« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

Tax The Mississippi Rich, Not The New York Rich

By: Aaron Gardner (Diary)  |  September 20th, 2011 at 11:30 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Honestly, I have a hard time knowing whether Sen. Chuck Schumer [D-NY] is evil or just stupid. Thankfully the English language conveniently provides the word “and’ to assist in situations like this.

You see, the good Senator from New York isn’t happy with President Obama’s new, old, current, ever thus, plan to make the rich pay their fair share. Actually, that isn’t entirely true, Chuck isn’t happy with the President’s plan to make the rich in New York pay their fair share. He is completely comfortable with taxing the rich in Mississippi, even if they aren’t what most normal people would consider rich.

If you are wondering what I am talking about, wonder no more [via CBS New York, h/t The Transom]:

Schumer said the $250,000 limit is unacceptable since it will hit the metropolitan area disproportionately because of the high cost of living here.

“$250,000 makes you really rich in Mississippi but it doesn’t make you rich at all in New York and there ought to be some kind of scale based on the cost of living on how much you pay,” Schumer said.


Not only is this a blatant engagement in class warfare, the idea itself is also blatantly at odds with Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which the good Senator has sworn an oath to protect.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

If Sen. Schumer were not both evil and stupid, he would be working to lower the cost of living in New York by using his influence to lower the tax and regulatory burden laid upon New Yorker’s by Bloomberg and Albany. New York has become a bastion of over regulation and burdensome taxation, going so far as to regulate the salt on your table and levy taxes on any behavior they consider a sin.

Instead, Sen. Schumer seeks to subvert the clear intent of the Constitution and make those in Mississippi pay for the failures of his own state. Let me be clear, there is no reason Mississippi should have to subsidize New York’s failed socialism.

Sen. Schumer, I have embraced the healing power of “and”, you are evil and stupid.

Aaron B. Gardner

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Get Alerts

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • Repair_Man_Jack

    New York may be “Too Big To Fail,” but that doesn’t entitle them to be bailed-out by all the people that Sen. Schumer smugly ridicules out in fly-over country.

  • http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/960306/gregory_schmidt.html theillinoisguy

    If you don’t like the taxes in NY, leave and go to MS, or more likely, Texas, where everyone else is goign.

  • bk

    All paychecks and sales purchases go straight to the government. A new Redistribution Czar decides how to divvy up among all the entities who want a share whatever is left after Uncle Sam takes its cut off the top.

  • mndasher

    There’s a question as to whether Schumer is evil or not? Evil is his middle name. I consider him the single evilest person in Congress.

  • shellydog2

    Being one of the poor souls forced to live with this guy as my Senator, his statement comes as no surprise. You have no idea the things this guy says ‘in state’ that never get aired nationally. Or maybe that’s not such a bad thing. No sense everyone getting sick. Schumer is long past his shelf life date but the people down state don’t know how to read a label. If Schumer was a product, you couldn’t get upstate to buy him even if he came with a half off coupon.

  • carolina

    Schumer is a typical dem pretzel. “Don’t tax me and don’t tax ye – tax the man behind the tree”. Stupid AND evil is correct.

  • peg_c

    but it is EXACTLY what Dems want to do and would do, if they could. The fact that they’ll never answer the question “How much taxes is enough?” proves it. It’s ALL their money and we should just be handed a small allowance…to be spent as they decree.

  • peg_c

    That’s how low and disgusting he is. And just as 0bama is both incompetent AND malevolent, Schmucky is both stupid AND evil. And I’ve move out of NY tomorrow if I could, though unfortunately he and his stupid, evil policies affect everyone in the country.

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    a little more each year. The man is vile and despicable.

  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    And will probably be redistricted out of existence, too.

    I wish I hope that the at-large voters in the entire state of New York would cease to be tricked by Chuck U. Schumer, though.

  • Next93

    I became politically aware in Central New York in the early 70s, when New York City was trying to get Albany to levy state-wide taxes to fix the City’s problems. My first dose of political reality was that New York liberals think that it’s “fair” to raise the taxes of people in Potsdam to subsidize fares on the Manhatten subway system.

