Fresh off his January State of the Union speech, the man who now occupies the White House sent Congress a $4 trillion budget containing $2 trillion in new taxes and total spending increases of more than 6% over last year. And as usual, Mr. Obama continues to promote his budget with the same old argument about the rich paying their fair share. It is an argument we have been hearing for generations.
The problem with 'tax fairness', as defined by the liberal, is that it is fundamentally unfair. To understand why, one must first understand that the U.S. income tax system is designed to be progressive in nature. What does that mean? It means that those who earn more money are required to pay a greater share of their earnings in income tax.
For example, a family living below the poverty rate pays absolutely no income taxes, many actually get refunds despite having not put anything into the system. Those earning incomes in excess of $390,000 pay more than 44% of their income as income tax. Those with lower incomes may pay 30%, 20%, etc.
The claim that the wealthy and America's corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes absolutely absurd. According to the Heritage Foundation, 68% of all income taxes collected by the federal government are paid by the top 10% of the nation's earners. And for the record, those earners are responsible for 45% of all the money earned in this country. If they are earning 45% of the total but paying 68% of the income taxes, how is that fair?
Don't Touch Mine
Politicians of all stripes have successfully manipulated the American populace since World War I in order to create an environment of class envy that makes progressive income tax possible. They have spent the last 80+ years demonizing the wealthy and Big Business in order to create bitterness in the hearts and minds of the middle-class and poor. And they've done this for one reason: to manipulate you into agreeing with their philosophy of taxing the rich in order to benefit the middle class. The problem is, it doesn't work.
After generations of uncontrolled tax-and-spend policies, we are no better off for it. And in fact, we are worse off. Today's federal deficit is sky high and that's just for starters. Real unemployment is near 12%, wages are stagnant, business growth is nearly nonexistent, and the poor are as poor as they have ever been.
Making matters worse is a mindset among far too many Americans that it is morally justifiable to take money from one person and give it to someone else. As the reasoning goes, a person earning $500,000 a year doesn't 'need' that much money, so it should be taken away from him and given to someone else trying to raise a family of five on $40,000. But need is relative.
Consider the fact that there are immigrants coming to this country who have spent their whole lives living on table scraps and whatever they could find from the local junkyard. Likewise, there are poor people in this country getting by on less than $10,000 a year. If you are a middle-class American earning $30,000, that's three times as much. In their eyes, you don't need your cell phone plan, your flat screen TV, or your leased vehicle. Perhaps we should confiscate your possessions and give them to someone who is less fortunate. Or, better yet, perhaps we should confiscate 44% of your income and give it to poor immigrants.
You Earned It
I don't really believe in confiscatory tax rates or a progressive tax system. I only suggested confiscating your income to make a point. The fact of the matter is that you earned your money and you should be entitled to keep it. But the same applies to the wealthy and corporate America.
The whole tax-and-spend problem that now exists in America has nothing to do with the wealthy not paying their fair share. How do I know? I know because the federal government broke a record this past October when it reached more than $3 trillion in revenues. It's not that Washington is collecting too little; it is that they continue to spend too much.
Make no mistake about it; the progressive tax system now in place has nothing to do with helping the poor and middle class. The power to tax is the power to control and that's what this is all about. The government controls the wealthy by taxing them; it controls the poor and middle class by manipulating them with the freebies and benefits made possible by confiscatory taxes. Such is the fundamental unfairness of tax fairness.
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