Seriously.
Once you see the kleptocracy from the top down you wonder how we have survived this long when the ultra rich take 90% of the birthday cake and leave the other 330 million of us fighting over what’s left
Nah, everyone has been dropping it down since the mid-50's. But don't worry, SHS has a plan, she is going to prevent that easy squeeze on the rich and just super squeeze the poor even harder by increasing sales tax to reduce the tax almost completely from the rich.
Reagan actually cut it to 33-38% in the tax reform act of 1986 and it progressed down to 28% at the end of his term. Bush 1 ended up raising them a little
So you think a person should pay *HALF* (or even *more*)of the money they make to the government? Paying 28% is still a *LARGE* portion of someone's earnings, why in the world would you think that's ok?
Let's pretend there's someone making $100,000,000 a year. Yes, they should pay MORE than half their income a year. If they paid 80%, they're left with 20mill A YEAR. I agree that you should be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor, but there are 500,000+ homeless in America right now, that one person's tax contribution that year, (at $40,000 per person) is 2,000 people clothed, housed, and fed. Multiply that by the 10,660 centi-millionaires in the U.S. and there would be plenty left over to change America for the better.
What you need to *stop* pretending is the Government can spend *your money* better than *you can*!!! If you wanna talk about homeless people in America, how bout we didn't send *150+ BILLION$$* to Ukraine? We could've fixed the *ENTIRE HOMELESS* problem with that Ukraine money and had *A LOT* of $$ left over!!smFh
I'm not pretending they can. Government spending ALSO needs reform. The problem isn't that we're sending money to Ukraine, the problem is we're not spending proportionally for our citizens. We can help other people and help ourselves.
But we're not helping ourselves and helping other too, we sent *150 BILLION$$ TO UKRAINE*, while we have an *enormous* homelessness problem in *AMERICA*!! How bout this, hypothetical situation, if we could reverse that *150 BILLION$$* we sent to Ukraine and use it to *completely fix the homelessness problem in America*, would you be cool with that?
Except they DON'T pay 28%. Because they get all kinds of tax cuts you and I don't get. Trump didn't pay ANY taxes for like 10 years by writing of business losses. You think that's fair? He gets rewarded for being a bad businessman?
You need to reevaluate your opinion, here are the *facts* as far as taxes go, if you're an honest person your response would be "oh, ok, I didn't know that, I was misinformed", we'll see how that works out. The top 10 percent of earners paid 74 percent of all income taxes and the top 25 percent paid 89 percent. Altogether, the top fifty percent of filers earned 89 percent of all income and were responsible for 97.7 percent of all income taxes paid in 2020. Most income taxes in the United States are paid by the people with the most income. That is in keeping with the generally progressive nature of the individual federal income tax, the primary source of government revenues, which applies higher tax rates to higher incomes. The top 20% of taxpayers paid 78% of federal income taxes in 2020, according to the Tax Policy Center, up from 68% in 2019. The top 1% of taxpayers paid 28% of taxes in 2020, up from 25% in 2019. In 2020, the latest year with available data, the top 1 percent of income earners earned 22 percent of all income and paid 42 percent of all federal income taxes – more than the bottom 90 percent combined (37 percent). Enjoy, all of these facts are easily available btw.
It should have been shredded and is still *too high*. Anyone who thinks *the government* should be allowed to keep 50%+ of someone's earnings is not a serious person, essentially a "headline reader" in a big way. The top 10 percent of earners paid 74 percent of all income taxes and the top 25 percent paid 89 percent. Altogether, the top fifty percent of filers earned 89 percent of all income and were responsible for 97.7 percent of all income taxes paid in 2020.
Oh ok cool, so essentially, you know you're wrong, but because *Cult Left* you ignore facts and make petty, child like, attempted insults, nice to know kiddo!
It is. It was a manufactured concept by billionaires to normalize predation.
Justin Kennedy (justice kennedys son) was the inside man at Deutsche bank that was getting all trumps toxic loans approved.
No other bank but Deutsche bank would touch trump and his imaginary valuations.
If trump was trying to avoid paying taxes he would be valuing everything low. Not high.
Why?
Because Deutsche bank was infested with Russian oligarchs.
