OMG Taxes
"OMG NO! Obama's going to raise taxes!"
...Pfft. McCain's going to raise individual taxes. He even wants to invent new taxes, like taxing health care.
Obama wants to tax the 10% of businesses out there that net out over $250,000 a year. 90% of businesses are going to be unaffected, and neither will individuals be affected.
Here's what some people that freak out about this corporate tax increase don't seem to understand: taxes for businesses are taken at the end, not the beginning.
With individuals, it works like this: you make money, Uncle Sam jacks his bit, then you get the scraps from his table as your paycheck.
With corporations, it works like this: you make money, pay your bills (including yours and your employees' salaries), make any donations you want, then way at the end of the line, Uncle Sam gets some of the scraps from your table.
With individuals, Uncle Sam comes first. With corporations, "business expenses" come first, then Uncle Sam gets to tax whatever's left.
I hear the argument "$250,000 isn't a lot for a business" -- this comes from that very misunderstanding. No, $250,000 gross isn't that much for a business -- but net? Yeah, if after paying everyone's everything you can pocket an extra $250,000 a year, that's a lot. *THAT* is what would be taxed under Obama's plan.
It's not the business that makes $250,000 a year, it's the business that pockets $250,000 after expenses that gets taxed.
And, according to an article I read recently, 78% of corporations in the US don't pay any taxes. The money that should be coming to us and our government is going to other countries thanks to tax shelters and loopholes.
Point being: It's not going to make an earth-shattering negative impact as some fear-based rationales suggest.
By itself, it would just be punishing the businesses that are already paying their taxes, but if he also closes these tax havens as he says -- if Obama takes away the benefits of outsourcing our jobs and forces these companies to start paying their taxes (and he's a law professor, he knows the ins and outs) -- then this will skyrocket the economy.
If even half of that 78% started paying taxes, the effect would be tremendous. That extra money could go a long way toward repairing the economic damages of the past several years. And Exxon would report record profits.
...Shouldn't it be considered treason to almost single-handedly cripple an economy?