__TAXES___________

Kaden Schmitt

Overview
Taxes is one of the biggest topics discussed in U.S politics. There are many
mixed opinions and emptions among the American people about our tax system.
The two main parties are the Conservatives and the Liberals. The Conservatives
support the belief that the government should lower taxes for all because people
have the right to what they earn, while the Liberals support progressive taxation,
with high taxes for the rich, which will equalize incomes of Americans through
redistributing other incomes.
Both ideas seem good,
right? Unless youre part
of the wealthy bracket.
During Obamas
presidency, he lowered
the federal income tax
rates to the lowest its ever
been since the 50s. He
also permanently
extended tax cuts for 98
percent of

(Somander,2016)
Americans that had originally been set to expire after 2010 (Somander, 2016). It
looks like the Americans that were happier about Obamas tax idea was the
middle class American because for the rich; The richest 400 people in the United
States who earned more than $264 million each on average in 2013 saw their
effective tax rate rise by more than a third in 2013, from 17 percent to 23 percent,
implying they paid about $6.5 billion more in taxes than they would have under
the older rules. The richest 0.1 percent of people in the United States saw their
tax rates increase by more than 6 percentage points in 2013 to 28 percent on
average, implying that they paid more than $50 billion more in taxes than they
would have under the older rules. (Obama White House)
Wheres our taxes?
Before we get more into taxes, lets find out where our taxes are going. As you
can see, most of our federal income tax goes to the military, health, and interest
to the debt. Out of those three categories, where do you see a problem? Thats
right, 18.7% of our federal income taxes are going towards interest of 259 billion
dollars. Today the total national debt is currently at 19,857,792,600,000. Guess
where most of that debt is coming from? Not military, not Medicare, not social
security, 4/5 of the national debt is coming from home loans, which is currently at
14 trillion dollars (US National Debt, 2017). A lot of people blame the
government for our national debt, but in realistically, we the people are the main
cause of it. What do we the people need to do to help our country become
wealthier? Work! Go get a job, save up, and put as much money down on a
house while trying to avoid a very high mortgage loan with a high interest rate.
We should try our hardest to get the debt down, so that we could use the 259
billion dollars on more important things for our country instead of paying interest.

(Brady, 2008)

Obama(Current) vs Trump Tax plan

There has been a lot of worry about what President trump is going to do during
his presidency. There are some things that many agree with and tings that many
disagree with. There has been a lot of controversy about Trumps tax plan.
People are saying that he is only helping the rich, and screwing over the middle
class. As you can see at the chart below, thats not the case.
(Elkins, 2016)
The current tax plan was created by the Obama administration and the Trump tax
plan is trying to go through congress right now. Under Obamas tax plan,
Americans were taxed 10-40%, while under Trumps, there are three brackets of
12, 25, and 33%. Under Trumps, most incomes are being taxed less or about the
same. On the other hand, the only incomes that are being taxed more are the
incomes of 0-18,550(+2%), 75,000-75,300(3%), and 225,000-231,450(+5%). As
you can see, middle income families are getting taxed 12% compared to the 15%
under Obama. Whos plan is benefiting the middle class?

Why Im frustrated
I am a very hard working college student. I have moved out of my parents house
and I am independently supporting myself. I pay for my car, rent, food, school,
etc. I want to graduate school debt free. I have a job that pays the bills, but
getting taxed as a college student sucks. In my opinion, if we are in college, we
shouldnt be taxed at all. There are many Americans that graduate with so much
debt, that they cant afford a house or a new car after graduation. With this idea,
us college students would be more enticed to work and pay for college out of our
pocket instead of using the government for help. I know that someone doesnt
have to pay taxes if they make less than $9,700. I know it would make a lot of
Americans mad if the government raised the tax-free income, but could they at
least lower taxes for us college students?

15% Flat Tax Rate

Why cant we just have a Flat Tax Rate and tax everyone 15%? Doesnt that
seem fair?

HERES AN EXAMPLE:

A middle-class man earns $60,000 a year.

A rich man earns $2,000,000 a year.
How much should both pay in taxes? 15% of their income.
Middle class man pays $9,000 a year.
Rich man pays $300,000 a year.
The rich man earns almost 34 times more than the middle-class man but also
pays 34 times more in taxes. Thats called being fair.
Also, the man that is richer, most likely worked harder than the middle-class man,
so why should we penalize the richer man by making him pay more taxes?
________________________________________________________________
The rich deserve to be rich, unless they got their wealth from their parents. The
poor deserve to be poor. It all comes down to work ethic and how bad you want
it. How would you feel if you work your butt off in college, get a high paying job,
but having to pay more taxes then a person who didnt work as hard as yourself?
I consider that very unfair and unhuman. The government needs to do something
about this because I think that its a big problem.
Sources:
Brady, Michael. "Tax Time."
N.p., 10 Apr. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2017.

Elkins, Kathleen. "How Trumps Tax Plan Could Affect You."

N.p., 14 Mar. 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2017.

Somander, Tanya. "Here's What President Obama Has Done to Make the Tax
Code Fairer."
National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and
Records Administration, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

"U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time."

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time. US Census, n.d. Web. 29 Mar.
2017.
Statement of Goals and Choices
The biggest problem that I ran into was trying to state my points without offending
people that disagree with me. Especially after the election, its scary to state your
beliefs because you dont know how people will react. Politics have been brought
up in every one of my classes so far, so I am learning to say things, while
respecting what my peers say. Donald J. Trump just became our president and I
think that this is a perfect time to create an information project to inform
millennials. What this project is trying to accomplish is to persuade the new
Trump administration to lower the tax rate to a flat rate tax of 15% and persuade
my audience to come to my point of view. The goal of this project is very clear
and straight to the point. For my rhetorical choices, I used facts and my personal
opinions to speak for every American towards the Trump administration. The
rhetoric for this letter is not trying to show Trump that his three tax brackets arent
good, it is trying to show Trump that there may be a better alternative. I did not
want my letter to be bashing on trump or other people, I wanted to try to
persuade Trump and the audience by using facts. The structure of this project
starts out with an overview, then leading into the facts of taxes, our national debt,
and reasons for a flat rate tax. I really liked this project because I feel like taxes
are a big part of our lives.