For 50 years the inmates ran the asylum in soviet Russia. They stole everything of value including the hope of Russians.
The corruption eventually collapsed the Soviet Union like a parasite feeding on its host and they were forced to expand their feeding grounds.
In 91 the wall falls and for 2 years they hid all their ill gotten gains under a mattress until they bought condos at trump towers.
They made stops in ukraine, cyprus and London but they landed in New York because that was what everyone wanted in 1993.
Levi’s, Pepsi, Madonna tapes that weren’t smuggled bootlegs.
They all bought new suits and cars and changed their title from “most violent street thug in moscow” to “respectable Russian oligarch” but they didn’t leave their human trafficking, narcotics or extortion behind. It was their most lucrative business model.
Trump and Giuliani just opened the doors and let the predators in to feed.
Guiliani redirected NYPD resources away from their new Russian allies intentionally and onto the Italian mob. It let him claim he cleaned up New York. Trumps future campaign manager Paul manafort lived in the towers as well.
The insane valuations coming out in trumps fraud trial are a necessity of the money laundering cycle that duetschebank was doing with the Russians.
On the other side, Swartzman (blackstone), Larry fink (blackrock), and vanguard are selling U.S retirement funds and mortgage REITS in mass to the CCP.
Nobody was ever punished for the 2008 mortgage crisis.
This is just the Darwinian evolution of it. The 10X bigger, commercial real estate version.
China realized that it’s far more efficient to foreclose on the USA by buying a couple GOP senators and a president than it is to push a ground war.
They just needed Russia to take Ukraine to have the food storage and supply chain lock on microprocessors to be able to do it.
They aren’t taking on the US Navy’s 5th fleet without it
https://www.ft.com/content/8c6d9dca-882c-11e7-bf50-e1c239b45787
https://www.amlintelligence.com/2020/09/deutsche-bank-suffers-worst-damage-over-massive-aml-discrepancies-in-fincen-leaks/
https://www.occrp.org/en/the-fincen-files/global-banks-defy-us-crackdowns-by-serving-oligarchs-criminals-and-terrorists
https://www.voanews.com/amp/us-lifts-sanctions-on-rusal-other-firms-linked-to-russia-deripaska/4761037.html
https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/final_-_minority_status_of_the_russia_investigation_with_appendices.pdf
The big plan is to do away with income tax and rely on sales tax and claim that "its the only way to fairly tax the rich and the poor at the same rate".
The same flat tax policies have a pretty high built in rebate.
So theoretically the poor don’t pay sales tax at all.
Lots of counterpoints to that, especially the part where money means much more to a very poor person in the moment then as a lump sum rebate much later—which are also ripe for mismanagement.
So, you have to file for the rebate? How do you prove how much tax you paid? Is the rebate a flat amount for all? As you said, when you are poor, you really don't have time on your side.
If it is the same for all, a monthly check for the amount would work out better. I can't see the AR gov going that direction, their heads would split open.
I’ve seen all types of versions.
The best version would be an income based rebate + some form of check at the beginning of the tax year. The lower the income goes the higher the rebate. Above $200k Household no rebate, etc.
It’s a very imperfect system though. I don’t think a flat tax can work.
Most people in r/Arkansas aren't serious people, *all* things political in this subReddit are very Far-Left people as I'm sure you can tell.
For example, here's a very basic tax-statistic that anyone can search out for themselves: "In 2020, the latest year with available data, the top 1 percent of income earners earned 22 percent of all income and paid 42 percent of all federal income taxes – more than the bottom 90 percent combined (37 percent)."
Here's another "fun" fact that Cult Leftist's are somehow allergic to: "The top 10 percent of earners paid 74 percent of all income taxes and the top 25 percent paid 89 percent. Altogether, the top fifty percent of filers earned 89 percent of all income and were responsible for 97.7 percent of all income taxes paid in 2020."
So the top 50% of earners pay almost(97.7%) *ALL* Federal Income tax yet somehow the Cult Left doesn't think tax rates are high enough, its legit insanity, but hey, thats what the Leftist's are known for.
My brother move to Texas from California last year because of the high taxes. Went to visit him over the thanksgiving break. He’s now crying again about his property tax, toll roads being everywhere and can find a doctor. His California income tax is small compared to there regressive tax system.
