,800 feet but yielded disappointing results. Backed by a 28-vessel flotilla, drillers found indications of oil and gas but not in sufficient quantities to warrant more exploration at the site.

A leading “clean coal” lobbying shop is cutting half its staff and reorganizing to reflect the U.S. coal industry’s market losses and the industry’s continued financial struggles.

The 22-year-old American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity will lay off its chief of staff and also plans to eliminate several middle-management positions. The nonprofit is also seeking to get out of its lease for its downtown Washington office.

“Like many of our members, we are facing tough times that necessitate tough decisions on how best to effectively operate,” the group’s CEO, Michael Duncan, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement Monday morning to POLITICO.

Duncan will retain his job at ACCCE, which will see its staff shrink to about eight “senior leaders.”

“While leaner, this team will continue to execute strategic advocacy efforts ensuring that affordable, reliable coal-based electricity supplies America’s power for generations to come,” Duncan said. The most senior position to be eliminated is ACCCE chief of staff Robert Paduchik, who will leave at the end of the year.

ACCCE’s shift is the latest sign of coal’s troubles. Once the source of more than half of the country’s electricity generation, it has faced pressure on its bottom line largely from low cost natural gas and tough new air pollution and climate change rules.

On September 29 2015 00:48 KwarK wrote:
I cannot see how that would possibly be revenue neutral. The tax reduction for the low income is basically no different from the current situation if people take advantage of the incentives designed to encourage them to save for retirement or invest in their education. If you earn less than 25k and are paying Federal income taxes you're doing something wrong. The tax reduction for high income however is crazy huge. They're the ones who actually pay most of the tax due to the degree of income inequality in the United States. Offering a shiny new 0% tax rate to people who earn nothing and were already at either 0% or very close to 0% is not a good bargain for giving the super rich a 25% rate, down from 40%. They're the ones who actually pay most of the taxes.

There is no way that plan could not fuck working poor and middle class Americans. It's a huge transfer of wealth from the government, which funds essential services they depend upon, to the rich. It's designed to prey on the ignorance of people who don't get how the system works. Inequality in America is such that the rich pay most of the tax, most people are net tax beneficiaries when you take into account the services they receive. Offering people who already pay 0% or close to 0% a 0% tax rate in exchange for slashing the government services is a shitty deal.

Also abolishing the "death tax" is the antithesis of the American Dream. The American Dream is to live in a society where if you're smart and you work hard you can be a success. The death tax is "if your parents try to leave you more than 5 million dollars that you didn't work for and didn't earn and it's not something like farm land then you need to pay some tax on that". The death tax works to break up inter-generational legacies and even the playing field so your success is more down to your own hard work, rather than just receiving a shitton of money you didn't earn. I can see why Trump, a man with no personal successes who owes everything he has to his father would be opposed to that but at least be honest and admit you're trying to get rid of the death tax to finally finish off the American Dream. Also the death tax only applies on legacies over 5 million already. Seriously? He's appealing for us to give increased access to the American Dream for the subset of the American population who are crippled by inheriting more than 5 million and not getting to keep every cent of it?


That tax plan is a fucking nightmare. I know most people aren't as interested in tax planning and how it all works as I am but trust me, it's literal Hitler. It's huge, huge reductions in taxes for the 1% and soundbites for the 99%.

On September 29 2015 03:04 Eskendereya wrote:


I loled.

His tax plan gives much needed relief to hard working tax payers and incentivizes corporations to do business at home and to bring their oversea money back home as well. I see this as a big boost to the economy and unemployment. Too much corporate regulation and tax is what is driving the jobs from this country and Trump is addressing that problem. Kwark is the perfect example of someone who puts a negative spin on everything and anything Trump does while at the same time, has probably accomplished 0 in life. His biggest accomplishment is being TL moderator with 30k posts. The internet is full of "I know better" jokers.

On September 29 2015 03:09 Plansix wrote:

The fact that every since one of yours posts degrades down to personal attacks tells us all a lot. Also Trump is cutting taxes for the rich more than for the poor. He is also "closing loop holes" to pay for it, which amounts to saying "I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA!". Everyone loves the idea of tax cuts, but they need to be paid for or services need to be cut. And when politicians don't provide one of those two options, they are promising something that they can't deliver.

On September 29 2015 03:18 Eskendereya wrote:


Taxing the rich more isn't a Republican principle, so I can see why you are disappointed. You'd prefer a socialist tax plan that punishes you the more productive you are. That line of thinking is what is causing corporations and businesses to leave the US. Trump's tax plan is banking on the idea of fixing corporate inversion thought incentives. Less tax and regulation which is perfectly reasonable. As for Kwark, he actually called Trump's tax plan "literal Hitler." So yeah, the guy is a joke and an idiot.

On September 29 2015 03:04 Eskendereya wrote:


I loled.

His tax plan gives much needed relief to hard working tax payers and incentivizes corporations to do business at home and to bring their oversea money back home as well. I see this as a big boost to the economy and unemployment. Too much corporate regulation and tax is what is driving the jobs from this country and Trump is addressing that problem. Kwark is the perfect example of someone who puts a negative spin on everything and anything Trump does and is not someone to take seriously whatsoever. The internet is full of "I know better" jokers.