Fiscal Cliff? Tax the Rich

Townhall.com ^ | November 10, 2012 | John Ransom

[trebb]

When was the last time you’ve heard “we have a deal.” and actually ever seen the budget cuts enacted? Fact is, the tax increases always get etched in stone and enacted, yet cuts fall by the wayside and NEVER HAPPEN Sorry, I’ve lost faith in all of them left and right. Even if we go over the cliff, the cuts will never happen.

Sorry to say it, but you are absolutely correct. The GOP has proved that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. They keep making "good faith" deals and the other side keeps reneging. There is no polite or politic way to deal with them. Until we decide to throw the PC bull$h-- out the window and start using more forceful (take that as you may want to interpret it) tactics, they will continue to have their way and amass more despotic power. People like the Left used to be treated like the pariahs they are and would be run out of town on a rail. Today, it is considered to be bad manners to disagree with them. Decent people will have to do indecent things if we are to recover from the cancer that has eaten away our core.

[beef]

How about a special tax on trust funds? We all know these rich libs have their finances structured into these complicated instruments that preserve their wealth for generations. Maybe we can create taxes that target this. We hear about trust funds all the time, but does anyone really know how they work? I,for one, whould like to know.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Taxing trust funds: I don't think you want to go there. As it exists now, trusts pay income tax on any undistributed income, and the recipients of distributed income pay tax. The only way to squeeze out more is to tax trust principal. Wealth tax is a very slippery slope. If the government starts to hit wealth that's been accumulated despite its best efforts to bleed income, there will be some VERY unhappy voters, Dem as well as GOP.

It's bad enough that wealth gets taxed if its real estate or a car, and that there's all sorts of pension restrictions, but those are disguised wealth taxes.

If what you are thinking of is taxing all accumulated wealth above some amount, I think you'll be sorry. Capital accumulation will be severely affected, and with it jobs and general economic well being. It will be eating the seed corn.

[beef]

“As it exists now, trusts pay income tax on any undistributed income, and the recipients of distributed income pay tax.”

Are they using that income to build the economy, or to support themselves in a high style while they tear it down for the rest of us? Think of all the heirs and heiresses spouting leftist platitudes so they can get invited to Hollywood cocktail parties. A lot of people who have fabulous wealth they did not earn are using it to make my life miserable, and I resent it.

Look, we are going to have to negotiate with them, otherwise we go over the cliff and the negative consequences, real or imagined, will be blamed on us. Unless you can show me that going after trust funds will hurt the GOP more than the dems, then I say throw that out there and let their trust fund babies squeal.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Are they using that income to build the economy, or to support themselves in a high style while they tear it down for the rest of us?

It depends. Be careful before you cap wealth. What would you think if you had some enterprise of yours come through, and politicians decided to cap what you could give to your family after you were gone? Even if your family turned out to be liberal jerks? Who makes the decision?

[beef]

Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you. But the GOP is dying. They have the popular media totally against us. If this thing goes over the cliff, Obama can run the economy off the rails and we will take the fall. This is no time to stand pat. In order to survive, we have to outwit them, back them into corners, and expose their hypocrisy. That means we are going to have to make some proposals we might not totally like.

We are like an army standing in an open field while our enemies shoot at us from behind trees. And all while we complain about how unfair it is. If we do not find a rock soon, we are gonna get wiped out.