Boulder Dude

On one hand it could be the highest form of Sarcasm.

On the other hand it is from the OC news paper and the guy seems like he means what he says. Granted it is complete and utter insanity.

When Tiger Woods collected his $1,350,000 check for winning the U.S. Open golf championship this month, his federal and California taxes approximated $586,000. So, Tiger got to keep about $764,000, or 57 percent of his winnings.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said: "That's why I think the best way forward is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like me pay a little bit more, and people in need are protected." He's also advocated "rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the top 1 percent of people who don't need it."

It was fortunate for Tiger that his most-recent U.S. Open win occurred in 2008. Under twin tax proposals from Obama to 1) remove the "cap" from Social Security taxes for individuals earning over $250,000, a plateau Tiger has long since surpassed in 2008, and 2) eliminate the "Bush" tax cuts, thereby raising the top marginal federal income tax rate to 39.6 percent, Tiger's taxes on his winner's check would have increased to approximately $776,000, a boost of almost $190,000. Instead of Tiger keeping 57 percent of his earnings and the government taking 43 percent, under the twin Obama tax proposals, Tiger's federal and California taxes would have amounted to 57 percent of his winnings, leaving Tiger with just 43 percent.

Prefer baseball to golf?

The New York Yankees have a 2008 payroll of approximately $208 million. Under the twin Obama tax proposals, the 24 Yankee players would be hit with an aggregate increase in federal income taxes of just over $22 million, with slugger Alex Rodriguez single-handedly getting dunned with $2.6 million in additional federal taxes.

The owner of the Yankees would owe an additional $7.5 million of federal taxes. Ticket prices would need to be increased by about $65 million so that the owner and players could have the same after-tax income as before. The increase in ticket prices would amount to an average $16 per ticket. Given that the least-expensive ticket in Yankee Stadium currently is $14, this would more than double the cost of a seat in the bleachers.

Yes, he is crying of how the top 1% will have to pay more taxes (and the Yankees of all teams/people). Boo freaking hoo. All I can say is that he is lucky that the U.S. is stable and we do not go off and kill a portion of the top 1% every couple of generations. Heck, until the federal taxes on the top 10% starts getting close to 45% I am not going to worry about it at all. So, Hank Adler wins the idiot of the day week award.