{"id":491286,"date":"2010-03-30T20:24:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T00:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/henry-blodget-joe-biden-on-taxes-you-call-it-redistribution-of-wealth-i-call-it-just-being-fair-2010-3"},"modified":"2010-03-30T20:24:34","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T00:24:34","slug":"joe-biden-on-taxes-you-call-it-redistribution-of-wealth-i-call-it-just-being-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/491286","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden On Taxes: You Call It &#8220;Redistribution Of Wealth,&#8221; I Call It &#8220;Just Being Fair&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Part 2 of my TechTicker colleague Aaron Task&#8217;s sitdown with VP Joe Biden&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\n<object width=\"584\" height=\"432\"><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"584\" height=\"432\" src=\"http:\/\/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com\/up\/fop\/embedflv\/swf\/fop_wrapper.swf?id=18888026&amp;autoStart=0&amp;prepanelEnable=1&amp;infopanelEnable=1&amp;carouselEnable=0\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\"><\/embed><\/object>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Aaron Task: <\/strong>With the April 15 tax filing deadline rapidly approaching, Vice President Joe Biden wants all Americans to know about the roughly $300 billion in tax breaks that were part of the Recovery Act passed last year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">There is <a href=\"http:\/\/us.lrd.yahoo.com\/_ylt=Av86hsoa.tVIh9fJEEWjFnBl7ot4;_ylu=X3oDMTEzbW5ya2w1BHBvcwMxMARzZWMDYXJ0aWNsZQRzbGsDYXRheGNhbGN1bGF0\/SIG=11n6ul4db\/**http%3A\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/recovery\/tax-saving-tool\">a tax calculator on the White House web site<\/a> to help Americans determine whether they&#8217;re eligible for any or all of the following:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<li>&#8212; <strong>Making Work Pay:<\/strong> The Work Pay tax credit of $400 for an individual or $800 for married couples filing jointly. <\/li>\n<li>&#8212; <strong>College Expenses:<\/strong> Families and students are eligible for up to $2,500 in tax savings.<\/li>\n<li>&#8212; <strong>Home Sweet Home:<\/strong> Homebuyers can get a credit of up to $8,000 for first homes purchased by April 30, 2010. <\/li>\n<li>&#8212; <strong>Cash for Caulkers:<\/strong> Taxpayers are eligible for up to $1,500 in tax credits for making some energy-efficiency improvements to their homes. <\/li>\n<li>&#8212; <strong>New Vehicle Purchases:<\/strong> Taxpayers can deduct state and local sales taxes or fees for vehicle purchases. (Note: this is in addition to the &#8220;Cash for Clunkers&#8221; program of last fall.)<\/li>\n<li>&#8212; <strong>Expanded Family Credits:<\/strong> Moderate income families with children may be eligible for an increase under the Earned Income Tax Credit and the additional Child Tax Credit.<\/li>\n<li>&#8212; <strong>Tax-free Jobless Benefits:<\/strong> The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits received in 2009 tax free. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">In part two of my exclusive interview, I asked the Vice President whether we can afford these tax cuts, given the country&#8217;s massive federal deficits. Biden&#8217;s view is that we can&#8217;t afford not to do them: &#8220;We can&#8217;t afford to leave the middle class behind,&#8221; he says. &#8220;These things matter to people who are struggling and they matter to people who have lost their jobs as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">There&#8217;s also the issue of whether these tax cuts, in conjunction with the health care reform bill signed last week, represent <a href=\"http:\/\/us.lrd.yahoo.com\/_ylt=AqcM8SvqBJQzJOBI2ayV9ZJl7ot4;_ylu=X3oDMTEzcmh1ZTluBHBvcwMxMQRzZWMDYXJ0aWNsZQRzbGsDYXJlZGlzdHJpYnV0\/SIG=1200c8ts4\/**http%3A\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/03\/24\/business\/24leonhardt.html\">a redistribution of wealth in America<\/a>, as many claim.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a simple proposition to us: Everyone is entitled to adequate medical health care,&#8221; Biden says. &#8220;If you call that a &#8216;redistribution of income&#8217;&nbsp;&#8212; well, so be it. I don&#8217;t call it that. I call it just being fair&nbsp;&#8212; giving the middle class taxpayers an even break that the wealthy have been getting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The top quintile of Americans earned 55.7% of pretax income and paid 69.3% of federal taxes in 2006, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/us.lrd.yahoo.com\/_ylt=Ah9YVPtzCFZ6NXnNKw6U.A9l7ot4;_ylu=X3oDMTEzcTBxc3BmBHBvcwMxMgRzZWMDYXJ0aWNsZQRzbGsDdGhlbW9zdHJlY2Vu\/SIG=1144ib1j7\/**http%3A\/\/cboblog.cbo.gov\/%3Fp=226\">the most recent CBO data<\/a>. But the Vice President isn&#8217;t buying the idea that the wealthiest are already paying their fair share, noting the top 1% of earners get 22% of all income made in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;Taxes have been lowered for the wealthy considerably over the years,&#8221; he says. &#8220;It&#8217;s about time we get a little tax equity here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Earlier:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/us.lrd.yahoo.com\/_ylt=AsRW7FcTtl5yr4cN89o5hKhl7ot4;_ylu=X3oDMTEza250N2FsBHBvcwMxMwRzZWMDYXJ0aWNsZQRzbGsDam9lYmlkZW5yZWNv\/SIG=10p0kfiot\/**http%3A\/\/bit.ly\/9Zbj9J\">Joe Biden: Recovery Act Responsible for &#8220;Significant Portion&#8221; of Economic Turnaround<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/henry-blodget-joe-biden-on-taxes-you-call-it-redistribution-of-wealth-i-call-it-just-being-fair-2010-3#comments\">Join the conversation about this story &#187;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/TheMoneyGame\/~4\/tM7aIZYBkB8\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part 2 of my TechTicker colleague Aaron Task&#8217;s sitdown with VP Joe Biden&#8230; Aaron Task: With the April 15 tax filing deadline rapidly approaching, Vice President Joe Biden wants all Americans to know about the roughly $300 billion in tax breaks that were part of the Recovery Act passed last year. There is a tax [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}