Posted on 04/26/2003 6:39:47 AM PDT by TheRedSoxWinThePennant
Tax Cuts Don't Resonate With Nontaxpayers
Published: Apr 27, 2003
My thanks to Scott A. Hodge, executive director of the Tax Foundation, for passing along this little story. Suppose that every day, 10 men went out for dinner. The bill for all 10 came to $100. They decided to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so they divided the bill like this:
The first four men - the poorest - would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1, the sixth $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18, and the 10th man - the wealthiest - would pay $59.
One day the restaurant owner threw them a curve (in tax language, a tax cut).
``Since you are all such good customers,'' he said, ``I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.''
Continuing To Eat For Free
The group still wanted to pay the bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six - the paying customers? How would they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ``fair share''?
The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal.
So at the restaurant owner's suggestion, they arrived at this new distribution: The fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the 10th man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off, and the first four continued to eat for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. ``I only got a dollar out of the $20,'' declared the sixth man, then, pointing to the 10th. ``But he got $7!'' ``Yeah, that's right,'' exclaimed the fifth man. ``I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that the wealthy get all the breaks!''
``Wait a minute,'' yelled the first four men in unison. ``We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!''
The nine men surrounded the 10th and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late, what was very important. They were $52 short of paying the bill.
The lesson here is one that congressional opponents of President Bush's efforts to reduce income taxes well understand. But for political reasons they have chosen to engage in class warfare, deliberately misleading their constituents with speeches decrying administration tax policies that ``favor the rich.''
A Generally Unspoken Aspect
But if we are to cut taxes and thereby stimulate the economy (as Kennedy and Reagan so successfully did), we must cut the taxes of the people who pay taxes in the first place. And this year 35.8 million tax filers (representing 69.6 million people) will pay no federal income taxes at all. That's 26.7 percent of the 133 million tax returns the government expects will be filed in 2003.
Ironically had Congress adopted the president's original tax-reduction plan, millions of additional Americans would have been freed of any and all income tax liability.
Surely lower federal taxes are welcomed by the majority of people who pay taxes, but most of the solons on Capitol Hill opposing the Bush plan are catering to folks who, perhaps because of adversity, don't pay their way. They rate kindly concern, even as those who pay the freight deserve a break.
Some people will NEVER get it.
The headline is most certainly correct, the question becomes then, how do we as conservatives fight the good fight?
Here are some things I feel we must do and say in concert which may improve our chances of winning the debate:
1-Whenever we hear the opposition's mantra "tax cut for the rich" we must in knee jerk fashion correct them by inserting the words "investors, entrepreneurs and employers" for the word "rich". The "rich", admittedly do not "need" a tax cut, but our ECONOMY DOES.
2-We must not confront "tax recipients" as the enemy here, no amount of beating them up will aid our cause. Our thrust must follow the simple, easily understandable and proven reasoning that tax cuts to investors, entrepreneurs and employers will inevitably lead to better, higher paying jobs, and thus a RESTORATION OF THE DIGNITY which those who don't pay taxes unmistakably crave.
3-The success of welfare reform tells us that we must advocate a similar "sunset provision" or time limit on the various income redistributive payments related to tax policy, as this "zap" was pivotal in making welfare reform work as well as it did.
4-We must consistently and concertedly confront the opposition and the "tax recipients" with the question; Do you really want your employer, or your potential employer to be punished by tax policy for hiring.........you? Do you really feel it's good for you that the person who signs your checks is the declared enemy of the Democratic Party?
5-To assume that the "tax recipients" are all terminally lazy has been proven to be incorrect, and plays right into the hands of those who say we are "hard hearted". We therefore must assume the posture that we are Republicans PRECISELY BECAUSE we care about those at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
The annual federal tax burden on every man, woman and child in this country is $9,000. Since there are only 120,000,000 tax returns filed, that means that 160,000,000 Americans don't actually pay taxes. They are children, stay at home parents, retirees and low income. 57% don't pay anything. That means the real annual tax burden on the 43% of Americans that are tax payers is $21,000 each.
Roughly half of all earned income is legally extorted in federal, state, local, use and property taxes. The next time you are in a traffic jam, in a filled stadium, or any other large venue, remember that all of those thousands and thousands of people give HALF of all of their earnings to one controlling body...government. It's staggering to contemplate. These various politicians take half your money and carp that you aren't giving enough. " America, it's your money. Politcians don't exactly have a good track record on spending your hard-earned money. Maybe it's time you get a say in the matter."
Good point.
And remember that half of those people pay 96% of federal taxes & the other half pay 4%.
And remember that one person out of every 20 in the crowd (i.e., 5%) pays over HALF the total.
A Generally Unspoken Aspect
But if we are to cut taxes and thereby stimulate the economy (as Kennedy and Reagan so successfully did), we must cut the taxes of the people who pay taxes in the first place. And this year 35.8 million tax filers (representing 69.6 million people) will pay no federal income taxes at all. That's 26.7 percent of the 133 million tax returns the government expects will be filed in 2003.
Will we ever get a POLs to define what is the bottom $ annual figure for rich is? If it were a whole lot of folks would be royally T.O.!
As to tax cuts the DU can sure pass increases in taxes fast enough and spending bills for new pet programs fast enough, but tax cuts, OH NO!
DU DORKS!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.