Wednesday, July 11, 2007

3967

Defending the Bush Tax Cuts

We all know the Democrats intend to raise taxes when they take over in 2008. It's not like they hide their plans. Mike Volpe at Proprietor Nation reminds us to beware of some of the biggest lies, myths and distortions about taxes by reviewing what he knows about basic economics:
    "How many Democrats uttered the words, "tax cuts for the rich". Of course, this is an outright lie. Every tax bracket, including but not exclusively the rich, lowered their rate. The Democrats proclaimed that in dollar terms the rich got the overwhelming piece of the tax cuts. Well, in the words of any third grader, duh. The rich make the overwhelming amount of money and pay the overwhelming amount of the taxes. 3% of 50,000 dollars is a lot less than 3% of 1 million dollars. Of course, the rich got the biggest part of the tax cuts, their pool is by far larger. A millionaire pays more in taxes than most people make in income. They played the traditional class warfare, pitting the wealthy Republicans versus the middle class of the Democrats. Well as Gregg Jackson pointed out in "Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies" targeted tax cuts, the kind the Democrats bemoaned, are nothing more than a form of communism, where the poor are propped up on the backs of the wealthy. Furthermore, logic tells us that it is the wealthy, not the middle class, that creates jobs. A three percent tax cut for someone making fifty thousand may put more money in their pockets, but they won't hire any new workers as a result of it. A millionaire on the other hand, is something totally different."

2 comments:

JAM said...

That's exactly what I've tried to teach my daughters, though Mr. Volpe said it much better than I.

One day, my younger daughter came home from school and I could tell she was repeating to us something one of her teachers had taught them, lamenting the poor, down-trodden and over taxed middle class and poor folks.

I asked her who her teacher had said pays the most taxes.

She, of course, said the middle class.

I said sit right there, I'll be right back. Went to my computer, to the IRS's own site with 2005 figures of which income groups paid what in income taxes.

I printed it out, sat with her and showed her the truth. I could tell she was shocked. She swallowed her teacher's teaching hook, line, and sinker.

After our talk, she sat there for a long time reading that chart and seeing for herself from the IRS's own data.

When she was done, I showed her with a 1040 preparation booklet how a poor person could get a nice tax refund via the earned income credit, even if they had paid absolutely no taxes. She was double stunned, because hey, even a teenager can wrap their brains around free money.

Norma said...

How many parents take the time to undo what their kids learn in school? You're a good daddy.