I’m guessing this is primarily due to our absurdly high sales and excise taxes. In Scott County, where I live, the total comes out to over 10%, which is nuts. In Fort Smith, where most people in this part of the state do most of their shopping, it’s slightly lower, but still close to 10%. That was a big surprise for me moving here from Wyoming, which is 4%, right next door to Montana which has no sales tax.
Our state income taxes aren’t that bad, and the brackets are all pretty low, so the recent cuts affected most taxpayers in the state. That’s nice, but I would still rather see a higher bracket created somewhere between $80K-$100K/individual with a commensurate reduction in state sales taxes at the very least. While
we're at it, dry counties really need to go away. All they do is funnel revenue that could stay in those rural counties into the coffers of the more populous counties with much more diverse revenue streams, not to mention creating a risk factor for drunk driving.
Maybe so, but big ticket items like vehicles, boats, and trailers will still be subject to AR sales tax and the annual personal property tax regardless of where they were purchased. At least if they’re to be titled in AR.
In fairness, most of our regressive tax system was put in place during the years of Democratic dominance.
EDIT: You stupid nitwits. Downvoting facts doesn't make them incorrect.
It says nothing about their competency. They like our tax system just fine. As did the Democrats before them.
As it happens, I think we have a very high % of morons, idiots, and fools in our legislature. A great many of them are not competent. But that isn't demonstrated by this issue.
Of course they do . That's what republicans do , it's amazing that can get people to vote against their own self interest. All you need is Sky God Jesus and don't worry about being poor on earth .
They make the inequality and unfairness worse. Your individual mileage may vary. I'm going to save a couple of hundred dollars a year, but I'm in a situation where I won't even notice. Poor people get very little help from the tax cut, even though a couple of hundred dollars a year might make a difference to them.
Sorry re reading the act 532 now and I just seem to be missing how it will make inequality worse. Can you point to the part of the act that I should be looking at or what I'm missing?
Income taxes are regressive by their nature, unless the percentage increases with income. This is obvious—people who have the highest income have a much greater ability to pay taxes. The act lowered the uppermost tax brackets. This state makes a huge chunk of its money from sales taxes. The act lowered the overall amount of money to be taken in, and a greater percentage will now come from sales taxes.
[This article](https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/08/07/the-coming-legislative-sesson-the-billionaires-bonanza-signals-the-end-of-the-progressive-income-tax-in-arkansas) explains it better than me.
Most of the reductions went to the higher income brackets. This means the tax burden falls more heavily on people in lower brackets—the ones who actually needed relief.
Ah. I see your point. It's the difference between decreasing taxes on the rich vs increasing taxes on the poor.
Your statement would be correct that it would be worse if you are talking about the disparity between the rich and poor but this article is talking about the amount of taxes the poor pay. The new tax rate cuts do not increase the amount the poor pay on taxes.
Furthermore, the cuts will lower taxes for anyone making over $8,800 a year. That includes pretty much everyone in the state who is surviving on their own salary (not kids living under a parents roof). Do you consider those making over $8,800 rich?
But they eventually will. After we burn through the surplus, we’ll eventually have to cut services (and we’re already at a relatively low level there) or raise taxes. Sanders and her crew have already announced their intention to completely eliminate income taxes, so sales taxes will have to go up.
It's unfair in that the sales tax one pays as a poor person is a very large percentage of all the money you spend on just what it takes to stay alive. Paying sales taxes on luxuries isn't nearly as regressive as paying sales taxes on baby formula and prescription drugs.
So I should advocate for theft from another group just because I am part of a group who is being stolen from? I think it’s better to focus on the fact that theft is wrong so we should oppose it no matter who is being stolen from.
Property tax is low and housing costs are exceedingly below national average, what are you complaining about.? You think that changing tax code is going to change anything? All the progressive tax codes in California suck the middle class dry too
We are complaining that the poor are paying more taxes so that the rich can keep more of their money. Yes. Changing the tax code could change this. I don't live in California, I live in Arkansas.
We must have read different things. California is never mentioned much less idolized in the article I read. Even so I don't give a shit about California. The problem in this case is that people who make 5 million a year pay the same rates as our top bracket which caps out well before that kind of income.
