A. Donald Trump surges in polls. The Donald realizes he might actually win. He thinks: $400K a year for THIS? Starts acting crazy. Drops in polls. Drops from race. Threatens third party. GOP candidates start visiting Trump for his blessing. Donald now matters and does not have to take pay cut to be Prez. Donald is happy.

B. Herman Cain surges in polls. Herman realizes he might actually win. He thinks: $400K a year and aging badly for THIS? I fought cancer. Yes, I think I have some good ideas, but I am not supposed to WIN this thing!

First Herman tries with his smoking commercial. Numbers go up again.

Herman has people leak info to press that he sexually harased two women. Numbers go up again.

Herman, in a huff, blames Perry, who he does not like.  Perry says “Huh?” Perry insists he never leaked anything.

Herman’s numbers STILL stay up. Another anonymous woman appears. Things start to FINALLY slide down in regards to poll numbers. Herman and family are relieved.

Herman drops from race, endorses Romney. Herman gets cabinet position in Romney presidency. Perry ends up victim of Cain scandal.

People finally notice Hannity and Romney have same hair.

As the presidential race and GOP primaries heat up, each candidate is coming forward with new tax proposals. I was asked to propose one at a business conference in August. I had posted it here from memory a few weeks ago, but after looking at the proposal as written, I realized some of the numbers I posted were different, so here it is again.

As a disclaimer, I don’t think this is perfect. I don’t expect any candidate to read this diary at all, let alone read it and decide “wow, this guy is SMART, let’s see if he will work with us”.

SO – here is “my” tax plan.

A. Two tax rates: 15 and 25 %.

B. Eliminate FICA taxes

C. A flat deduction of $10,000 for a single taxpayer, $20,000 for a married household and $5000 per child.  These deductions would be indexed for inflation. The only other deductions are to charity, and they have to be cash contributions.

D. Cap Gains would be taxed as ordinary income, but indexed for inflation. There would be a simply multiplier for inflation provided each year. Cap losses would be a write off against income in the year taken.

As an example, if total inflation for a 12 year period was 50%, and the stock you bought 12 years ago for $10,000 now sold for $15,000, you made no REAL profit, so your tax is $0.

If this stock was worth $20,000, your profit is $5000.

E. Dividends and Interest Income are taxed as ordinary income, regardless the source. This includes muni bonds. Muni bonds pay higher rates than we can get from banks, and the idea that people can make 6 digit incomes tax free would have to go. As with Cap Gains, this income would be indexed for inflation. If you earned a 5% dividend and inflation was 3 % that year on a $1,000,000 dollar stock, your earnings are $50,000 less $30,000 for a net $20,000. The same math would apply to interest income.

F. Inheritance tax eliminated.

G. The 15% tax would be up to $150,000 after the standard deduction and charitable contributions. This $150,000 level would be indexed for inflation. If inflation is 3 percent in year one, then the threshold becomes $154,500 in year 2.

H. Income over this threshold is taxed at 25 percent.

I. Corporate tax is eliminated. Since all income to shareholders, employees, board members, etc, is taxed on a flat basis, this would be a HUGE boost to businesses wanting to expand. This would make our exports cheaper. Overseas companies would want to build here.

J. Expatriated profits welcomed back with no taxes.

K. Earned Income Tax Credit eliminated.

All of these ideas are pro growth. They assist families. They are not regressive. They encourage the working poor to make more without them having to worry about losing “goodies”.

By taxing all proceeds paid by corporations/businesses to the board members, executives, etc …  as ordinary income, but keeping the levels no higher than 25%, everyone has what most will consider to be a “fair” plan. I am personally not too fond of the word “fair”, but maybe it fits here.

The title of this thread is “mostly” conservative tax plan. I say this because it is still “progressive”. The family of four that made $80,000 gross with no charitable contributions would have a net of $50,000 income, which means a $7500 tax bill. This is a 9.375% rate.

The Hedge Fund manager (AKA the guys the press love to villify) that made an inflation adjusted $10,000,000 would show a net income of $9,970,000 under the same conditions as above.

Ont the first $150,000, he pays $22,500. On the remaining $9,820,000 he pays $2,455,000 in taxes. This is a rate of 24.775%.

The ACME corp making widgets in Iowa that made $1,000,000 can keep the entire $1,000,000 for business expansion. When the CEO takes the $1,000,000 out as bonuses, it becomes income.