    I’ve spent the last 30 years living in the Midwest, and somehow Chicky is STILL trying to pick my pocket!

  • Next93

    They don’t want to take everything and give us a small allowance.

    They want to take everything and give us an EBT card. That way they can monitor our purchases and punish us for bad good choices, carbon emissions, and non-recycled products.

    Sheesh! Get with the program.

    (I’d be willing to bet that there will be a couple of trolls from the Daily Kos who will probably have to go change their pants after reading this)

  • Next93

    If so, that means i’m agreeing with schumer, which can only mean…

    Anyone know who I need to call to sign up for a brain scan?

  • wonkish1

    For both of the parties its the smarter trade to do to avoid a court writing the districts and put themselves at risk.

    Before the Dems didn’t have anything they would be willing to trade away in NY and so it was practically guaranteed to go to the courts. Now a “soon to lose republican in a Dem seat” will be traded for a “soon to lose Dem in a GOP seat”.

  • marica

    Ha. I was looking around trying to find statistics on income distribution in Mississippi compared to New York so that I could make the obvious point that it would take a LOT of work to get blood from this ol’ southern turnip. Searching for “Mississippi income range” the 5th hit (on Bing) is a list of SHOOTING ranges in my fair state! Love it.

    And to reply to The Illinois Guy– send them to Texas, not Mississippi. Mississippi is a horribly backward, racist, fat, poor, stupid state. We don’t need any Yankees comin’ down here trying to fix things.

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    New Yorkers pay a higher cost of living as a direct result of choices made by New Yorkers. You pay your nickle and make your choice in life. Nobody gets to heavan w/o dying first.

  • The_Gadfly

    even if his intent is wrong. Work with me for a minute on this.

    The tax is uniform because it applies based on population density, not accidental geographic location.

    Where Schumer make his mistake is that citizens in Mississippi should be REWARDED for their superior intelligence. What really need is a surtax for people who don’t know how to avoid higher costs of living to encourage them to change their lifestyles. So while a surtax of 5% might be the rate which applies to most of Mississippi, a tax of 15% might be more appropriate for NYC or DC.

    Full disclosure: this may be my Warren Buffet moment. As someone who lives on the perimeter of “The Beltway” this tax would certainly disproportionately affect me.

  • marica

    as in how do you get blood from?

    According to the US Census Bureau…

    79.5% of Mississippi households make less than $100,000
    63.3% of New York…

    18.8% Mississippi households … 100-200k
    30.8% NY…

    1.7% MS over 200k
    6.0 NY

    In the metro NY-NJ-CT area 69.7% make less than 100k, 22.1% 100-200k, and 8.2% male over 200,000.

    I think it’s always useful to look at numbers.

    By the way, it was suggested that folks who don’t like NY move to Mississippi or Texas. Go to Texas, please. We don’t really want all y’all comin’ down here fixin’ things for us.

  • marica

    “make” not “male”

  • ss396

    See also Article 1 Section 2 and Section 9 – taxes were to be uniform and based on Enumeration. The 16th amendment blew all that out of the water:

    “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

    Thanks, guys. The government has never been able to live within its means, has it?

  • Next93

    N/T

  • funwithknives

    of 10% of real, stated, appraised value. His belief/statement is that all who have same, ” can afford it”. The opening statement he made when he introduced this bill, , really curled my follicles. All class envy, all the time.
    If it’s even a eensy-bit true that voters elect people like them , how goofy is New York as a whole anyway? Does he campaign with Pints of Whiskey as gifts, every 6 years?

  • funwithknives

    and states what FAIR is, in his world? Thanksgiving, perhaps? Christmas? AHHH, I got it! 4/15/2012. TAX-WE DAY!
    Or can we just guess: NEVER HAPPEN, and pay odds on that one.

  • renl57

    “…but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;”

    We already ditched that principle when we made state and local income taxes and local sales taxes deductible off your Federal income tax.