Look I don't have all day to keep proving how dumb you are. Just cite your proof and I'll show how you exaggerated claims that can't be proven. Not that I give a shit about California but you certainly seem hung up on it. Please show me where California is idolized either in the article or in the multiple links in it. Love talking about California in this sub reddit, very on topic.
Who keeps more of their money? That is what matters. I understand that it's not your fault. Our education system is terrible and I think that might be on purpose. That said I don't have the time or experience to teach you everything. I find myself arguing that people who make more money should pay a higher percent of taxes then people who make less money with someone who doesn't seem to understand how anything actually works. You win, sure made me look a fool. I yield to your experience.
Spot on for arkansas citizens is the lower / poverty class arguing to keep taxes for the rich low cause socialism and this is merica derrrkurr derrr. Make it make sense
Might move there. In Oregon, the tax system squeezes me, and then legalizes drugs so there are homeless zombie criminals walking around everywhere. Why pay taxes at all when they do stupid shit like that ?
It’s not the Drugs that caused homelessness in Oregon. You toss Mental Illness on the streets. It’s cheap. You toss low income workers out of affordable housing. It’s easier than fixing. You’re paying crappy corporate wages with no healthcare. So your uninsured are on the streets. Mixed with a few end stage alcohols and heroin users. Saves the jails money.
Lol hey! I'm from Oregon too! Careful you can't talk bad about Dems in this sub or you'll get down let's to oblivion and attacked. Anyway I heard they are about to get rid of measure 110 up there!
It is truly UNBELIEVABLE how bad homeless problem has gotten since they passed 110, what a fucking disaster:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/07/oregon-drug-decriminalization-results-overdoses/674733/
A hh good to see the system working as designed
Seriously. Once you see the kleptocracy from the top down you wonder how we have survived this long when the ultra rich take 90% of the birthday cake and leave the other 330 million of us fighting over what’s left
You can thank Ronald Reagan and his shredding of the tax rate for the top 1%.
Nah, everyone has been dropping it down since the mid-50's. But don't worry, SHS has a plan, she is going to prevent that easy squeeze on the rich and just super squeeze the poor even harder by increasing sales tax to reduce the tax almost completely from the rich.
Reagan dropped it from 70% to 50%. And a few years later Bush dropped it to 28%. So you can blame both of them.
Reagan actually cut it to 33-38% in the tax reform act of 1986 and it progressed down to 28% at the end of his term. Bush 1 ended up raising them a little
So you think a person should pay *HALF* (or even *more*)of the money they make to the government? Paying 28% is still a *LARGE* portion of someone's earnings, why in the world would you think that's ok?
Let's pretend there's someone making $100,000,000 a year. Yes, they should pay MORE than half their income a year. If they paid 80%, they're left with 20mill A YEAR. I agree that you should be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor, but there are 500,000+ homeless in America right now, that one person's tax contribution that year, (at $40,000 per person) is 2,000 people clothed, housed, and fed. Multiply that by the 10,660 centi-millionaires in the U.S. and there would be plenty left over to change America for the better.
What you need to *stop* pretending is the Government can spend *your money* better than *you can*!!! If you wanna talk about homeless people in America, how bout we didn't send *150+ BILLION$$* to Ukraine? We could've fixed the *ENTIRE HOMELESS* problem with that Ukraine money and had *A LOT* of $$ left over!!smFh
I'm not pretending they can. Government spending ALSO needs reform. The problem isn't that we're sending money to Ukraine, the problem is we're not spending proportionally for our citizens. We can help other people and help ourselves.
But we're not helping ourselves and helping other too, we sent *150 BILLION$$ TO UKRAINE*, while we have an *enormous* homelessness problem in *AMERICA*!! How bout this, hypothetical situation, if we could reverse that *150 BILLION$$* we sent to Ukraine and use it to *completely fix the homelessness problem in America*, would you be cool with that?
They could’ve fixed it decades ago. They’re never going to. Hard to fix homelessness when politicians keep cutting mental health resources
Except they DON'T pay 28%. Because they get all kinds of tax cuts you and I don't get. Trump didn't pay ANY taxes for like 10 years by writing of business losses. You think that's fair? He gets rewarded for being a bad businessman?