Comments welcome.

Sometimes, adding to the info in the link just won’t do. This is incredible.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/obama-proposes-letting-jobless-sue-discrimination-191042168.html

We have President Obama echoing the words of Warren Buffett about how millionaires and billionaires are “not paying their fair share” of the burden in the USA. Mr. Obama is demanding that we “ask those millionaires and billionaires to sacrifice along with the rest of the country” in order to get our fiscal house in order.

Red Staters already know that Washington DC speak means “ask” is really not asking for money from millionaires and billionaires. It is confiscating money from the most productive members of society.

It’s time for an honest look at what various groups DO pay. The AP, hardly a fan of the GOP, nor of conservatives in general, had this article published on 9-20:

http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-rich-taxed-less-secretaries-070642868.html

Some excerpts:

[The data tell a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government....]

[This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.]

[Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent.]

Note that the above figures include payroll taxes (AKA: FICA).

The “millionaires” pay taxes at a rate which is over 5 times THE RATE that the $20,000 to $30,000 income earner pays.

Perhaps looking at this another way will put this into perspective. Let’s take a single tax payer making $1.2 million per year against 40 individuals making $30,000 per year.

Both have an income of $1.2 million.

The individual making $1.2 million is paying $349,200 in taxes.

The group making the same $1.2 million is paying $68,400 in taxes.

We don’t need higher tax rates on the person making $1.2 million. We need an economy that generates more people making $1.2 million and the deficit will disappear.

I will start with my credentials, and also with my biases.

1. I have been in the auto industry since 1982, and have worked my way from selling cars up to owning 2 domestic dealerships.
2. I also have a financial services company which has every type of franchise as a client.
3. Should the big “3″ go away, I could easily replace them with a Japanese counterpart. The simple fact is, Hyundai and Nissan would love to bring vehicles into my Ford dealership.

The Big Three will require a capital infusion in order to survive. The problem is, without a complete overhaul in how the domestic is run, and regulated, the capital infusion will be a waste of money. OUR money.

The Big Three is not just companies, they are directly tied into national security.

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President-Elect Obama’s “Family Agenda” page on his new “Change.Gov” website is here: Obama Family Agenda

Included in his bag of goodies are the following:

1. Raise the Minimum Wage to $9.50 an Hour by 2011

2. Expand Paid Sick Days: Half of all private sector workers have no paid sick days and the problem is worse for employees in low-paying jobs, where less than a quarter receive any paid sick days. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require that employers provide seven paid sick days per year.

3. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will expand the FMLA to cover businesses with 25 or more employees.

There are 24 total programs outlined on this Family Page alone.

I still don’t understand how any rational person can look at this guy and come to the conclusion that he is a moderate !

President-Elect Obama has already set up a new website under the “CHANGE” banner.

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Pennsylvania District 3 was held from 1982 to 1994 by Tom Ridge. Phil English held the seat from 1994 until 2008.

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Since 1980, the Republican Party has had 8 different election results, plus 2 dramatic “off year” congressional votes, and it’s pretty easy to follow these results and see that every time we have a conservative platform, we win.

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Within our family, we have several small businesses, and during the past few days, we have had meetings with our employees.

In these meetings, we covered 2 basic topics. The effect of Senator McCain’s $5000 health insurance tax credit and the effect of the difference in taxes that Senator Obama would charge over McCain.

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This morning’s headline from the AP was as follows:

Freddie Mac Secretly Paid GOP Consulting Firm TO Kill Regulation

But, when one reads further, one will find statements which prove Republicans were the ones trying to regulate the 2 mortgage giants, while EVERY DEMOCRAT OPPOSED THE BILL

Here is the link: AP Story which proves Democrats opposed regulation

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This will require very few words.

1. To bring in capital, eliminate all capital gains taxes for stock purchases over the next 24 months.

2. To help main street, the following tax incentives put in place

a. Make all meals for business purposes tax deductible at 100%
b. Allow a 10% Investment tax credit for all business purchases of NEW durable goods.
c. Allow a 10% Investment tax credit for the purchase of a new motor vehicle.

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Senator McCain has proposed a little understood health care package which brings together the power of private enterprise with the assistance of the federal government.

Unfortunately, to date, there has been little real discussion regarding how good the McCain proposal is.

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