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Liberal Logic in Soaking the Rich: They believe the paychecks of the 1% belong to the government
Pajamas Media ^
| 10/17/2015
| Rick Moran
Posted on 10/17/2015 7:50:14 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Interesting piece in the New York Times by Patricia Cohen about how easy it would be to raise taxes on the “1%” in order to see tens of billions of additional revenue for the government.
I had to read this twice to make sure it wasn’t a parody.
The top 1 percent on average already pay roughly a third of their incomes to the federal government, according to a Treasury Department analysis that takes into account the entire menu of taxes including income tax, payroll taxes that fund Medicare and Social Security, estate and gift taxes, excise and custom duties as well as investors share of corporate taxes. The tax bite on the top 0.1 percent is a bit higher. Most of those taxpayers insist they are already paying more than enough.
By comparison, the band of taxpayers right below them, in the 95th to 99th percentile, pay on average about $1 out of every $4. Those in the bottom half pay less than $1 out of every $10.
Sidestepping for the moment the messy question of just which taxes would be increased, how much more revenue could be generated by asking the rich to pay a larger share of their income in taxes?
“Sidestepping” which taxes to increase is shorthand for saying, “What follows is meaningless except to liberals who want other people’s money to spend.”
To get the most accurate picture possible, throw in all the scraps of income, from the most obvious (like wages, interest and dividends) to the least (like employer contributions to health plans, overseas earnings and growth in retirement accounts). According to that measure used by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution the top 1 percent includes about 1.13 million households earning an average income of $2.1 million.
Raising their total tax burden to, say, 40 percent would generate about $157 billion in revenue the first year. Increasing it to 45 percent brings in a whopping $276 billion. Even taking account of state and local taxes, the average household in this group would still take home at least $1 million a year.
How exciting is that? Robbing people of half their income is a good thing! But hey — they still got a million bucks. What are they complaining about?
You want a “social justice” issue? How about the justice of someone working more than 5 months out of the year solely for government? Five months where not a dime is spent on one’s family. Not a dime is put away for your kid’s college or for your retirement.
Who the hell cares if they still have a million dollars? They used to have two million until Clinton and Sanders got their dirty hands on the fruit their labors. To say “they can afford to pay more” misses the point entirely.
This is what liberals and socialists just don’t get. They believe your paycheck — and the paychecks of the 1% — belong to the government and that it is government that determines how much you get to keep. Conservatives, on the other hand, believe that your money is your property and it is the collective will of the American people who determines how much government can take.
That’s what these “income inequality” schemes are all about. It is government that should determine how “rich” is rich and that some people have too much. So you jack up resentment and envy against those who are more successful than others to justify reaching deeper into their pockets because they are “too rich.”
It is subjective madness that bears no relationship to reality. Ask the French how their “soak the rich” plan turned out?
French President Hollande wanted a 75% tax rate on incomes over a million dollars. How did that work out for ya, Francois?
Hollande has apparently been mugged by a cruel Econ 101 reality that higher government spending and soak-the-rich economics may be a winner in faculty lounges across the country but is a depressant in practice.
The budget deficit hasn’t fallen; it has risen. Businesses have moved out of France. Rich people are taking their money elsewhere, too. You can’t tax wealth if it flees, after all.
So now Hollande says that it is time for a 180-degree well, maybe 90-degree change in direction. Make France “business friendly” is his latest crusade.
Hollande promises to cut taxes, relieve regulations that it make it hard for businesses to start up and expand, and lower the budget by 50 billion euros. No one will mistake France’s president for Ronald Reagan or Milton Friedman, but this is a dramatic repudiation of the socialist agenda.
Do you think Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton will learn anything from that? Non, non, mon amis.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: economy; government; inequality; obamarecession; obamataxhikes; paycheck; rich
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To: SeekAndFind
Correction: Liberals believe that EVERYBODY’S paychecks belong to the government, so that government can redistribute it at will.
To: SeekAndFind
Thou shall not covet. Liberal buffoons always want to take other people's money to perform some magical stunt that sheds Utopian perfume over the entire society. Their income is always exempt and when has that ever worked? No matter how much the federal government takes in, it is never enough, and it never will be. This is all designed for ultimate control under the auspices of greed and corruption. Enough. Wake up.
3
posted on
10/17/2015 7:57:02 PM PDT
by
Fungi
To: SeekAndFind
Liberals see everything as static. They think they can simply raise taxes on the rich and the rich will simply roll over and pay. What the rich will do is move to a low tax nation and renounce their citizenship. The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
4
posted on
10/17/2015 7:57:32 PM PDT
by
Blood of Tyrants
(There's a right to gay marriage in the Constitution but there is no right of an unborn baby to life.)