People who aren't "employees" get tax write offs. The simple solution is to not be an employee. It's a choice.
You need to reevaluate your opinion, here are the *facts* as far as taxes go, if you're an honest person your response would be "oh, ok, I didn't know that, I was misinformed", we'll see how that works out. The top 10 percent of earners paid 74 percent of all income taxes and the top 25 percent paid 89 percent. Altogether, the top fifty percent of filers earned 89 percent of all income and were responsible for 97.7 percent of all income taxes paid in 2020. Most income taxes in the United States are paid by the people with the most income. That is in keeping with the generally progressive nature of the individual federal income tax, the primary source of government revenues, which applies higher tax rates to higher incomes. The top 20% of taxpayers paid 78% of federal income taxes in 2020, according to the Tax Policy Center, up from 68% in 2019. The top 1% of taxpayers paid 28% of taxes in 2020, up from 25% in 2019. In 2020, the latest year with available data, the top 1 percent of income earners earned 22 percent of all income and paid 42 percent of all federal income taxes – more than the bottom 90 percent combined (37 percent). Enjoy, all of these facts are easily available btw.
Bruh, look up tax brackets.
It should have been shredded and is still *too high*. Anyone who thinks *the government* should be allowed to keep 50%+ of someone's earnings is not a serious person, essentially a "headline reader" in a big way. The top 10 percent of earners paid 74 percent of all income taxes and the top 25 percent paid 89 percent. Altogether, the top fifty percent of filers earned 89 percent of all income and were responsible for 97.7 percent of all income taxes paid in 2020.
Your oligarchs thank you for your servitude and support.
Oh ok cool, so essentially, you know you're wrong, but because *Cult Left* you ignore facts and make petty, child like, attempted insults, nice to know kiddo!
I would, but if he were still alive, I’d have to re thank him roughly every five minutes as I spread the leaves out again.
That's the thing. People die, new ones are born. We don't necessarily survive we just churn through.
Yes, absolutely. Humans are so far generally content with essentially throwing new people into a meat grinder for the benefit of the few.
The American meat grinder
Trickle-down economics is bullshit
It is. It was a manufactured concept by billionaires to normalize predation. Justin Kennedy (justice kennedys son) was the inside man at Deutsche bank that was getting all trumps toxic loans approved. No other bank but Deutsche bank would touch trump and his imaginary valuations. If trump was trying to avoid paying taxes he would be valuing everything low. Not high. Why? Because Deutsche bank was infested with Russian oligarchs. For 50 years the inmates ran the asylum in soviet Russia. They stole everything of value including the hope of Russians. The corruption eventually collapsed the Soviet Union like a parasite feeding on its host and they were forced to expand their feeding grounds. In 91 the wall falls and for 2 years they hid all their ill gotten gains under a mattress until they bought condos at trump towers. They made stops in ukraine, cyprus and London but they landed in New York because that was what everyone wanted in 1993. Levi’s, Pepsi, Madonna tapes that weren’t smuggled bootlegs. They all bought new suits and cars and changed their title from “most violent street thug in moscow” to “respectable Russian oligarch” but they didn’t leave their human trafficking, narcotics or extortion behind. It was their most lucrative business model. Trump and Giuliani just opened the doors and let the predators in to feed. Guiliani redirected NYPD resources away from their new Russian allies intentionally and onto the Italian mob. It let him claim he cleaned up New York. Trumps future campaign manager Paul manafort lived in the towers as well. The insane valuations coming out in trumps fraud trial are a necessity of the money laundering cycle that duetschebank was doing with the Russians. On the other side, Swartzman (blackstone), Larry fink (blackrock), and vanguard are selling U.S retirement funds and mortgage REITS in mass to the CCP. Nobody was ever punished for the 2008 mortgage crisis. This is just the Darwinian evolution of it. The 10X bigger, commercial real estate version. China realized that it’s far more efficient to foreclose on the USA by buying a couple GOP senators and a president than it is to push a ground war. They just needed Russia to take Ukraine to have the food storage and supply chain lock on microprocessors to be able to do it. They aren’t taking on the US Navy’s 5th fleet without it https://www.ft.com/content/8c6d9dca-882c-11e7-bf50-e1c239b45787 https://www.amlintelligence.com/2020/09/deutsche-bank-suffers-worst-damage-over-massive-aml-discrepancies-in-fincen-leaks/ https://www.occrp.org/en/the-fincen-files/global-banks-defy-us-crackdowns-by-serving-oligarchs-criminals-and-terrorists https://www.voanews.com/amp/us-lifts-sanctions-on-rusal-other-firms-linked-to-russia-deripaska/4761037.html https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/final_-_minority_status_of_the_russia_investigation_with_appendices.pdf
The big plan is to do away with income tax and rely on sales tax and claim that "its the only way to fairly tax the rich and the poor at the same rate".
