Inflection Point
Published by Mike Stark March 17th, 2006 in Podcast, Rush LimbaughNot too long ago, there was some pretty earnest discussion regarding the Bush administration’s “Inflection Point”… When did their public image change - from brimming with confidence and riding high into their second term… to the lost and floundering bunch of incompetents they appear to be today?
I think they fell off their horse when social security was derailed… This is a call I made to Rush Limbaugh about a year ago… I think it was an interesting example of political jujitsu…
24 Responses to “Inflection Point”
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I am getting an “Error opening file” message and it is not loading.
Thank you - it was a glitch that cropped up after the move to the new server…
Speaking of Rush Limbaugh, Jim Derych (advisorjim on dailyKos) has a book coming out: Confessions of a Former Dittohead.
Uhh Mike, Rush destroyed you. I am not sure why you posted this call.
His best point was to counter your point that “basketball players, Michael Moore, etc.” don’t pay enough in taxes and he mentioned he is paying almost seven figures or ($1,000,000) PER YEAR in social security and medicare taxes.
Mike, if almost $1million dollars a year in social and medicare taxes (in addition to the federal income taxes Rush pays, in addition to the sales tax Rush pays on all his purchases, in addition to the taxes on internet service, heat, AC, electric power, etc that Rush pays) is not enough for you, (a guy who is unemployed and pays no federal income tax) then I guess nothing is enough for you.
And Rush is telling the truth, right?
Considering his track record of lies (yes, yes, just this once he might not be fibbing, but check out http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/rushlimbaugh and judge for yourself his trustworthyness), do you absolutely believe him?
If you absolutely believe everything he says without question, then…
Chuck,
Get it straight or don’t believe Rush’s hype. Your contribution to SS and medicare stops when you hae earned 90K. He stops paying these taxes by Hour two of his first radio show of the year. He still pays federal tazes, which is that 1 Mil you reference. If that is the case, Rush pays only 3% in taxes a year. I wish I could get that, I pay 28-31% a year. The fact is that when you are rich, you pay ery little in taxes as a percentage of income. Every exteremely wealth person I know, and I know many, pays far less taxes than I do. As far as the other taxes you mention, they are called operating expenses and I am sure he deducts them, which lowers his contribution to the federal system.
Also, as a simple rule, One man making 35 million spends far less of his money than 350 people making 100K. Our government and economy benefits far more when there is a large middle class (spenders). Those 350 families would end up paying between 8 and 11 million in taxes, versus the 1 million from Rush.
dude, you are a pro framer. i love you putting it in rushes terms “basketball players, michael moore should pay fare share”… etc.
kuuuudooos
As a simple rule “One man making $35 million spends far less of his money than 350 people making 100k? Please state your sources for the simple rule. You are just taking a false truth that you have heard and believe without any citation or facts.
Rush pays far more dollar wise than you do in taxes, since he makes more money but you should not dismiss the fact that he pays over $1 million per year in social security taxes, medicare taxes, federal income taxes, sales taxes, taxes on his water, taxes on his electric, taxes when he buys gas, taxes on his heat, taxes on his AC (which is probably pretty high since he lives in Florida and its hot there most of the year). All these taxes add up.
Finally you say Rush only pays 3% a year on taxes. Where do you get this number from?
According to this table http://taxes.yahoo.com/rates.html
Those who are the head of a household (which Rush would be) and make $319,101 or more per year have to pay 35% of their income in taxes.
Therefore, again adding up his social security taxes, medicare taxes, federal income taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes on purchases, AC taxes, water taxes, electric taxes I have made a strong case that Rush pays far, far more than 3% of his yearly income on taxes.
Samwise Galenorn
Here is the description of Media Matters from Wikipedia:
“Media Matters scrutinizes news reporting and political commentary that it perceives to have a conservative bias.”
Also:
“The New York Times reported that Media Matters has received “more than $2 million in donations from wealthy liberals” and “was developed with help from the newly formed Center for American Progress”.”
And:
“Media Matters for America uses a variety of techniques to demonstrate how they believe information is manipulated by right-wing media figures.”
So they look for ‘conservative bias’ except they are libearlly biased themselves. Try to find a more credible source next time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Matters_for_America
Chuck,
He made 35 million and stated he paid 1 million in taxes, that would be 3%. I am using him as a source. He would be in the 35% tax bracket for salary income, but I assume he gets a lot in capital gains, which is 15%. He also deducts a lot, one can only assume. Like I said, I know many of the richest people in the US, and there are several things they have in common; they find many loopholes to reduce their tax burden, they spend a miniscule percent of their income a year, investing and saving most. The majority of Americans spend most or all of their income on living, which feeds the economy. When you are really wealthy, there isn’t much you desire. You can only own so many houses, cars, boats, etc… Most of their money goes towards making more money, not into the economy.
OK,
For self employed people, (required to pay both the employER and employEE share of the taxes), the social security tax rate is 12.4% (on the first $90,000) and the medicare tax rate is 2.9% of ALL income.
http://www.itssimple.biz/biz_tools/text/P07_1284.html
On $35,000,000 the total social security and medicare taxes for self employed people would be:
$0,013,770 ($90,000*15.3%)
$1,012,300 (34,910,000*2.9%)
————-
$1,026,160
So If Rush made $35 million a year, he would pay just over $1 million in social security and medicare taxes.
If the social security tax did not stop after the first $90,000 of income, a self employed person like Rush would have to pay $5,355,000.
The amount Rush saves by the social security tax stopping at $90,000 is $4,328,840.
I thought conservatives loved flat taxes?? Apparently not when you stand to lose $4,328,840 by having one implemented.
