Geithner and the privilege of being American on the Peoria.com Forums

If you're born in the US, your citizenship can't be taken away...I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

Native Americans (indians) who have lived on these shores for centuries did not receive citizenship until 1924. African Americans didn't get their citizenship until 1866, and arguably were denied it up until the civil rights movement. Chinese Americans, 1898 via a court decision.

I understand that, but bottom line is, if you're born in the US, your citizenship is a right, not a privilege. It can't be taken away unless you do a voluntary act, such as join a foreign country's military, etc.

The point I am most interested in in this column is towards the end...why should only a portion of Americans pay more for the "privilege" of being an American citizen?

No.

The Government is assassinating American Citizens, who also "had" a "right" to trial. In this day and age, what is a right and what isn't is blurred.

Mahkno,

Yes and No.

If I was extremely wealthy, would I make contributions to charities (exceeding of course the typical amounts I pay now) Sure, I'd do that.

Do I support an increase of tax on "just" the rich? No.

If Taxes need to go up, they should go up across the board. Every American should feel the weight of their government. Maybe then they'd pay attention.

I don't agree with a lot of what you say, pock...but this is spot on. Kudos to you

That's not more or less the same as what Turbo Tax Tim said...the way he worded it sounds like the rich should pay more as a privilege to be an American, while almost half the country pays nothing. Shouldn't everyone have to pay something for the "privilege" of being an American?

And using Jesus to argue for a tax increase didn't work for Obama, and it won't work here, just sayin.

I don't think Geithner said anything about expecting poor people to pay nothing. What's pathetic is that half the country isn't making enough money to pay income taxes. What we should focus on is increasing employment and increasing the salaries of the working poor, so that they can earn enough to pay taxes.

The earned income tax credit is a conservative idea. I find it amusing that the republicans keep pointing out that half the country pays nothing... well it was a republican tax reform that set it up that way...

And the poor people who pay no federal income taxes are paying plenty of local and state sales taxes and mft; such that they are already paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes than most who qualify to pay income taxes.

The current president's administration is asking to return to previous tax rates (about 3 or 4 % increase, which is still considerably lower than historical tax rates), in the name of fiscal responsibility. But that is labeled as class warfare / or socialism. I never heard anyone complaining about class warfare or socialism in the nineties before that tax rate was lowered.

And this is a broken record: If the effin fools hadn't spent like a drunken sailors after they cut the taxes, we wouldn't need to raise the taxes now. Its their fault, now they need to fix it.

The top 5% make 21.5% of the money, but pay 59% of the income taxes. I would say they're already doing enough.

As far as the bottom 95% goes, yes, they pay other taxes besides income taxes, but one can surmise the top 5% pays more in sales tax, property taxes, etc.

And to be in the top 5% of households, in 2009, which is the last year I can find data for, you had to make $180,000 a year, which in the grand scheme of things, isn't a huge amount of money.