Hinderaker takes on Obama concerning math and taxes

Last night, John Hinderaker called out President Obama on his ability to calculate the results of his tax plan. I did the same thing on Nov. 7, and I’m hoping* the media will also take a few minutes to run the numbers based on tax data collected.

Hinderaker asks

So let’s do the math. How plausible is Obama’s claim that increasing income taxes on “the rich,” defined by him as families with incomes over $250,000, will get the nation’s fiscal crisis under control? …

The Joint Committee on Taxation has done the math. Raising the top two rates as proposed by Obama would increase revenue by $22.35 billion in FY 2013, assuming that no economic activity is deterred by the higher rates.

Wow, $22.35 billion? Heck, I guess I spotted the president $17 billion or so per year.

The IRS does not provide a table broken up by tax brackets, so why don’t we just take a look at the number of returns and taxable income of those who made more than $200,000 in the most recent year we have for data – 2009 (Excel, 59KB). To keep the math simple, we’ll enhance the Obama plan to the point where every single dollar of taxable income over $200,000 is taxed at 39.6 percent instead of the current 33 percent and 35 percent. In other words, I’m totally stacking the deck in Obama’s favor, and ignoring the fact taxable income is less than it was in 2009.

The total taxable income for those making $200k + was $1.626 trillion from a total of 3.913 million returns. Subtract out the first $200k earned (taxed at a lower marginal rate) and you come up with $843.4 billion (1.626 trillion – $782.6 billion) in income that would be taxed at the new, higher rate.

35 percent of $843.4 billion is a revenue stream of $295 billion.

39.6 percent of $843.4 billion is a “new, Obama-approved” revenue stream of $334 billion. That’s a whopping extra $40 billion dollars. The federal government spent $71.5 billon a week in 2010, so the tax increase would cover a few days of federal spending if all things remained the same, and they would not.

  • More people will look for legal tax shelters and manage their money more carefully to reduce their tax burden … including Warren Buffet.
  • Tax revenue and income are down in 2011 and 2012 as compared to 2009.
  • totally stacked the deck in Obama’s favor with the numbers.

There are simply not enough people that earn money in Obama’s targeted bracket to make any sort of difference. It’s a rounding error when it comes to the size of the federal budget.

Please share with those you know support Democrats and the left. A good way to do this might be Facebook or Google +. Remember, we don’t want to just preach to the choir or discuss among ourselves, we need to reach out and have conversations and learn a bit from each other.

* The media love for this One is strong. I’m not holding my breath expecting them to actually calculate – or even estimate – the revenue that will will not be generated.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

9 Comments

  1. JBS on November 15, 2012 at 7:23 am

    Obama and the Democrats count on the fact that most people cannot conceive of numbers when then are spoken. Charts and graphs don’t help. A lot of people will tell you that they “are not good at math.”
    The Dems are counting on that. Plus, when the Crats run the? “tax the rich” line, a lot of people have Pavlovian response of , “Yeah!”
    But, the Democrats won’t tell the truth. Taxing the rich won’t make a dent in any federal money problems. The truth is: the Democrats want more of everyone’s money. They want to raise taxes on everyone!
    A better question would be: Why not tax the 50%+/- of people who don’t pay any taxes?
    Wouldn’t that be more fair? (sarc/)



    • Dimsdale on November 15, 2012 at 2:02 pm

      I live for the day a Democrat defines “fairness” once and for all.? Or is forced to….



  2. Plainvillian on November 15, 2012 at 10:12 am

    Print more money.? Problem solved……. for now.



    • JBS on November 15, 2012 at 11:28 am

      Wadda ya worrying ’bout? wrong
      ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? go
      ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? what
      ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? could
      ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?



  3. Murphy on November 15, 2012 at 12:21 pm

    Why are you worrying about tax and spending ? Ignore that hand we have General with cute Mistress. Geez get your priorities straight.



    • stinkfoot on November 15, 2012 at 1:17 pm

      This is exactly how we’re being played by the regime and its MSM propaganda ministry.



    • Lynn on November 15, 2012 at 5:00 pm

      Stinkfoot, you have it exactly right. Frankly, I am tired of letting the MSM dictate what is important. The fact that the US is being brought to it’s knees economically by rank amateurs is my biggest concern. But, a close second is that our CIA led by General Petraeus betrayed us. Our Intelligence community seems to be MIA. A combination of the two leaves us more vulnerable than at any other time since after the Civil War ended.



  4. Dimsdale on November 15, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    Given the dearth of school records, we have no idea whether ?bama even took any math courses at all.? Surely he didn’t take any economics courses, unless they were courses taught by Cloward and/or Piven at Columbia.
    ?
    Maybe that’s why he is afraid to show us the transcripts…..



  5. yeah on November 19, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    He doesnt want the transcripts released because he doesnt want Feauxcahontas’ problem that he checked himself off some extra boxes to gain extra sympathy so that he wouldnt actually have to rely on meritorious talent – why do that when you can affirmative action your way straight to the presidency?



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