In some way I find this endorsement a good thing in that anti-libertarian religious social mores are no longer driving the Republican party.

The bad is that Guiliani is a crazed fascist.

The Republican candidates are mostly horrible but Mitt Romney at least can run things and is smart. The gay marriage issue could be solved by Congress by abolishing the IRS code that wildly benefits married people over singles. 90% of the gay marriage proponents' concerns have to do with unequal tax treatment, from the inheritence tax to the lack of social security benefits. Abolish the welfare state and its unequal treatment of different tax payers and that issue would go away.
Leonardo | 11.07.07 - 5:45 pm | #

lol. leonardo, here is the irs tax table http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i...pdf/ i1040tt.pdf

Notice that if each person of a couple has income of $100,000 then they pay a combined $44,650 in federal tax if they are single, but $45,966 if they are married. If you are single, you are eligible for a hell of a lot more welfare benefits than if you are married. If you are single with children, each parent gets the same tax breaks as a married couple, effectively doubling the tax breaks. And on and on it goes. Yes, you can't get spousal ssn benefits, but you could buy a life insurance policy or annuity with a portion of the money you save on taxes. Death tax would be the one consideration, if you are lucky enough to have millions to pass on.
z | 11.07.07 - 10:42 pm | #

z,

I think you could be off as far as saying that each parent gets the same tax breaks. If I recall from my tax class correctly, only one parent can use the tax breaks related to having children, or specifically the tax credit you get for having kids, and I think even the exemptions. Though there's so many different rules and qualifications in taxes that its hard to keep them all straight. In support of the beginning of your comment, I would just like to point that there are all kinds of lies and misconceptions floating around as far as taxes are concerned. This is especially the case regarding marginal tax brackets. Some people think they would be worse off to make more money if it pushes them into the next tax bracket, which isn't true at all, hence the "marginal." This is why they really need to simplify the tax code.
JMo | 11.08.07 - 12:44 am | #

JMo,
You are correct, the exemptions and credits for children of divorced parents can only be deducted by one parent, usually the one that they live with, even if the other (like me) pays for 100% of their support/insurance. The custodial parent can fill out a form to transfer the credits/exemption to the non-custodial parent. I offered to "buy" the form from my ex with a cash payment equal to a split of the difference between our marginal rates (which worked out to be about 6 or $800 for her as I recall), and she refused the offer...go figure.

Leo,
In community property states it makes no difference if you file married or single because 1/2 my earnings are my wife's and vice-versa. And z is correct that in non-cumminity property states, filing married almost always results in paying equal or more taxes than filing single.
Kevin S. | 11.09.07 - 11:58 am | #