Even tax breaks that are supposed to help the middle class too often skew toward the wealthy. Consider the mortgage interest deduction. While political leaders in both parties have long considered it untouchable, it actually helps those at the top of the income scale far more than those at the bottom.
Instead of following through on their promise to concentrate on jobs, Republicans have attacked seniors, working families, women, and the most vulnerable among us. They have pursued an extreme agenda that would end Medicare as we know it and cut Social Security benefits in order to continue giving tax breaks to Big Oil and millionaires.
Well, the taxes that everyone else is paying are supporting lots of programs that were in place prior to Obama's new spending. So new spending has too be paid for by new taxes, or by eliminating existing tax breaks. And Obama wants that burden to be borne exclusively by the rich.
As a captain of industry, I would prefer more tax breaks to help people buy houses, but as a citizen, I realize someone has to pay.
The 9-9-9 plan would resuscitate this economy because it replaces the outdated tax code that allows politicians to pick winners and losers, and to provide favors in the form of tax breaks, special exemptions and loopholes. It simplifies the code dramatically: 9% business flat tax, 9% personal flat tax, 9% sales tax.
Many tax experts say a key element to any fundamental overhaul is getting rid of certain deductions for businesses - the 'special-interest giveaways that are masked as tax breaks,' as House Republicans describe many of them in their own proposal.
The real estate lobby has prominent allies in both parties. After the last major overhaul of the tax code, in 1986 - under a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, a Republican Senate and a Democratic House - it was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, who signed legislation that restored lost real estate tax breaks seven years later.
I've had enough of giving millionaires like Dick Cheney and myself tax breaks and giving America's kids a mountain of debt.
Government is not being honest with taxpayers when it renews existing tax breaks and calls them new tax cuts.
I would support eliminating certain tax breaks that are not economically justifiable if they are offset with reductions in tax rates.