In the call, Rush stated that his SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE taxes “were almost seven figures.”
He DID NOT mention what his FEDERAL INCOME TAXES were.
If a person is a single filer, head of a household, and makes over $319,101 that person pays 35% of his/her income in FEDERAL INCOME TAXES. http://taxes.yahoo.com/rates.html
For Rush that would equal:
35% of $35 million = $12,250,000 million
All his taxes put together would be
$12,250,000 $1 million (social security & medicare taxes) property taxes gas taxes water taxes sales taxes on his purchases electric bill taxes cell phonebill taxes AC taxes and on and on.
Face it, the rich pay most of the taxes in this country. It’s just that simple.
This recording really reveals the agenda behind the SS reform bunch. Fat white guys with more money than they’ll ever need, forcing their wishes upon the majority of the populace. They have no committment to their counrty or their to fellow countrymen. Rush-and others of his ilk- would rather spend their millions upon millions on oxycontin,prostitutes,toys,and other useles luxuries,than contribute to the future stability of their country. They are selfish and often talentless bastards. Quite a few of them (such as GWB) inherited their stash. Of course,Rush is earning 35 million a year,and expects YOU/ME and the majority to pay the most. That’s special. Considering many of us live paycheck to paycheck and are one illness away from being on the dole. It’s easy for Rush, et al of his ilk to admonish the rest of us for not having enough to save. These fuckers extoll the virtues of the low wage/pro business environment……And folks are supposed to save for their retirement working at 20 thousand dollars a year? These pro-business fucks created this environment and if there is a discrepancy among monies vs recipients,these fucks created this. Dont ya just love having some fat ass 35 million a yr pundit telling you how to live from the safety of his gated community and atop from his ivory tower? The fat fraud was all over the map during your conversation. No wonder. It’s kinda hard to justify that you’d rather spend thousands of dollars on drugs than pay taxes to supply armour to the troops. And to justify that you’d rather keep your millions than pay your share so your fellow countrymen can live out their lives in decent manner. Interesting that during your conversation,Rush stated that he pays soooo much in tax-and that he doesn’t get any thanx for his contribution…..I doubt that many of Rush’s listeners are earning 35 million a yr. If it wasn’t for the folks that he seemingly deems as lazy,and oppressed,he wouldn’t have the opportunity to be earning that 35 million a year. His comments were one big fuck you to his listeners and anyone outside of the wealthiest 2%.
he mentioned he is paying almost seven figures or ($1,000,000) PER YEAR in social security and medicare taxes.
Fats lied again. Those taxes stop after a ceiling. The number this year is 94,200. In 2004, the ceiling was 87,500 and in 2005 it was 90,000.
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/cbb.html#Series
Oops, I was wrong. There is no income ceiling on the Medicare Tax.
http://www.medlawplus.com/library/legal/definitions/fica.htm
Pay me $35,000,000 and I won’t bitch about having to pay my social security or medicare taxes.
Must give kudos to rush for calling you back….
Gotta hand it to the guy….he still knows what makes good radio
Actually, Roosevelt advocated “voluntary contributory annuities” to supplement guaranteed Social Security benefits. He never proposed replacing those benefits with private accounts. Sorry, Rush, you missed the mark again!
Chuck, your reply astonishes me.
Rather than viewing the well documented and accurate information presented by Media Matters, you choose the option of destroy the messenger. No matter, whether it has a liberal bias or not, try to understand that Media Matters uses TRUTH to portray it’s point of the lies of Rush.
Lets take one of the listed examples.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602220006
In it, it states that:
Limbaugh: AP report on Sherrod Brown “racial component” falsehood demonstrates that “I get it right all the time”
Summary: Rush Limbaugh cited a February 17 Associated Press article about his previous false claim that Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is black as evidence that “even the mainstream media knows I get it right all the time, and it is such an odd thing when I am wrong that it is news.”
Reading the article, it mentions how he got it wrong in his broadcast. Now, was there any retraction? Was there any update from ‘Rush’ stating ‘Maybe I was wrong’? (I don’t know. If a Rush listener has heard it, he could alert me.) If he did, my respect for Rush would go up.
Now, whether there is liberal bias or not, it uses the truth to analyze the misleading right winged media being presented.
There are more. Go ahead and view them.
I’m not discounting that he sometimes tell the truth. Once in a while, he will say that you are listening to the Rush show, and I can believe that he’s telling the truth.
There, that wasn’t hard, now was it?
If you wish to counter me, then show me that the lies of Rush documented by Media Matters are in fact, the truth.
Yes. Rush said he messed up on Sherrod Brown.
Samwise, your comment makes me laugh:
“Rather than viewing the well documented and accurate information presented by Media Matters, you choose the option of destroy the messenger.”
Isn’t this whole thread devoted to “destroying the messenger??” You guys are arguing about how much Rush pays in taxes or about any mistakes he’s made after being on the radio for hours a day for decades now…neither you nor Media Matters is dealing with Rush’s ideology or arguments, just attacking him and his integrity. That sounds a lot like “destroying the messenger” to me.
To say that the rich pay most of the taxes in this country misses the point. They pay it because they can afford to pay it. If one was to make $35 million a year and net ONLY $10 million after all sorts of taxes, that person still is still filthy rich. Think of it this way, if Rush nets $10 million a year (which you know he nets more due to putting money in places that can’t be taxed. Remember he’s got a CPA or a whole slew of them making sure he pays the minimum) then he’s still netting more money than most people gross!
I concur: I’ll pay 70% of my income in taxes if it means I’m making millions.
You stupid moron. Rush made you sound like a complete idiot. What a dope to post this.