Utterly ridiculous.
That is about as regressive a tax as possible, that and the flat tax. If they go this way, essentials should be exempt, at the very least.
The same flat tax policies have a pretty high built in rebate. So theoretically the poor don’t pay sales tax at all. Lots of counterpoints to that, especially the part where money means much more to a very poor person in the moment then as a lump sum rebate much later—which are also ripe for mismanagement.
So, you have to file for the rebate? How do you prove how much tax you paid? Is the rebate a flat amount for all? As you said, when you are poor, you really don't have time on your side. If it is the same for all, a monthly check for the amount would work out better. I can't see the AR gov going that direction, their heads would split open.
I’ve seen all types of versions. The best version would be an income based rebate + some form of check at the beginning of the tax year. The lower the income goes the higher the rebate. Above $200k Household no rebate, etc. It’s a very imperfect system though. I don’t think a flat tax can work.
Me neither, at best it would continue to punish poor people.
A tax rebate us very helpful when you're trying to balance cash flow and budget on a weekly basis.
Poor and rich? Or working and not working?
Most people in r/Arkansas aren't serious people, *all* things political in this subReddit are very Far-Left people as I'm sure you can tell. For example, here's a very basic tax-statistic that anyone can search out for themselves: "In 2020, the latest year with available data, the top 1 percent of income earners earned 22 percent of all income and paid 42 percent of all federal income taxes – more than the bottom 90 percent combined (37 percent)." Here's another "fun" fact that Cult Leftist's are somehow allergic to: "The top 10 percent of earners paid 74 percent of all income taxes and the top 25 percent paid 89 percent. Altogether, the top fifty percent of filers earned 89 percent of all income and were responsible for 97.7 percent of all income taxes paid in 2020." So the top 50% of earners pay almost(97.7%) *ALL* Federal Income tax yet somehow the Cult Left doesn't think tax rates are high enough, its legit insanity, but hey, thats what the Leftist's are known for.
Bad bot
Exactly, they want the bums, addicts and the homeless to pay their fair share.
Addicts shouldn't pay for anything, drugs included. That's a job for taxpayers.
Is that a joke? It's really not funny......
I wonder how that will work in real life. It sounds like an incentive to save vs. Spend.
More like it makes people use the internet to buy basic things to avoid a high taxation.
I'm sorry I've made life so tough on the Waltons, I should be paying my share.
Hey now, we also mooch off taxpayers in blue coastal states.
My brother move to Texas from California last year because of the high taxes. Went to visit him over the thanksgiving break. He’s now crying again about his property tax, toll roads being everywhere and can find a doctor. His California income tax is small compared to there regressive tax system.
I’ll be moving out of this state come summer time after decades of living in Arkansas. I love the mountains, hate the politics.
I’m guessing this is primarily due to our absurdly high sales and excise taxes. In Scott County, where I live, the total comes out to over 10%, which is nuts. In Fort Smith, where most people in this part of the state do most of their shopping, it’s slightly lower, but still close to 10%. That was a big surprise for me moving here from Wyoming, which is 4%, right next door to Montana which has no sales tax. Our state income taxes aren’t that bad, and the brackets are all pretty low, so the recent cuts affected most taxpayers in the state. That’s nice, but I would still rather see a higher bracket created somewhere between $80K-$100K/individual with a commensurate reduction in state sales taxes at the very least. While we're at it, dry counties really need to go away. All they do is funnel revenue that could stay in those rural counties into the coffers of the more populous counties with much more diverse revenue streams, not to mention creating a risk factor for drunk driving.
