A little more on JTP, as we now know him well enough to call him. Brian Beutler picked up on my earlier post and took it a step further, making a fine point. Joe, Beutler writes:
presumably he earns, and pays taxes on, all $280,000 and has no capital gains. Enter a McCain administration, and nothing changes. Enter an Obama administration and... for $250,000 of his $280,000 (or about 90 percent of his income) nothing changes.
What about the remaining $30,000? Well, Under George Bush he's paying taxes at a rate of 33 percent on income over $250,000. That comes to about $10,000. Under Barack Obama, he'll have to pay 36 percent on that same share, or about $10,800.
$10,800-$10,000 = $800. As a share of Joe's total income, that's about 0.3 percent. Not even enough to cover the cost of one month of a health insurance plan for a family of four. A really, really tiny amount. If the American dream (plumbing) is so easily crushed, is it really all that it's cracked up to be?
I can see that $800 isn't nothing. But if you're making a quarter of a million dollars a year, you have a hard time saying things like "but $800 is the difference between my daughter getting braces or going without." (In America, braces go on kids' crooked teeth; I don't know what you call them, maybe the same thing for all I know.) If you're making $60,000, then sure. But not $250,000.
Anyway, because of things like this, it seems Joe may soon be walking away from the spotlight.
