The top 1% of earners pay almost 40% of federal income taxes, the top 10% of earners pay 70%, the top 50% pay 97% and 47% pay no federal taxes. Is that fair? Really, does that show “rich” people are taking advantage of the rest of us?
President Obama says so. The man, who promised “I’m not going to demonize you because you disagree with me,” has done exactly that to “the rich.”
Here’s another thing. “The rich” and “the poor” are not static categories. We know people move up from “poor” and people move down from “rich.” That is one of the beauties of the free enterprise system.
But can we expect President Obama to know that? He has said: “Limited government and free market economies don’t work and never have.” Not one of our prior 43 presidents would agree with that. A decade ago, he said “I actually believe in redistribution.” In a famous 2008 interview, Obama told Charles Gibson that, although raising capital gains tax has historically reduced, not increased, revenues, he would still raise taxes for “fairness.” Reducing revenue in the name of fairness?
What does the president know about what works in a free enterprise system? He went to a fancy prep school, a prestigious small California college, two Ivy League universities and traveled extensively abroad and we still do not know how all that got financed.
We do know we elected someone with no significant private sector or executive experience, who then compounded the problem by choosing advisors who have less private sector experience than the advisors of any other president in the last 100 years. We should not be surprised at the results.
He explained that he meant we need more public sector employees. Does our president not understand that more public sector employees mean more spending of tax dollars; which will call for more taxes from the productive and thus less monies for the private sector to generate jobs? In fact, our government collects more tax dollars from the people than any nation ever has before in all of recorded history, still spends a trillion dollars more that it has per year, and complains that it doesn’t have nearly enough money. Every thinking American knows you cannot spend multiples of what you earn without disaster following. That is called common sense. But Obama and Harry Reid refused to consider bills calling for a balanced budget.
Let’s get back to where we started. Is it fair that the top 50% of wage earners pay 97% of the taxes and 47% pay no federal taxes? What do you think?
Noted economist Walter Williams said this: “People who pay little or no income taxes become natural constituents for big-spending politicians. After all, if you pay no income taxes, what do you care if income taxes are raised? Also, you won’t be enthusiastic about tax cuts; you’ll see them as a threat to your handouts.”
Bottom line: people tend to vote for those who promise goodies that they think someone else will pay for. It is legalized bribery. It helps elect unscrupulous politicians. But it is certainly not fair.