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This is from my Obama loving friend that I have posted about in the past, I warn you, it’s a long one!

“Well trickle down didn’t work either now did it? I have news for you. We
already are acting like a socialist nation by bailing out the banks,
insurance companies and wall street. Also, we are already redistributing
wealth...that’s what Progressive tax means. The rich pay more. It’s already
happening. All Obama wants to do is bring back Clinton’s tax bracket on the
rich. Look how well it worked. He left office with the biggest surplus this
country had ever seen. Even Bush Sr with his read my lips about face did the
same thing bc of the huge deficit Reagan left him. Do you believe in our
educational system, military and infrastructure and the future of this
country? well who do you think needs to step up to the plate and pay for it?
The poor? The people that can ARE the rich. Now obviously that’s what the
progressive tax makes happen, even now.
Isn’t that more fair? Shouldn’t everyone pay the same amount?

In a word— no. It’s not more fair; it’s appallingly unfair. Why? The rich
should pay more taxes, because the rich get more from the government.

Consider defense, for example, which makes up 20% of the budget. Defending
the country benefits everyone; but it benefits the rich more, because they
have more to defend. It’s the same principle as insurance: if you have a
bigger house or a fancier car, you pay more to insure it.

Social security payments, which make up another 20% of the budget, are
dependent on income— if you’ve put more into the system, you get higher
payments when you retire.

Investments in the nation’s infrastructure— transportation, education,
research & development, energy, police subsidies, the courts, etc.— again
are more useful the more you have. The interstates and airports benefit
interstate commerce and people who can travel, not ghetto dwellers. Energy
is used disproportionately by the rich and by industry.

As for public education, the better public schools are the ones attended by
the moderately well off. The very well off ship their offspring off to
private schools; but it is their companies that benefit from a well-educated
public. (If you don’t think that’s a benefit, go start up an engineering
firm, or even a factory, in El Salvador. Or Watts.)

The FDIC and the S&L bailout obviously most benefit investors and large
depositors. A neat example: a smooth operator bought a failing S&L for $350
million, then received $2 billion from the government to help resurrect it.

Beyond all this, the federal budget is top-heavy with corporate welfare.
Counting tax breaks and expenditures, corporations and the rich snuffle up
over $400 billion a year— compare that to the $1400 budget, or the $116
billion spent on programs for the poor.

Where’s all that money go? There’s direct subsidies to agribusiness ($18
billion a year), to export companies, to maritime shippers, and to various
industries— airlines, nuclear power companies, timber companies, mining
companies, automakers, drug companies. There’s billions of dollars in
military waste and fraud. And there’s untold billions in tax credits,
deductions, and loopholes. Accelerated depreciation alone, for instance, is
estimated to cost the Treasury $37 billion a year— billions more than the
mortgage interest deduction. (Which itself benefits the people with the
biggest mortgages. But we should encourage home ownership, shouldn’t we?
Well, Canada has no interest deduction, but has about the same rate of home
ownership.)”