Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every
day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten
comes to $100. If
they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it
would go something like
this:

* The first four men (the poorest) would pay
nothing.
* The fifth would pay $1.
* The sixth would pay $3.
* The seventh $7.
* The eighth $12.
* The ninth $18.
* The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men ate
dinner in the restaurant
every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the
owner threw them a curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said,
"I'm going to reduce the
cost of your daily meal by $20."

So, now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group
still wanted to pay
their bill the way we pay our taxes.

So, the first four men were unaffected. They would
still eat for free.
But what about the other six, the paying customers?
How could they divvy up
the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his
'fair share'?

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is
$3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, then the
fifth man and the sixth man
would each end up being 'PAID' to eat their meal.

So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be
fair to reduce each
man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he
proceeded to work out the
amounts each should pay.

And so:

* The fifth man, like the first four, now paid
nothing (100% savings).
* The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
* The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%
savings).
* The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25%
savings).
* The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22%
savings).
* The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16%
savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the
first four continued to
eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the
men began to compare
their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the
sixth man. He pointed to
the tenth man "but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I
only saved a dollar, too.
It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should
he get $10 back when I
got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"


"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in
unison. "We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for
dinner, so the nine sat down
and ate without him. But when it came time to pay
the bill, they discovered
something important. They didn't have enough money
between all of them for
even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college
professors, is how our tax
system works. The people who pay the highest taxes
get the most benefit from
a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for
being wealthy, and they
just may not show up at the table anymore. There are
lots of good
restaurants in Europe and the Caribbean.

and...NO...I didn't write it...but...I wish I had...

the tax system as it is will give them a tax break to go to europe to eat.

aman! don't blame'em try and join'em

I am for Obamas tax plan myself. The Bush tax cuts have been a disaster. These corperations benefit the most from an educated work force and good roads and bridges to ship their goods on. A navy to protect commerce , laws to protect pattents and police to protect their holdings its only fair that they pay a fair share, no one says they should work for no profit at all. Go Obama

That was GREAT!

I,ve never ever seen a country tax itself into prosperity...Obama hasn't figured out...that it isn't a tax issue...it's a spending issue...this country is overtaxed...not undertaxed...

i disagree we just are over spending in Iraq and Afghanistan and a bloated wastefull military industrial complex that sucks the bottle dry b4 the baby can take a sip. Its time for some CHANGE

Let's redistribute that wealth

after all, the top 2% of wage earners are only paying 40% of the taxes

taxing the wealthy wont help anyone in the long run anyhow though. its trickle. they get squeezed so they squeeze us to get more profit. nothing changes.

That is a bargain forthem since they control about 80% of the wealth if not more

why hate the rich

Let's just kill em and take their money!!!

know that's a plan

cheaper..i like it.

who said hate besides you? and who hates them anyhow? It is apparent after 8 years of tax cuts that benefit the rich the most do not work( look at the defecit and economy) if it wokred great leave it alone but the fact is the Bush tax cuts have been a miserable failure for our country so it needs to be fixed (simple)

I dunno I kinda liked the fact that the lowest tax bracket ceased to exist. I haven't paid taxes in years

The question nobody seems to be asking is:

Why are 40% of Americans being paid so little?

We are a nation made up of the working poor.

The strange thing is that so many of the working poor are Republicans and are now defending the wealthy, the large corporations and big oil.

People need to get a clue.

yeah mine ain't to high for all the stuff you get in return

yeah sorry guys i was a die hard rep til i left the military, now i make about 14,400 a year.