    As a result, you get bigger deductions (and pay less federal income tax) just for living in New York City than for living in Biloxi Mississippi.

  • renl57

    The one piece of good news out of this, is it’s another example of how even influential congressional Democrats aren’t buying Obama’s call to “Pass this bill [in toto]!”

    That’s proving to be a real embarrassment, freaking out all the usual suspects like Dionne and the New York Times.

    Let the Senate Dems argue with Obama. It undercuts Obama’s entire strategy of running against a “do-nothing” Republican House.

  • http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/960306/gregory_schmidt.html theillinoisguy

    I hear Cuba is lovely – maybe they could take the big 0 and his crew with them…

  • http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/960306/gregory_schmidt.html theillinoisguy

    I hear Cuba is lovely – maybe they could take the big 0 and his crew with them…

  • miconservative

    getting in the way again. Since when do the Democrats care about the Constitution?

  • miconservative

    we need to lower the rates and get rid of deductions. Let everyone pay the same level on similar income. What a novel concept.

  • GregInFla

    at least 6 years, so you may have something there for Schumer.

  • GregInFla

    for state and local taxes. Schumer should be SCREAMING like Dean about this one. In Florida, where we have no state income tax, we get to deduct our state sales tax payments.

  • wonkish1

    is a very talented politician.

    He is an interesting person to study. Just look at his campaign ads and you’ll see someone who knows how to win elections. His book while not containing 1 good idea in it actually is full of a bunch of ideas that you realize would likely get popular support and its written in a manner that tries to personalize everything.

    If and when he makes a play at the presidency in maybe 8 years or something, he would an early odds on favor for the Dem primary. And he will be formidable. So it is a good thing that we are building our own strong bench these days.

  • Common_Cents

    You know their answer would be “more”.

    but why the heck doesn’t anyone ever ask them? Make them accountable, put them on the spot to justify their answer.

  • johnt

    the other rich, somewhere. There may be a few nuts who actually believe in leftist primal urges, but not to many if you scratch a thin surface.

  • http://www.baseballcrank.com Dan McLaughlin

    with regard to the minimum wage.

    Schumer’s right, by the way. But he’s right in a way that is totally inconsistent with his own stated principles.

  • SoFiMil

    never pay less in taxes than those in lower quintiles? Coming soon to a neighborhood near you: a “Joe the Plumber” Rule.

  • Next93

    1) will there ever come a day when you will say we’re spending enough on education and social programs?

    2) who gets to decide what each persons “fair share” is? what gives him or her that authority?

    3) what in the constitution gives the federal government government the right to decide that someone I’ve never met has a right to money I’ve legally earne

  • lineholder

    to the North-South biases, but after having a former New Yorker who couldn’t afford living in the state any more and moved to my state of NC tell me that “you southerners need to get over your racial biases against President Obama…the man is the best President we’ll ever have”and then follow it up with “Ms Obama is such a saint, to invest so much of her time in being concerned about our weight” (and this being said in the reception area of a restaurant serving high-calorie, heavy-cholestrol, absolutely delicions down-home Southern food)….

    Yeah, I’d rather that type goes somewhere else. Not NC.

  • underdawg

    My day job precludes timely comments.

    There isn’t a single volume in the local library that can hold all the areas where I disagree with Schumer.

    This isn’t one of them, or at least isn’t one that I would prefer to highlight.

    Consider the following. A poorly renovated, tiny studio apartment in an undesirable area of Manhattan costs around $1K / mo. A decent studio – not nice, decent – in a decent area costs around $1.5K – and its still small. A larger studio, 1BR, etc. all increase cost meaningfully. The cost of a multi-BR apartment / condo / townhouse increases by order of thousands.

    Now, for less than $1K / month, I could own a nice multi-BR house, with a front and back yard, with enough space to raise a family.

    In addition to housing, gasoline, food, cable + internet, goods and services purchased, transportation, etc are all more expensive in NYC.

