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Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine (D) suggested Thursday that he would be open to considering a minimum tax on Americans.
Kaine, the former governor of Virginia and former Democratic National Committee chairman, said during a debate versus Republican opponent George Allen that he would be open to a minimum tax proposal.
Evan Vucci / AP
Republican candidate George Allen, right, speaks as Democratic candidate Tim Kaine looks on during a Senatorial debate for the Virginia U.S. Senate seat on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in McLean, Va.
"I would be open to a proposal that would have some minimum tax level for everyone," Kaine said when pressed by debate moderator David Gregory on whether Americans should face a minimum federal income tax. "But I do insist, many of the 47 percent that Gov. Romney was going after pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than he does."
Kaine's remark came during a broader exchange about Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's comments that he couldn't count on about 47 percent of Americans to vote for him because they pay no income taxes and are "dependent" on government. Romney made those comments in May, which were surreptitiously recorded at the time and publicized this week.
Romney's controversial suggestion has become an issue in several competitive Senate races, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, where Republicans Linda McMahon and Sen. Scott Brown have (respectively) distanced themselves from Romney.
Allen, the former Republican senator who lost his re-election bid in 2006, didn't as sharply distance himself from Romney. "I have my own view," he said about Romney's comments before pivoting to speak about jobs.
The Kaine-Allen race is one of the most competitive in the nation this year; its outcome could foretell control of the Senate in the next Congress. Republicans need to achieve a net gain of four seats to win back the majority in the Senate.
Last week's NBC News/Marist/Wall Street Journal poll of Virginia voters found the Senate race tied, at 46 percent apiece for Kaine and Allen.
Whether Kaine's comments today have any lasting effect will play out in the next days and weeks, though Republican observers of today's debate -- which was organized by NBC-Washington affiliate WRC -- immediately took note of the minimum tax comments.
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A 2% or 3% minimum federal income tax on individulas and corporations would fill the US Treasury with so much money the politicians would be like pigs in heaven...all of them .... libturds for sure would have more tax revenue than they could ever imagine.
The spending would be colossal and no one would touch the debt!
It will never happen.
Bye Bye OBummer 2012
jello heads!
Too bad grandma give up your medicine and pay your taxes, you've lived too long anyway. Pay or die survival of the fittest let Darwinism win for a change.
This is sooo minor!!!!!!!!!! Where is the coverage AND OUTRAGE IN NBC about filibuster of VET support by the Republicans in the SENATE. I want to see the list of no votes and the 4 who did this insult!!!!!!
Those Veterans knew what they were getting into we don't have the draft anymore let the buyer beware. At least they fought for the Imperialistic values that help the important people.
Mark i guess you are right!! PTSD and a politicians that think you are throw away 47% trash.
May be a few SEAL team boys could find the 42 and have a little chat since the news will not call them out. Where is the FOX out rage!
Oh no, am I being un-Americana? I dissed fox and the republicans.
Simplton, the cost of the veterans jobs bill exceeded what Congress agreed to last year. Plus, there are already six other federal government veterans jobs bills in effect and no one knows if they are working. So, without knowing what's working, you want to throw MORE money at ANOTHER government program?
Oscar, very good. You've absorbed the lesson well.
Except: (1) How many times has Congress agreed in a bipartisan manner to waive spending requirements for a bill?
(2) Some of the VA bill was actually drafted by GOP legislators who then voted AGAINST it.
(3) The vote passed with the constitutionally mandated majority of 50 (58 actually, including 5 Republicans) but was torpedoed by the GOP's standing filibuster of everything, which has raised the bar to a majority of 60.
(4) So Senator Coburn (R-OK) claims there are six other job-training bills for vets and we don't know whether they work or not. Is he then in favor of closing down every government operation whose success we have some doubts about?
(5) My understanding is that this is not a jobs-training bill. It's a jobs bill. Vets would be put to work at once, earning salaries and paying taxes, while tending federal lands and augmenting police forces and fire fighters whose ranks have shrunk with state budgets.
