"In sum," Kleinbard writes, "the 9-9-9 Plan onerates on wage earners as an effective 27percentt uncapped payroll tax applied from the first dollar of wage income — not an elimination of the payroll tax at all!" That may be pushing things a bit far.
"Michael has stepped down," to become a venture capitalist, she said, "and is no longer on the editorial payroll effective immediately".
But on Thursday night, Ms. Huffington said that "Michael has stepped down and is no longer on the editorial payroll effective immediately" to become a venture capitalist.
To bolster the weak economy, the money would be better spent in any of several more demonstrably effective ways, like payroll tax cuts, infrastructure spending or state aid to hire more teachers and police.
Cuban also pointed out that if the goal of tax policy is to put more money into the pockets of ordinary Americans — which is what the Republicans and the White House claim — it would be more effective to cut payroll taxes, which everybody pays.
A temporary two percentage point cut in Americans' payroll taxes, effective in 2011 and 2012, will end on Dec. 31.
As a result, the effective federal tax rate, including payroll taxes, for the wealthiest 0.01 percent of earners fell to 31.5 percent in 2005, from 42.9 percent in 1979, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office.
The President would more than double the amount of the holiday (up from $110 billion this year to $240 billion in 2012, including an expansion of this proposal to some of the employers' share of these taxes), and would sunset the entire payroll tax holiday effective January 1 , 2013
Petty crime is rising in both cities in the continuing absence of effective police, and businesses are slashing payrolls in response to pinched demand.
But with the players recently earning 57 percent of league revenue — and the owners claiming losses of $300 million a year — N.B.A. officials contend that reducing payrolls is the most effective antidote.
