Proposed Buffett Rule and How It Would Apply to Some Lottery Winners Who Invest

Dana, I could't even read your post, I started to and all that bright bold blue gave me a tension headache.

It is still not a consensus.  There were over 650 dissenting climatology scientists at the UN Global Conference on Global Warming.  http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6

Since 1998 the avg temp has actually been falling.  My point is, is that it is not a consensus.

It is about control.  Why would President Empty Suit deny jobs to workers in the Gulf Coast?  Jobs that would be created by the Keystone Pipeline?  Jobs that would be created by lowering corporate taxes?  He wants you dependent on the government. 

I'm not going to change your mind, nor you mine.  And that's okay. 

Good luck in the numbers, Nick.

 I guess we disagree on the definition of concensus then. Concesus by definition is the prevailing thought, opinion or agreement about something. Prevailing thought and concensus can defined as the overwhelming majority opinion. Estimates put this at somewhere between 90-97% of the worldwide scientific community. And even if we assume that percentage is far less as I assume you do. Say it's 50%, Isn't that enough to make it a legitimate threat. Something to be taken seriously and not written off as a hoax.  I'll concede to a large number of people who call it BS If you concede to a large number who see global warming as a legitimate threat to our existence. Think about it like this; I sincerely hope you're right and I'm wrong but what if I'm right? What if all these scientists foreign and demestic are right? If they're wrong and we sacrifice short term convenience, What have we lost? a few jobs? muscle cars? some infrastructure rendered obselete? If they're right and we continue on as status quo, What will we lose? the human race.

 Obama doesn't control the prevailing thought of the worldwide scientific community. I understand lefty principles and policies as a whole are geared toward government dependence, this we can agree however in this instance, there needs to be that control and oversight. This isn't a lefty scam or hoax geared at gaining control. The rest of the world has been beating this drum long before American Democrats. We are so engrossed in fossil fuels. Our entire infrastructure and economy are built around it. I'm not advocating the complete elimination of fossil fuels immediately as I'm aware the economic catastrophe it would create. But we have to start moving away from them. A large portion of these scientists that are global warming nay sayers are paid for. You can google "scientists paid to debunk global warming" and see a littany of people paid by oil companies. Eerily similar to what the tobacco companies did.

 But I digress, the mere possibility of this threat is enough for me. I fear for my children and they're children. I implore you to look at the actual reports, satallite images and raw data and not just the stories with quotes. Ice caps are melting-this is a fact backed by satallite images. This results in less light surface Ice/snow)to reflect sunlight and more dark surface(water) which absorbs heat. You can perform a simple experiment to prove this using a thermometer and two poster boards. I'm not a scientist, but I've done my share of individual research and the results are scary.

 I wish you the best of luck as well

I think you might be overlooking the most important thing to the left - their agenda. It comes before everything and anything. It comes waaaay before truth.

The left are people who want a nanny-state directing every moment of their lives. They want government to control everything and they will stop at nothing to achieve that. They have this one-dimensional, single focus and they want to see it come to fruition now.

If you believe liberal scientists don't apply their own personal bias and outright lie to achieve their goals then you probably don't believe the mainstream news media does either.

Truth, honor, dignity and self-respect are unknown values in today's liberal community.

My parents were Democrats but they wouldn't recognize the party today. The Democrat Party has been hijacked by the scum of the earth and that is what they have become - the scum of the earth. Defecating on our flag, mocking God, masturbating in public, etc. etc. etc. If you think anything good ever comes out of aligning yourself with evil, you're destined to learn some hard lessons.

 I want to make this clear: I don't align myself with either left or right. I believe both parties have drifted away from their respective ideologies. I believe both parties have successfuly convinced they're constituants that thay are the good guys and the other side is evil and that there is no middle ground nor a third option. That you are either "with us or against us". The truth is there is there is good and bad in both parties and just to show you just how hard it is for me to vote for either party, I'll bullet point my views.

pro green movement

anti abortion

anti death penalty

anti gun control

pro "safety nets" but with strict reforms

pro flat tax or better yet a flat sales tax

pro deregulation of most business liscenses, permits and regulations in general (except environmental ones)

pro immigration reform (closing borders and deporting illegals)

pro religious freedom (the attack on Christmas and other displays of christian and catholic belief are disgusting (and I don't even have a religion)

anti gay marriage as marriage is a religious institution (gays should however be able to have the same legal benifits.

pro war on Iraq, Afghanistan and any other threat including Iran and N.Korea

I belive Islam is a disease to be eradicated.

pro legalization of marijuanna and I haven't smoked the stuff in 15years nor do I plan to even if it's legal.

