Yeah, you got it all figured out. Maybe we should make you Treasury Secretary. A high school education isn't actually a qualification for the job, so you are in the clear on that account.

Really? Is that why we piled up massive surpluses from 1997-2002? Why we stopped selling 30 bonds due to lack of market? Why I heard people whining in 2001 - 2002 about what we were going to do with no public debt by 2011?

Those things really happened. All your talk aobut credit cards, and bankruptcy, and all that is just that.... talk.

It worked REALLY well from 1994 to 2002. Were you out of the country or something?

You are confusing "marginal" rates with "effective" rates. The marginal rate is the percentage you pay on the next dollar earned. The effective is the rate you pay after factoring all marginal rates (because you pay a different rate on the dollar one than dollar one million), all deductions, exemptions, etc.

That is why warren buffet, or hedge fund billionaires, or heiresses pay lower effective rates than us, because the vast majority of their income is taxed at LTCG rates.

Wrong. My overall effective federal rate for 2010 on just under $7.0m of income was 29.7%. My effective NYS rate was 6.25% and city 3.5%. Effective rates, particularly federal given state and local tax deduction, are always lower than you think.

I had heavy capital gains as well, but basically all at the 15% rate, which only serves to lower my overall effective rate. I am my own accountant. I know.

I've experienced them as a W-2 wage earner. I have an LLC, so we are a pass through, but I understand and share your frustration on limitation of deductions and lack of flexiblity.

http://www.deptofnumbers.com/blog/2011/07/revenue...

The numbers above give lie to the "Laughter" curve. If supply side was in any way valid, you'd have to see it here... and you don't. The only time since 1980 that revenues have exceeded expenditures is during the Clinton years, when we had marginally higher rates. Not a peep of "expanding the tax base", or lower taxes spuring growth, or anything of the kind.

Obviously, if we taxed people at 90% marginal rates, they'd work less. I would too. Whether we tax people at 35% or 39.5% has never impacted behavior and never will.

Fail.... miserably.

http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

For the record, I'm not a member of "Warresisters". But, they do understand federal math, and present it in a way that is honest.

Those of us not watching Fox 24 / 7 know the following breakdown: Medicare, Medicaid, 33%; SS 21%, Defense 20%, Non-Defense discretionary, 18% and interest 8%. That break down alone makes your absurd assertions above, well, absurd.

Now, if we drop SS and Medicare / Medicaid, you find an even starker imbalance to the $2.5T of non-trust funded spending: current and past military 54%; non-defense human resources, 30%; general government 11% (basically, non-personnel spending on all non-defense related activities; physical resources 5%.

Your numbers are bogus. This proves it.

Honestly... do you own a tri-cornered hat? Be honest.....

Laffer Curve? Seriously? How cute. Its like talking to my daughter about Scooby-Do.