Big Dogs Weblog

The Myth About Tax Cuts and the Rich

by Big Dog on Apr 21, 2007 at 08:59 Uncategorized

For Five years all we have heard with regard to tax cuts is that George Bush cut the taxes of the wealthiest 1% of the country. George Bush helped out the rich with tax cuts. George Bush and his tax cuts for the rich. To hear the Democrats tell it, George Bush only cut taxes for the wealthiest in this country. This is simply not true as the tax cuts cut down all income levels and this is true even though the wealthiest in this country pay most of the taxes. Bill Gates got the same tax cut as I did and he pays more in taxes than I will earn in my lifetime. It was just Democratic mantra, “Tax cuts for the rich” however, a funny thing happened on the way to the White House.

Democratic candidates are saying that tax cuts have helped the lower income wage earners! Imagine that, the Democrats are in agreement that tax cuts have helped the lower income folks despite telling us for five years that tax cuts only help the rich.

Although they have yet to release detailed proposals or to talk about the issue in any depth on the campaign trail, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, and former Senator John Edwards, said through aides that they were backing variants of the same approach, which would result in higher taxes on income, capital gains and stock dividends for upper-income people. All of them, as well Senators Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Gov. Bill Richardson, have made clear that they would support keeping in place the tax cuts that have benefited the vast majority of people, roughly speaking households with income less than $200,000 or so. In that way, the Democratic stance would ensure that a substantial portion of one of Mr. Bush’s signature policies would outlast his presidency, even if his party loses the White House. NYT

The Democrats have realized that the majority of thinking people understand that tax cuts help everyone and five years of lying has not changed that. For five years the Democrats have lied about tax cuts ONLY helping the rich or being ONLY for the rich and now they are changing positions. They are now saying that the tax cuts have benefited a vast majority of households with incomes less than 200 thousand dollars a year. Tell me, how is it these Democrats can change that drastically and the storied New York Times failed to point out how many times any of these Democrats indicated that George Bush’s tax cuts were for the rich only?

In no surprise, the Democrats want to punish those who make more money. They believe that being rich (unless they are the ones who are rich) is evil and that rich people should pay more in taxes. They are trying to raise taxes on higher incomes, capital gains, and stock dividends. Why is it that people who make more money should be punished for doing so. It is not a crime that Gates built something a lot of people use. It is grossly unfair to make the rich pay any more than they already do. They pay nearly all the taxes in this country. The rich in the United States of America pay nearly all the taxes while getting the least from government programs. To require the rich to pay for everyone else is socialistic and counterproductive. Democrats will complain that all the companies are moving to other countries. Is it any wonder when our government is hostile to them and their wealthy owners?

One other thing that is disturbing. Members of Congress routinely write things into bills that allows for them not to follow the same rules as everyone else. While these stellar Democrats will spout off about wealthy people and how the wealthy should pay more taxes, they are all wealthy people. Obama had more than 900 thousand dollars in income this year, Edwards in the millions and Clinton in the millions (current members’ financial disclosure statements are available online). Each of these people have very smart accountants and strange quirky laws to keep them from paying as much as the rich people have to pay.

When John Kerry was running for president it was learned that his family paid 12% of their income in taxes. It was also learned that his wife earned 2.54 million dollars in non-taxable interest. So they paid about one third the taxes of other rich people (and half of what most of the rest of us pay) and they earned over two and a half million dollars on which they paid no taxes. All of this from a guy who said that George Bush’s tax cuts only helped the rich and when he got in to office he would increase the taxes on the rich. Maybe if he paid his fair share, there would not be a problem.

Each of these people will play class warfare. They beat the tax cut for the rich drum to death and it did not work so now they are changing plans. They are going to tell you how wonderful the tax cuts were for the lower wage earners but how unfair it was to cut the taxes of the rich. They will be lying to you just as they did when they told you tax cuts only help the rich. They will be lying to you in order to make you think that rich people are getting over on we poor folks.

The only problem is, they are all rich and they would prefer to stay that way by keeping you poor. They would also like to keep most of the money they make while removing it from the pockets of the rich people, they very ones who pay most of the taxes in this country. They will also make sure they pay the lowest amount of taxes possible, because the rules do not apply to them.

You should also keep in mind that while they say they are going after the rich they will be sneaking up behind you. They will once again take 55% of what you want to pass to your heirs. Die with a million dollars and your heirs get 450 thousand of it while the government, who did nothing to earn it, gets 550 thousand of it. That is a Democrat’s idea of fairness.

The first thing Democrats come after is your money because by keeping most people poor they maintain their control over them. People need assistance, and then they need Social Security and Medicare as they get older. These programs are designed to keep you in the grasp of the government so that they will own you until you die. This is why they oppose privatizing Social Security and why they take so mush in taxes, especially from estates. They do not want people to get older and amass wealth (except their families) because wealthy people will not depend on government run health care, or retirement. Wealthy people can do what they want, when they want and they do not have to worry about the AARP and Congress telling them what to do. There is no doubt in any person’s mind that a privatized Social Security system would be better because it would grow more money and it would belong to the individual. It would also not allow politicians to put their grubby little hands in the till and take it to spend on other things.

We can discuss Social Security and other things later, suffice it to say that Democrats do not want to do anything that would make the downtrodden masses self reliant or they would lose their voter base. Likewise, when they claim to be going after rich people for more taxes, their definition of rich drastically changes.

Watch how they change opinions this year. It has started and the relic New York Times failed to ask the questions. They say bloggers are not real journalists. Perhaps not, but we seem to ask more questions than the so-called real media.

For those who believe we have a budget deficit because of tax cuts, I would remind you that we have a problem because Congress can not control its spending. PORK is the only word you need to know. Tax cuts do not increase deficits, PORK does and that is Congresses’ fault. People like Robert Greenstein who is quoted in this article, fail to recognize that little issue. Bush has not left us in a difficult position with tax cuts. They have all (Congress and the President) left us in a difficult position because of out-of-control spending. The only irresponsible policies of the last six years are the spending policies, not the tax cut policies.

You can take that to the bank. That will be all you can take to the bank if the Democrats have their way.

Tags: Commentary