To: ConjunctionJunction
> Correction: Liberals believe that EVERYBODYS paychecks belong to the government, so that government can redistribute it at will.
not completely correct. Not THEIR own paychecks, particularly if they are a rich celebrity like a an actor, singer, or athlete...
To: jsanders2001
To: SeekAndFind
Progressives do not care if raising taxes creates no benefit. They only mean to punish the rich (who are not their friends).
Look for a call for a ‘Maximum wage’ soon.
7
posted on
10/17/2015 8:00:08 PM PDT
by
griswold3
(Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
To: SeekAndFind
We are in such bad shape financially that they could confiscate everything from the top 10% and it would not right the ship - only kill future revenue.
But then again, they don’t understand that and class warfare is a tactic that always works for the rats.
8
posted on
10/17/2015 8:00:17 PM PDT
by
volunbeer
To: ConjunctionJunction
Liberals believe that EVERYBODYS paychecks (except for their own) belong to the government, so that government can redistribute it at will.
9
posted on
10/17/2015 8:05:46 PM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
To: SeekAndFind
Liberalism is a version of killing the golden goose.
They seem to think wealthy are an infinite source and they can suckle from the wealthy whenever they need money for their pet projects.
As Lady Thatcher said, socialism (a.k.a., liberalism) is fine until you run out of other people’s money.
10
posted on
10/17/2015 8:06:24 PM PDT
by
TomGuy
To: jsanders2001
You beat me to it.
I guess it was just too obvious.
11
posted on
10/17/2015 8:06:24 PM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
To: SeekAndFind
the rich do not allow themselves to be taxed heavily....
they'll figure a way to avoid taxes....
the taxes always fall on the middle class, the working class...the class of people too "rich" to get scholarships and freebies from the govt but too poor to take vacations and have vacation homes.
its easier to go after us...we're the good citizens...the givers, not the takers...the ones who really do the work...the lion's share of whats good in this country..
and damn, we're honest...honest to the bone...
its hard for us to cheat on taxes or screw some poor sap....
12
posted on
10/17/2015 8:07:32 PM PDT
by
cherry
To: SeekAndFind
I was at the county fair today and stopped by the dimocrat tent for fun. Asked the ny transplant if the clintons really believed this nonsense would they give up their income.
Her reply......they earned it!
My reply....so have the others.
It was like arguing with a computer stuck in a loop.
13
posted on
10/17/2015 8:08:15 PM PDT
by
ealgeone
To: SeekAndFind
I no longer care...just make it stop.
14
posted on
10/17/2015 8:08:43 PM PDT
by
EBH
( “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”)
To: volunbeer
Almost, but not quite right:
"They" understand perfectly well that class warfare always works for the Rats. Its worked so well for socialists / "progressives" in the past that their confidence is well earned.
15
posted on
10/17/2015 8:09:20 PM PDT
by
norton
To: SeekAndFind
When the Obamahole was asked about raising taxes
even IF IT HURT tax revenues
he said he still would, to make things "more fair".
16
posted on
10/17/2015 8:13:37 PM PDT
by
mountn man
(The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
To: griswold3; SeekAndFind
Progressives do not care if raising taxes creates no benefit. They only mean to punish the rich (who are not their friends). You are touching on the truth.
Tax policy is legal extortion.
Progressive congress critters have been using tax law to extort campaign contributions for decades.
It is a carrot and stick approach.
Give me money and I will write exemptions to this new tax that will greatly benefit you. If you dont; well, this new tax law will take money out of your pocket and put it in the pocket of some deserving poor person. We are going to get this money one way or another. Your contribution may buy you a little slack.
Corporate tax law works the same way.
17
posted on
10/17/2015 8:26:58 PM PDT
by
Pontiac
(The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
To: SeekAndFind
It is not just the income of the “rich” that liberals want, some of the wealthiest people have relatively low income. It’s all that money that people have locked up in stocks & bonds and the middle earners have socked away in I.R.A.s, 401Ks etc they are after. Liberal/socialist/communist, all one and the same.
To: SeekAndFind
The left will never soak the rich. They are the rich.
To: griswold3
Look for a call for a Maximum wage soon.
***********************************************************************
Liberals have been calling for that for quite some time. Maximum wage for C.E.O.s, saying no C.E.O. should make 22 times what their average employee makes.
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