Posted on 09/17/2016 3:46:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
The perfect place to start a column like this is with that notorious Elizabeth Warren quote that made liberals fall in love with her.
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory... Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
Have you ever noticed how many straw men and false assumptions there are in those few short sentences?
For one thing, since roughly 45% of Americans pay no income taxes at all, “the rest of us” didn’t pay for roads, education, police forces or a military. Of course, that doesn’t even tell the whole story because 60% of American households receive more from the government than they pay in taxes. In other words, if you pay more in taxes than you receive from the government, you are a MINORITY in America today.
As someone who’s probably not going to be in the top 1% of income earners this year (The year’s not over yet and I’m an optimist!), but who pays a lot more in taxes than I receive in government services, let me just note that I APPRECIATE those 1%ers who are paying nearly half of all federal income taxes. Real world, if you add it all up, most of these people are paying somewhere around 50% of their net income in taxes. The ones that aren’t typically are paying a capital gains tax which should be called the, “We’re going to hit you again on the money you already paid on once because we can” tax.
The reason I appreciate them is that there are so many people who aren’t paying a dime in income tax toward the good of the nation. If those of us who are paying more in taxes than we take in government services aren’t “paying our fair share,” then what about the people who aren’t paying any income tax at all?
I’m greedy because I don’t want to pay any more in taxes? No, greed is wanting to take government services paid for by everyone else without paying ANYTHING for them. Didn’t those people take the same road to Wal-Mart as the rest of us? Weren’t schools made available to them? Didn’t the police protect them, too? So, why shouldn’t they be paying SOME TOKEN INCOME TAX for that when liberals like Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have the gall to accuse other people of not paying their “fair share?”
I will acknowledge that ALL AMERICANS, myself included, SHOULD have to pay something for the roads, street signs, police, the military and other commonly used utilities. But, why should I have to pay for Planned Parenthood, Obamacare and bank bailouts that I oppose 100%? Why should I have to pay for PBS? For the disability and welfare fraud that the government seems to no longer care about preventing? To school the kids of illegal aliens who shouldn’t be in this country in the first place? Sure, no matter how small the government may be, there will always be some programs that are controversial, but what happens when the majority of federal spending is on programs a taxpayer opposes or must be forced to participate in? That’s where many of us are in America today; yet we’re still called “greedy” and told that we should be happy to pay even more of our tax dollars to a corrupt, incompetent government that regularly works against our interests.
Well, let me tell you something: That’s not GREED.
GREED is accusing OTHER PEOPLE of not paying their “fair share” when you’re living off their money and not paying any income tax at all.
GREED is forgoing giving money to charity because you support a government program that gives OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY to the poor – and, yes, studies do show that conservatives give more to charity than liberals.
GREED is bringing in large numbers of immigrants and illegals who are taking some form of welfare because you think they’ll vote for you.
GREED is saying, “We’re going to campaign by asking people to give us their votes in return for programs you oppose that we’re going to create with YOUR MONEY.”
If you want to find the GREEDIEST people in America, just turn on C-SPAN the next time Congress is in session and look at the liberal Democrats.
Clinton Foundation Corruption Protection:
Audit by Peter Comey, DLA Piper LLC ,
and protection by his brother, the Crooked Comey of HBSC and the corrupt
(even Whitey Bulger is more far more honest) FBI.
Does anyone know of a ‘poor’ Democrat spokesperson of fame?
I sure don’t.
These liberal grifters are those who donot earn thier money but take it by force, deception, scams and favors. Politics is the perfect environment for thier corrupt machine to work well. A bottomless pit of money that no one is responsible for and that can be used for personal gain
I never understood libtard hatred and vindictiveness toward successful people or their fair share bullcrap. Only a small portion of the nation’s adults actually finance the government and their nutty liberal ideas. Why wouldn’t they glorify and applaud the few that make enough cash to finance all that? Why wouldn’t they pursue pro-growth strategies to ensure that those adept enough to earn keep earning more to fund their boondoggles? Instead they pursue only Venezuela Strategies that are doomed to feed on itself until death. Nutty.
One of the most dismissive statements of one of the biggest elitists.
They also don’t pay their taxes. Charlie Rengel, Tom Daschle, Obama nominated and got confirmed Tim Geithner so who are Democrats to demand Trump release his taxes?!!
What irks me most about this line of thinking is how it completely turns the table on the purpose of government. Nothing is owed to government. Government is organized by the people to facilitate commerce and community. Government is our creation, and we grant it certain privileges and powers to be a neutral, fair, utilitarian arbiter to centrally plan for our collective social and economic needs. The roads and police and schools are where tax money is supposed to go. Taxes paid are how and why this infrastructure was built in the first place. These are the reason we pay taxes!
Somehow we allowed our political expressions to morph from a country of, by and for the people into one of, by and for the government. Not just Federal but state and local. The quintessential example of this metamorphosis is happening in Illinois. The state has created a pension system for its employees that is so lucrative that it cannot realistically afford to keep it going. When officials tried to modify the benefits programs the state supreme court shut them down saying that any such change is illegal under the state Constitution. So now they are stuck with a bill to give more money to government workers than they can reasonably raise from the productive taxpayers. Chicago will be the next Detroit, and Illinois the next Michigan. The politicians will have to tax the citizens to destructive levels just to feed the beast that is their government, including retirees from the public sector who are now likely to live more years in retirement, collecting benefits, than they spent in service.
That’s a fact.
We're not quite there yet, but we are well on our way.
The “greediest people in the world” are leftists from liberal democrats to Stalinists. They crave personal possession of everything in the world. Stalin and Mao made the most progress so far to that ideal.
That's really Illinois' problem to deal with. From everything I've read, the court decision was absolutely correct in that case because the state Constitution has a clear provision that can't be violated.
If the people in Illinois don't see fit to amend their own Constitution to fix this problem, then the place should be allowed to decline into insolvency.
I said to my wife: "These people will steal the gold out of your teeth if you don't keep your mouth shut."
My wife said: "Yes. And feel good about it because the 'Earth Mother Goddess' told them to."
The climax came when a "friend" tried to get us to give her $10,000 as part of a pyramid scheme. The pyramid letter said not to bother with people who are "into negativity and retraction" and won't "contribute" to you; just go on to somebody else. I replied: "No. I'm into negativity and contraction."
Another "enlightened being" described how she went to live in a place called something like "The House of Joy and Love" or something like that. As she was moving in, the head honcho was "hitting" on her and telling her that she had too many "material possessions" but that they would help her with that. They did.
It didn't take long for me to catch on to what these people are all about.
One of the most dismissive statements of one of the biggest elitists.
Implicit argument: "Any criminal can do that - but it takes real heart and talent to be in government service."
I swear their handlers stay up late at night reading Atlas Shrugged to steal tomorrow's sound bites from the villains. :)
Add to that the Obamacare 'extras' on high-income returns with investments. "The Net Investment Income Tax is imposed by section 1411 of the Internal Revenue Code. The NIIT applies at a rate of 3.8% to certain net investment income of individuals, estates and trusts that have income above the statutory threshold amounts." Also, if the taxpayer is over 65 then his Medicare Premiums are increased by the amount on the tax return from the prior -1 tax year. Also one can add the AMT, Sch.A limits on charity donations and the cap on Capital Gain losses at $3k/year (with carry forward)!
Liberal Democrats are what they claim to hate the two face of a liberal.
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