I thought the maccaca moment had disqualified Mr. Allen from national politics.
Is it that conservatives don't believe the media puts as good a face on what they do as the liberals? They never deny anything reported they just resent it. Strange. In terms of veterans and I am an old one. They are sent where their country sends them and they have no choice. Even when you join you should not be left behind because joining was your choice. We can debate the wisdom of these two wars but our veterans of them are beyond reproach. It is not a patriotic thing it is a common sense thing. If you want to hire people to fight wars for you rather than go yourself you need to take care of them when they get home.
NOT if beating Obama is at stake!!! All else pails to that ONE quest.
Pales is the correct spelling, not "pails". As far as the grammar of "pails to", I won't even go there.
Perhaps simplton is a good handle for you. :)
Romney 2012 look out Iran and Syria the US World Police is coming for you, paid for with the blood and lives of it's imperialistic martyrs.
When Allen was in the Senate he was considered by staffers as the dimmest light in the body. His only attribute was seen as having the same name as a one time Redskins coach.
Sometimes the "smartest guy in the room" isn't a good leader. Also, smart guys can have ideas that are devastating if put into practice.
Hey Govnah, I am part of your 47%. You see I am retired and I PAY INCOME TAX.
Taxes are taken out of Social Security checks and if one withdraws money from an IRA or 401K that is taxed too. I get SOME of it back after filing but I don't get it all back.
If you PAY income tax, then you are not part of the 47% by definition. That's not a hard concept to understand. :)
every comment on these news vines sends signals to the political system that WE the people are more interested in the sport of campaigns than in a system of government that works!
get this - it is not the pols that are the problem it is us the FAN BASE. and the news media is just making ad revenue calling the horse race that "we the fans" are eating up.
voter apathy will only make them turn up the volume - i wish there were a movement to seek a source of candidate info other than the political press from which to place a vote
So George Allen, small-minded Republican bigot, wants back into the US Senate. Wonderful. Nice to know such upstanding Repubs (who HATE the US government) are still so willing to contribute their bigotry and small-mindedness to America.
I would like to see, of the 47% who pay no income tax, what is the income? That is the real question. If you have a high school kid who made $1,200 bucks last summer, I mean really, how much would be his 'fair share' be? If you have a retired couple who last year make $15,000 what would their 'fair share' be? Now when you have a multi-millionaire who only pays 15% while I am paying 30%, that's a problem. Income is income. I don't care if it is made from dividends, or stock sales or you flipped your tenth Vail condo, its income.
There are tax issues that should be solved for. I agree with that. The deductions and credits are probably the big issue. Wean those away and flatten the rates. I don't believe you should have unlimited dependent deductions. Two max. Why should people be able to deduct 10 kids? Why should I pay for that? Vote in some people who want to solve problems, not just stick to their party dogma, and we can get a solution moving forward.
The high school kid, maybe $12, the retired couple maybe $300, who knows? Nobody should freeload. And anyone who has a retirement income of $15K isn't playing with a full deck.
I don't have a percentage on a fair share, but frankly I'm tired of being the one who flips the bill for roads improvements, new schools (which I don't even have kids!), and a slue of other tax funded projects that non-tax payers are getting the benefit from. If you have to utilize any sort of road within the city to escape from your house (which is like 98% of the population), you should be apart of the population that flips that bill. If you have kids that utilize the public school system or any buildings that make up the public school system, you should be apart of the population that flips that bill. I don't care if your percentage equates to $5 of your AGI, but nobody should get 100% scott free from paying taxes.
Nobody's getting off 100% scott free from paying taxes. Even for those who pay no federal income tax, there are taxes all over the place. The poorest one fifth of the country pays about 13% of its income in state and local taxes, and another 4% in federal taxes on property, gasoline, and so forth.
In one way or another, everybody "has some skin in the game," as Michelle Bachmann put it when she made the same proposal you're making now.