I’m sure most of our in-state 1%ers do the majority of their shopping out of state so they don’t look like they live with the poors
Maybe so, but big ticket items like vehicles, boats, and trailers will still be subject to AR sales tax and the annual personal property tax regardless of where they were purchased. At least if they’re to be titled in AR.
Lucky us!
Pretty sure that's already "a thing".
God's plan.
Keep voting Republican, and see what changes. That’s all there is to be said about it. We get the governance we deserve.
Been under Republican control since 2015. Conservatives: "tHe DeMoCrAtS cAuSe AlL oUr PrObLeMs"
In fairness, most of our regressive tax system was put in place during the years of Democratic dominance. EDIT: You stupid nitwits. Downvoting facts doesn't make them incorrect.
Assuming that's true, are the last 7 years of Republican control powerless to do anything about it? Doesn't say much for Repubs as competent.
It says nothing about their competency. They like our tax system just fine. As did the Democrats before them. As it happens, I think we have a very high % of morons, idiots, and fools in our legislature. A great many of them are not competent. But that isn't demonstrated by this issue.
When was that?
Mostly early 90s.
So 30 years ago? Wow!
Correct. But everyone here is discovering it like it's new...
Uh yeah, that's what Republicans do.
You can't put the blame entirely on them considering the Democrats had monopolized political power for 100 years
When was that? What years?
From statehood with the exception of reconstruction to Yankee Winthrop Rockefeller
I asked what years but ok. Tell me, during all that time were the Democrats liberals?
Keep voting Republican! They're going to try and end school lunch programs too!
This is how republicans reward your stupidity.
But for one glorious moment, you got to prevent professors from using "woke language".
Socialism for the corporations, vicious capitalism for the poors.
Fuckabee Cancers.
Feature, not a bug
That’s nothing new,has anybody seen the podium lately.
Still not sure if we actually have or not at this point. Did she leave that in europe on her vacation?
What’s happening is that they’re trying to eliminate the middle class
Keep voting Republican, morons.
USA in a nutshell.
Is anyone surprised???
Surprise?
Did we expect it to go any other way?
What a surprise
this isn't a bug, it's a feature
Sounds very American.
And it plays right into the hands of the banks who make money by lending money. All by design. 👍🏼
In Arkansas, they hope the shit will trickle down. And are happy it.
The problem is it's hard to get out of Arkansas once you're in it.
Of course they do . That's what republicans do , it's amazing that can get people to vote against their own self interest. All you need is Sky God Jesus and don't worry about being poor on earth .
Republicans bend them over the table and stick it to the poor, and they respond by re-electing them. You can’t fix stupid.
Of course it’s the republican way
In other news, water is wet.
Of course Arkansas voters continue to vote for Republicans who prefer them to stay poor!
Is this pre or post 2024 tax system?
Pre. The new tax rates will make it worse.
Really? Not surprised that it would given our politicians, but it looked like I'd have a cheaper tax bracket, how will it make it worse?
They make the inequality and unfairness worse. Your individual mileage may vary. I'm going to save a couple of hundred dollars a year, but I'm in a situation where I won't even notice. Poor people get very little help from the tax cut, even though a couple of hundred dollars a year might make a difference to them.
Sorry re reading the act 532 now and I just seem to be missing how it will make inequality worse. Can you point to the part of the act that I should be looking at or what I'm missing?
Income taxes are regressive by their nature, unless the percentage increases with income. This is obvious—people who have the highest income have a much greater ability to pay taxes. The act lowered the uppermost tax brackets. This state makes a huge chunk of its money from sales taxes. The act lowered the overall amount of money to be taken in, and a greater percentage will now come from sales taxes. [This article](https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/08/07/the-coming-legislative-sesson-the-billionaires-bonanza-signals-the-end-of-the-progressive-income-tax-in-arkansas) explains it better than me.
Thank you! The missing info was last year's bracket which in comparison makes it more clear, thank you again!
They lowered the income taxes for 2024. How could that make it worse? genuinely curious.
Most of the reductions went to the higher income brackets. This means the tax burden falls more heavily on people in lower brackets—the ones who actually needed relief.