    Rather than criticize Schumer for his point, let’s celebrate it for what it is. A senior Democrat openly criticized part of a major policy initiative by the leader of his own party. If Obama were strong, this would have been addressed behind closed doors.

  • underdawg

    “Now, for less than $1K / month, I could own a nice multi-BR house, with a front and back yard, with enough space to raise a family. ”

    This was referring to Mississippi…

    Sorry, first time posting in a few years, joints are little squeaky.

  • gekster

    I still watch it even though my grandkids say they are to old to watch it with me.

    And I don’t know, but I don’t think they tax re-run cartoons, yet.

  • Aaron Gardner

    Mississippi didn’t cause your cost of living to be higher. Mississippi has no responsibility to make up the gap.

    It really is simple. A fat man doesn’t get that way at the expense of a skinny man.

  • earlgrey

    our lack of culture, museums, fasion, etc.

    Living in New York has a lot of perks that cannot be found in MS. Don’t expect the people of MS to pick up the tab for a bloated government so you can grab a show on Broadway.

    It is your choice to live where you do. I hate where I live, but I recoginize it is my chioice. The job opportunities for my husband and I are better here. I am making a choice and dealing with the negative consequence.

    You should do the same.

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    Negative stereotypical projection can be great fun, but I fail to see how, on a site committed to strengthening a movement through persuasion, anything is gained by its use against many of the very people one should most be hoping to attract.

  • earlgrey

    rate depending on where you live conservatve? It is not even Constitutional (although BO would try to pull it off if he can).

    Maybe you are right and I was too snarky, but this idea of having a different tax rate depending on where you live is frankly offensive.

    Too many people today cry around because they expect their circumstances to be ideal. That is part of what got us into this mess. Maybe I could have been kinder and gentler in pointing that out, but it is true that living in New York, while expensive, gives one access to more things that most of us. There are advantages, and the cost of living is a disadvantage.

    I remember hearing a woman who voted for Obama for health care reform complain because she preferred working for smaller companies, but they usually don’t offer health insurance.

    It is called having your cake and eating it too.

    I am usually not very snarky on this site, so I am not used to getting called out for it, but my points are valid, and I think to some extent you overreacted. Other than asking this person to live with the consequences of their choices, I did nothing to insult him.

    I’d like to be a little more accomodating of your POV, because I see where you are coming from, but frankly you ticked me off.

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    That’s all it was–I fully understand the thread’s point about my own Senator’s illogic and sympathize with how it must look on the outside. Snark also understood. I just hate to see good arguments get lost in unnecessary fuzz, and the theme your title tapped has been one I do draw a bead on from time to time, partly cuz it just ain’t so, and partly cuz too many fine folks here seem to think otherwise.

  • earlgrey

    and I am coming down from my initial adrenaline shot. Thanks for not letting this turn into one of thos Red State shootouts. Not fun.

  • earlgrey

    it was probably too much.

    I just want to point out that NYC has a lot of cool stuff too, and we all make choices as to where we live. There are advantages and disadvantages to all of choices. We cannot insulate ourselves from them, as Democrats would have us believe when they are trying to sell us something (republicans too).

    I don’t support a different tax rate for different parts of the country. I do see your pornt that $250K is not as much in NYC as it is in my neck of the woods, and most people who dont live in NYC don’t know that.

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    everything past my title was a broadside, not aimed at you in particular. I have ranged from a rural yute for whom “flatlander” was the most virulent expression of contempt for the big-city types who we knew were ruining “our” way of life–sometimes, as we learned much later, along with heavily investing to rebuild a moribund economy–to the pleasantly-surprised neighbor of people who almost always turn out to have brothers in Waxahachie and parents in Blandinsville and cousins in Coamo and Grandma on the State Line Rd. with the mailbox in South Carolina and the house in Georgia. None of them match the projected images any more than Larry, Darryl and Darryl match my high school peers–and I’d just rather aim for keeping the door for persuasion to full-blown conservatism open to them.

    And now my Mayor-Mike-Approved NERFGun is safely stowed back under the desk.