 I think you guys are assuming I'm liberal because of my thoughts on the environment. As you can see, I'm clearly not. So please don't lump me in the same boat as Liberal's. It's an insult to my intelligence. One more thing rdgrnr, not every scientist that agrees with me is a liberal, that's a big leap to make. And I'm well aware the media's bias on both sides. I watch the mainstream news for weather, sports and numbers, nothing else.

Ahhhhh................any more input on how this would apply to some lottery winners who invest, to Proposed Buffet Rule? (Original Forum Topic).   

Yeah we've completely gone off topic on this one I guess the part about the flat tax would apply. My apologies for dragging out the off topic discussion. When I see certain statements, I can't resist stating my opinions. I'm extremely passionate in all my beliefs.

That's quite alright............your passion for politics deserves a AAA+.

Commendable that we have such informed, well educated LP members looking out for us!   

I would do it like Ronald Reagan did and tax cap gains under the same scale as ordinary income. It's simply unfair, whatever the tax scale is, for investment income to be given such a tax preference over income earned through labor.

Honestly, Global Warming is (according to almost all of scientists) is a real threat.  The question, IMO, is whether we want to pu the government in charge of preventing it.  Of course we don't, they screw everything up.

Best option - get the government out of oil subsidies, along with (stopping) Green Energy subsidies.  If they stop subsidizing both sides, then Green Companies will have to compete by making better products instead of competing for Tax Payers money, and maybe we'd have some good clean energy - that costs nothing to tax payers.

The government needs to get out of a lot of things.  We could have alternatives.  The US is the Saudia Arabia of natural gas, but the government has put so many restrictions on fracking, which has been done safely for decades, that it makes it cost prohibitive to do.  We could have cars running on compressed natural gas.

The government doesn't like coal fire electric plants or nuclear power plants, but wants us to drive electric cars.

What about hydrogen?  Honda built a hydrogen powered car that it's by-product is water.  Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe.  But we aren't looking into that.

But that's how you get people to invest their money is by taxing it less.  Because people who are investing want the highest rate of return and the lowest taxes on their capital gains.  If you continually raise the capital gains taxes, those people will find a different way for their money to work for them.

What I really don't like is the estate tax.  Its a tax on money that has already been taxed at least one time.

Everybody pay 15% tax rate...Problem solved by yours truely tiggs...

 I still say remove all income taxes period, whether it be money earned through lottery, labor, business profit or stocks. A flat sales tax would balance everything accross the board. I say this full aware that I am poor and my tax burden would likely rise as a percentage of my income. The rich would likely remain the same and the middle class would get a much needed break. The current system as it is is destroying the middle class. I have been in the middle class when work was good and my living situation was not much better than it is now. There is no incentive for many poor to try to make it to middle class income as the tax code will only make them "working poor". The thing that keeps me going is personal pride and integrity. A flat sales tax accross the board will not break the poor but it will help to keep the middle class from joining them. Taxing the rich and or lotto winners any further is punishment for prosperity. This flys in the face of the American dream and the hope we all share to one day become rich.

Uh, no. You get people to invest their money by approaching people that have money to invest with a good investment. Investment didn't crater when Reagan tied cap gains to the ordinary income tax rate and it didn't soar when Clinton put the special tax rate on long term gains back. Everyone wants the lowest taxes possible, investors and working stiffs alike, people would also like to loose weight by eating ice cream.

A good investment remains a good investment, regardless of the tax rate, and capital gains applies to just about everything you could do to put your money to work. I suppose not tax free bonds, but those are only going to return what, 2-5%? A decent investment can return 10 or 15 or even 20%+. Even at the current top tax rate of 35% an investment returning 10% is going to bring in 6.5% after taxes, much better then the tax free bond rate of return. An investor that says, "Bah don't bother me with that 6.5% after taxes, I hate taxes, I'm going to stick with this 3% muni," is a foolish investor indeed.