Sunday, August 24, 2008

Hats off to Mr. Taylor Armerding

I'm beginning to warm towards Mr. Taylor Armerding.

I know, last week or whenever that was, I thought he was being totally moronic for railing against what I now consider a certain shady element of firefighters.

But, as my neighbor pointed out to me last night as we were guzzling wine, everyone changes their mind. Some people change their minds a lot.

Anyway, when I read this thoughtful well laid out commentary on the elderly, I just had to smile.
With what admiration I read his latest column in our esteemed daily. Even the title, Elderly don't necessarily need tax breaks, brought a smile to my face.

It's such a shame that the 6 people who commented on this amazing piece did not recognize it as such ... such ... satire. It has to be. Who would believe anyone in his right mind would say some of this stuff - stuff such as:

Yes, there are poor elders — some of them may indeed not have enough to cover the heating bill and their medications. But anybody who is that poor, no matter what his or her age, already doesn't pay any income tax and is probably getting tens of thousands of dollars a year in public assistance.

Ah, yes, I recall vividly how when I made only $9,600 in 2006, that I got tens of thousands of dollars a year in public assistance. Anyone who says I actually had to pay some $1,500 in combined income and Social Security tax is terribly misinformed.

Don't tell me this is a knock on old people. Society shows them respect in multiple ways. But they don't need to be patronized. Old does not automatically mean poor. These days, it is more likely to mean rich. Anybody who aspires to be president ought to know that.

This was my favorite part of his piece.

Yes, I know my parents feel excessively patronized when they get medical bills not covered by Medicare. And respect; yes, the elderly are quite revered. They never are victims of scams or anything like that.

And they especially never have to worry about having to sell their home to pay taxes or for assisted living.

Now I'm confused. Wait, now I'm being satirical. I've caught the bug. ---> Adding this skill to my resume. <---

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi,

well done.

now if you type into google:

"taylor armerding newburyport daily news"

your post is the second on the results.

someday Howie Carr will retire. then Michael Gramm will take his job.

And then if Mr. Amerding is lucky enough to still be alive, he gets the job.

I've always hoped he is not stupid, but just writing what he does for money.

I don't agree with the idea of tax-breaks for the elderly.

But what he writes is just foolish.

My theory is that he's upset that he can't make a bunch of money writing what he does.

Sadly, he apparently does. That says a bunch more about us than it does him.

thanks,
sds

Gillian Swart said...

Wow, thanks sds.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, Mr Amerding (or Ding-a-ling as I call him) is also wrong on the facts. His example of some elderly person making $50K while qualifying for a tax break even though they have $45K in interest income is just plain wrong. Except for a few exceptions(like muni-bonds) interest income is taxed as ordinary income and shows up in your AGI. And at current CD/bond rates said elderly person would need about $1 million in cash assets to generate that much interest income - hardly typical. Of course, you also don't see him complaining about all the special interest tax breaks famililes/children receive.

Gillian Swart said...

Thanks for pointing that out, Bubba.

I'm going to lobby Congress for a tax break for middle aged spinsters. We're entirely left out in the current equation.