And I hope you're keeping in mind that the major oil companies pay no income taxes and even receive subsidies -- those subsidies coming out of your own pocket. GE didn't pay any federal income tax either. Their return was 27,000 pages long and overwhelmed the already scaled-down resources of the IRS.
Another thing that people fail to understand is that due to the nature of percentages and the base amount they are applied to, the rich will always pay more in taxes. Also, due to percentages, the rich will never pay more in additional taxes than the rest of the population.
13% for someone making $30,000 per year is $3900, which can easily be spent over the year on taxes on food, gas, utilities etc.
13% for someone making $20,000,000 per year is $2,600,000 , which is much harder to spend over the year on taxes on food, gas, utilities etc.
This is where the conservative talking points fall short of helping the voters understand the relationship between the income gaps. Politicians may be good at math, but they seem to understand that many voters are not good at math and will use that fact to their advantage, instead to properly informing the population.
Correct, Oppie. A dollar means a lot more to a bag lady than it does to Bill Gates. It's called "marginal utility."
The difference in the capability of the two candidates is strong. Kaine's term as VA governor was widely praised and he was selected as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Allen, on the other hand, was panned in the press as a do nothing governor and while serving in the Senate was voted by staffers as its most unproductive member.
I think we should tax infants. the totally disabled, and the insane too. Why not? They benefit from a society that has been built on the concept that we all share from the efforts of all of us. Even if an infant is found on the streets of some town in Iowa, I think they should slap a tax on that lazy thing and collect. How else will there be enough money in the US Treasury to meet my contract with them to build more two person, 50,000 sq foot houses in national parks? As an independent contractor specializing in hot tubs made out of smuggled mosaics from bygone civilizations, I demand that they pay their fair share!
We should all vote that kind and sensitive Tbag slut back into the House in November!
I have a good friend, old, retired, fixed income ... she says "I'd gladly pay another 100 dollars in taxes to help save this country, to fix our schools, get people health care ... I just wish the rich people would be willing to help too..." I think I and a lot of other poor people would go along with that ... why has the good old republican party gotten so greedy and selfish these past few years?
George Allen is most probably going to beat this macaca in 2 months.
Chalk Virginia up as another senate seat the Dems lose in November.
Gotta stop getting drunk so early in the day, Chesty. You get even more irrational when you've been hitting the Everclear.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/senate/va/virginia_senate_allen_vs_kaine-1833.html
Romney is now saying this campaign is about 100% of the voters but if he's elected he only needs to listen to 1%.
We heard him talk to his uber rich 1% friends in a candide manner and we heard the real Romney.
Cater to the rich Mitt and be damned to hell.
Just another Republican that's out of touch with the rest of America. Gotta love those worthless repugs. lol
O&Joe will win and so with our country in 2012
Right from the horses mouth..."If you don't have any fresh ideas then you use scare tactics to scare voters"-Obummer
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This proposal is stupid.
" Their fair share " DOES NOT APPLY TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT " millionaires and billionaires " ( those making over $200,000 ).
...
This is encouraging, I have felt for some time that everyone needs to pay higher taxes if we are ever going to pay down the national debt.
The real problem is will the Republicans cling to their trickle down policies and use those tax increases to continue to push tax reduction on business and the wealthy. That would not help us, it would only cause a net gain of zero.
Every time we expect a surplus in federal revenue, the conservatives decide it means we need a tax cut. That ideal will never allow us to pay down the national debt. This is my problem with Republicans, they talk about the debt but never even come close to addressing it within any of their policies.
How about an absolute minimum tax of 25% for all forms of income over 250,000 and an absolute minimum tax of 2.5% of those under 25,000.
How can Virginia even consider Obummer? The people of Virginia who work for Lockheed are about to get layed off and should get a 60 day lay off notice, but that won't happen. Obummer has ask Lockheed not to issues the notices until AFTER the election.
Obummer video on the "Daily Caller"....amazing....I didn't know that Obummer had a southern accent until I viewed the video.