This is really a topic worthy of discussion. When one is taxed heavier, one can less easily give to charity. I would rather give gladly at a local level than be extorted on a federal level. Plus there is nothing keeping these ultra-wealthy people from paying more taxes. They like to get on television and say I wish I could pay more. 15 minutes of fame whores. nothing more.
You nailed it there. The pious liberals pretend they would pay more taxes, but don't do so, even when able to check the "pay more" box on their IRS forms.
Yet, when faced with someone like Romney who actually gives substantial amounts to charitable institutions which are clearly more effective at charity than the government, they say "it doesn't count".
When money is confiscated in the form of taxes, in a conservative administration those funds are to be used for the constitutionally mandated functions of government, or in the case of state and local taxes, for the provision of basic public services. It is when tax dollars are used to redistribute wealth to those who can not or will not earn it themselves that the line is drawn on moral grounds...The choice of who receives this assistance becomes one made by the general consensus as defined by laws that are enacted by a duly elected body, or by fiat when bureaucrats arbitrarily decide the beneficiaries. That is what we face now, and the latter must be banned or we are sunk as a nation.
Garrett Gruener is founder of Ask.com and a co-founder of Alta Partners, a venture capital firm. He was also a candidate for the 2003 California recall special election from the Democratic Party, finishing 28th in a field of 135 candidates with 2,562 votes.
He has been working for more than two decades in the fields of software development, systems engineering and corporate development. In 1982, he founded Virtual Microsystems, a communications software company that was later merged with a larger corporation. He also founded Ask Jeeves, now Ask.Com, an Internet search engine which is now part of IAC.
Garrett specializes in information technology and is on the board of directors of nCircle Network Security, Xelerated and Nanomix, where he also currently serves as acting CEO.
Gruener was one of the candidates to aggressively use the Internet to push his message, and also ran campaign ads in selected television markets.
However, he was concerned about eventual winner Arnold
Schwarzenegger winning and so in the last week of the campaign threw his support to Cruz Bustamante, the primary Democratic candidate. Gruener received $1.07 million in contributions to his committee.
Gruener is a class of ‘76 UCSD Alumus. He lives with his wife, attorney Amy Slater, and their daughter Dakota Gruener, in Berkeley.
The naivete' shown by this statement is offensive, especially coming from the Cato Institute. Taxes are THE main way the economy is damaged badly enough for the same government that imposes the crushing taxes, to declare even more crushing taxes are needed to take care of the people impoverished by the crushing taxes. For a "scholar" not acknowledge this fundamental self-reinforcing cycle, with fully HALF the population on govenment support, is inexcusable.