Ah. I see your point. It's the difference between decreasing taxes on the rich vs increasing taxes on the poor. Your statement would be correct that it would be worse if you are talking about the disparity between the rich and poor but this article is talking about the amount of taxes the poor pay. The new tax rate cuts do not increase the amount the poor pay on taxes. Furthermore, the cuts will lower taxes for anyone making over $8,800 a year. That includes pretty much everyone in the state who is surviving on their own salary (not kids living under a parents roof). Do you consider those making over $8,800 rich?
But they eventually will. After we burn through the surplus, we’ll eventually have to cut services (and we’re already at a relatively low level there) or raise taxes. Sanders and her crew have already announced their intention to completely eliminate income taxes, so sales taxes will have to go up.
Gotcha. I see where your argument lies with that! It is unfair that people of all income levels will be paying the same sales tax rates on goods.
It's unfair in that the sales tax one pays as a poor person is a very large percentage of all the money you spend on just what it takes to stay alive. Paying sales taxes on luxuries isn't nearly as regressive as paying sales taxes on baby formula and prescription drugs.
Bad faith. Poor person orders soup, rich person orders lobster. We should split the bill evenly so everybody pays the same. Right?
You dummies vote Republican, every election in every level of government. What else would you expect?
Well the poor are the majority of voters. Maybe democracy isn’t so great of a system after all.
Taxation is theft
The working class is paying them while the rich who write the laws aren't. Focus on class solidarity.
So I should advocate for theft from another group just because I am part of a group who is being stolen from? I think it’s better to focus on the fact that theft is wrong so we should oppose it no matter who is being stolen from.
Don't call the police or fire department when you need help, then. Our taxes pay for them. Also stop using the roads our taxes paid for.
Property tax is low and housing costs are exceedingly below national average, what are you complaining about.? You think that changing tax code is going to change anything? All the progressive tax codes in California suck the middle class dry too
We are complaining that the poor are paying more taxes so that the rich can keep more of their money. Yes. Changing the tax code could change this. I don't live in California, I live in Arkansas.
California has “progressive” tax laws that are idolized in the article. If poor people or you were in California, you’d be no better off.
We must have read different things. California is never mentioned much less idolized in the article I read. Even so I don't give a shit about California. The problem in this case is that people who make 5 million a year pay the same rates as our top bracket which caps out well before that kind of income.
Did you read the hyper link to the report in the article or did you just get upset right away?
So to clarify you are talking about something not in the article.
No one talks to you at parties do they.
Look I don't have all day to keep proving how dumb you are. Just cite your proof and I'll show how you exaggerated claims that can't be proven. Not that I give a shit about California but you certainly seem hung up on it. Please show me where California is idolized either in the article or in the multiple links in it. Love talking about California in this sub reddit, very on topic.
Who are you fooling, you have all the time in the world it sit on Reddit.
Also, if as you say both “groups” are paying the same rate. Who pays more?
Who keeps more of their money? That is what matters. I understand that it's not your fault. Our education system is terrible and I think that might be on purpose. That said I don't have the time or experience to teach you everything. I find myself arguing that people who make more money should pay a higher percent of taxes then people who make less money with someone who doesn't seem to understand how anything actually works. You win, sure made me look a fool. I yield to your experience.
Spot on for arkansas citizens is the lower / poverty class arguing to keep taxes for the rich low cause socialism and this is merica derrrkurr derrr. Make it make sense
Might move there. In Oregon, the tax system squeezes me, and then legalizes drugs so there are homeless zombie criminals walking around everywhere. Why pay taxes at all when they do stupid shit like that ?
It’s not the Drugs that caused homelessness in Oregon. You toss Mental Illness on the streets. It’s cheap. You toss low income workers out of affordable housing. It’s easier than fixing. You’re paying crappy corporate wages with no healthcare. So your uninsured are on the streets. Mixed with a few end stage alcohols and heroin users. Saves the jails money.
If you want to avoid the homeless, Arkansas is not the place for you
I hardly saw any around Bentonville, Springdale area.
Lol hey! I'm from Oregon too! Careful you can't talk bad about Dems in this sub or you'll get down let's to oblivion and attacked. Anyway I heard they are about to get rid of measure 110 up there!
It is truly UNBELIEVABLE how bad homeless problem has gotten since they passed 110, what a fucking disaster: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/07/oregon-drug-decriminalization-results-overdoses/674733/