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@Stubble said:

I'm just not getting this Meme... its seems it ain't exactly clear.

from the NYT newsletter

Harris and Trump on taxes
Today, we are starting a series called The Stakes covering the major issues of the campaign.

Regardless of who wins the election, the next president will quickly have to deal with major changes to the tax code. That’s because a set of tax cuts enacted by Donald Trump in 2017 will expire next year, and Congress will decide which tax cuts to keep, end or expand.

Of all the campaign policy issues, this one is the most likely to hurt, or help, your finances. Trump has proposed tax changes that would largely benefit the wealthy and corporations. He has also called for new tariffs — taxes on foreign goods — that would raise prices for everyone. Kamala Harris, like President Biden before her, has promised to reduce taxes for lower and middle earners and increase taxes on the rich. She has not proposed new tariffs, although she has not ruled them out.

Below, I’ll explain how these plans could affect you. This newsletter is the first in a series we’ll run between now and Election Day. In it, Times journalists will focus on the policy stakes of the 2024 election — and how life would be different under a Harris administration or a Trump administration. We’ll examine other subjects, including abortion, democracy and immigration, in future newsletters.

The tax cuts
Trump campaigned in 2016 on a promise to slash tax rates. He delivered tax cuts in his first year in office.

The 2017 cuts largely benefited the wealthy and corporations. But they also included some reductions for low- and middle-income Americans. Most of the 2017 cuts will expire next year, and members of Congress are preparing for a fight.

Trump wants to extend everything — and go further. He has proposed eliminating taxes on tips and Social Security benefits and reducing the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, from 21 percent. He argues the cut would leave businesses with more money to grow, spend and hire, helping the economy.

Trump’s plan would add $5.8 trillion to the debt over 10 years, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model. That would expand a national debt and a budget deficit that many economists already consider concerningly large.

Harris says she would leave the 2017 tax cuts in place for people earning up to $400,000 per year but raise rates for those who earn more. She argues that the rich can afford higher taxes to pay for policies that help everyone else, including an expanded child tax credit for parents. Like Trump, she favors eliminating taxes on tips.

Harris’s plan would add $1.2 trillion to the debt over 10 years, the Penn Wharton Budget Model found. She has promised to reduce the deficit but has not specified how she would make up for the budget shortfall in her current proposals.

Kamala Harris speaks onstage at a podium with the seal of the vice president.
Vice President Kamala Harris Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
The tariffs
Over the past decade, Democrats and Republicans have shifted from the bipartisan free trade paradigm of the 1990s and 2000s. They have increased tariffs on foreign industries that produce cheaper goods than their U.S. counterparts. For example, Biden has imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars.

Trump wants to go further. He has suggested a 10 to 20 percent tariff on all foreign goods, along with a 60 percent tariff on all imports from China.

Harris comes from the Biden administration, which has used tariffs on a more limited basis than Trump has proposed. She has criticized Trump’s tariffs as too broad — describing them as “a Trump tax on gas, a Trump tax on food, a Trump tax on clothing, a Trump tax on over-the-counter medication.”

Supporters of tariffs argue that they would not increase prices — that foreign businesses would eat the cost instead of passing it on to consumers. But historically that’s not true.

In fact, the purpose of a tariff is to increase prices. American products are generally more expensive than those made in China, Mexico and other low-income countries because labor costs are higher here. Tariffs try to level the playing field by increasing prices for foreign goods. In a recent interview with NBC News, JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, argued that the tariffs would reinvigorate U.S. production. “Anything that you lose on the tariff from the perspective of the consumer, you gain in higher wages, so you’re ultimately much better off,” Vance claimed.

New tariffs could also raise revenue, but not enough to make up for the deficits from either candidate’s tax cuts.

The plans’ impact
How would the tax plans affect actual people? A middle-class household with $80,000 in income would gain $1,700 after taxes under Trump’s plan and $2,200 under Harris’s, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model. A household in the top 0.1 percent, with $14 million in income, would gain $377,000 under Trump and lose $167,000 under Harris.

Those numbers, however, do not include the impact of tariffs. If they are included, Trump’s plan would actually reduce a middle-class household’s after-tax income by $1,700, the Peterson Institute for International Economics found. Wealthy households’ after-tax income would still increase. Since Harris hasn’t proposed new tariffs, her numbers are unchanged.

How much of this will happen? Federal law allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs, making at least some new ones likely. The tax cut extensions are less certain. They require congressional approval, so the winners of this year’s 468 House and Senate elections will play a big role in dictating your future tax rates.

@ShawnOL said:
I get 2 days off for the holiday. Going to drink whiskey and smoke cigars tonight and then tomorrow I'm going to smoke cigars, go shooting and then drink whiskey and smoke cigars. Great weekend.

So, basically just adding shooting to your typical weekend.

@OutdoorsSmoke_21191 said:

If you can find s set of the originals, sharpened slightly they make pretty good rabbit killers. My survival tip for today.

Well since were just gonna argue in every thread for arguments sake….shouldn’t it be a BOOT to have a boot heel?

It's you Frank. How can you say it looks like Missouri when there is no bootheel? Missouri has a bootheel.