100 of us go to a tavern; the richest guy buys 42 tap beers,
the next 9 buy 48 tap beers, 43 buy 10 tap beers, and 47 of us drink tap beers
for free. In Wisconsin,
we say “thank you” when someone else buys our beer; apparently in Chicago, they go find a
community organizer and demand martinis.
The top 1% of income earners in this country - nice people
like Oprah and Aaron Rodgers - make 28% of the income, yet they pay 42% of the
income tax. 47% of Americans pay no income
tax. Is that fair? President Obama doesn’t think so; he thinks the
rich should pay even more.
Why? Why should they
pay more when almost half of us pay nothing?
How is that fair? What do they get
in exchange? Will they have their own
Bentley lanes on the Interstate Highways?
Do they get extra protection if the Canadians invade? Will their trademarks and copyrights last twice
as long as ours? No, we will offer
nothing; we will simply take their money because we want it.
Paul Krugman calls them “belligerent” for wanting to keep
it. Is that what we have come to? When did we turn into a nation of
looters? Why do we revile the strong and
revere the weak? Why do we punish the
champion and reward last place? It
should be obvious to anyone that rich people consume less government services
than poor people and pay most of the taxes. We should be grateful to have them; instead we
demonize them.
It is stupid to hate rich people; all of us either work for
rich people, or work for organizations funded by the taxes they pay or
donations they make. We will not earn
more when they keep less. Taxing them is
a lose/lose proposition, which unfortunately has become this administration’s
signature move.
Wealth is neither moral nor immoral; it is simply the
difference between what is produced and what is consumed over a lifetime. People who spend more than they earn become
poorer, people who earn more than they spend become richer. With the obvious exceptions of crooks and
shnooks, rich people only get that way by providing us with the things we
want. Only a fool – or a jealous
socialist - would want to punish someone for that.
And besides, who really suffers when we “tax the rich”? Your
dentist is undoubtedly rich under Mr. Obama’s fluid definition; so where will
she get the money to pay the new taxes she will owe next year? You will give it to her one filling, crown,
cleaning, and bridge at a time. Ditto
your doctor, your car dealer, your landlord, your store keeper, your favorite
artists, etc. Trickle-down economics
works for taxes, too.
Every time the hucksters in Congress pretend to sock it to “big
fill-in-the-blank”, it is the little fill-in-the-blanks who get screwed. You are already feeling the love this year if
you tan, smoke, drink, drive, buy health insurance, or register a gun. A recent study showed that the President’s
proposed tax increases will cost $1,500 for a Wisconsin
family of four making $60,000. That is
not rich to me.
Another recent study revealed that White House appointees
owe a combined $817,000 of back income taxes, and that government employees
nationwide are over $2 billion in arrears.
These tax cheats’ average income is $120,000 per year and their health
care benefits cost us $21,000. Isn’t
that just ducky?
We ask the parasites to recycle a few drops of blood to pay the
unemployment benefits for the millions of people their bungling incompetence have
made jobless, and they can’t be bothered.
Too busy calling us
greedy. Too busy calling us selfish, uncaring, imperialist,
exploiters, racist. Too busy telling us we don’t pay our fair share; that we
owe them more.
How about this for a tax policy: we don’t pay another dime
until all of the government deadbeats are current. Let those 16,000 new IRS agents squeeze the
blood out of their own turnips before they come after the rest of us.
Increasing taxes on the wealthy will not stimulate economic
growth and it will not eliminate the deficit.
The President’s tax increase on the richest 1% would only balance the
budget for 9 days. In fact, we could
take all of their earnings and it would
still not pay for all of the spending in Washington.
Reality check: we spend 50% more than we
tax – 50%.
We have to spend less, not tax more, if we want our economy
to recover.
They have figured this out in Germany,
France, Greece, Britain,
China, Venezuela, and even Cuba, where Castro will cut a
million government jobs in the next year.
He is down there channeling Chris Christie while our guys are
high-fiving over the millions of cube jockeys they have added – the mind
boggles.
My advice to candidates who want to get elected this year: name
the programs, agencies, and departments you would eliminate and the amounts you
would cut from the budgets of those which remain. The truth will not just set you free, it will
send you to Washington and Madison.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian
writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment and
order his new book, “Tooth Fairy Government.”
