Tax rant.

Okay, we can argue till the cows come home about flat taxes versus making the rich pay more yada yada yada. I think we'll be having that debate until the end of time. But I can't help but skip that one and point out two other flaws in Obama's tax plan to pay for healthcare. These come from this article in particular.


My first problem is this quote: "Obama also proposes new taxes on securities dealers and life insurers, and to raise revenue by prohibiting certain estate-planning techniques." Great. As it stands now, no matter what bracket you fall into, when you make money you pay taxes on it. If you invest it and it makes you more money, you pay taxes on THAT, too. Makes sense. I have no problem with that. Pay taxes as you make money. What doesn't make sense is that when you die your estate has to give the government as much as HALF of it all AGAIN. No leaving it all to your kids. There are some ways around some small percentage of that, and this is the kind of thing they want to block to try to make sure they get their half of you now that you're gone. Ugh, I just don't get that.

The other problem I have is that Obama says he doesn't want to tax the poor or middle class, but then goes on to say that to pay for healthcare we should tax things that are unhealthy "including new taxes on soda, beer, and wine." Since the rich make up such a small percentage of the population, there's no way this "vice tax" will hit the rich harder than everyone else. This is a tax on everyone, pretty much. And it'll hurt the working class folks more than the rich, obviously. Say one thing, do another. I love politicians.