The DC’s Michelle Fields crashed the “Patriotic millionaires” pro-tax party, and asked if they would be willing to put their money where their mouths are and voluntarily donate money to the US Treasury whether Congress increases their taxes or not. She even had an iPad with her so they could donate on the spot. To a man, they declined and treated the whole thing as a joke.
It is a joke, but that’s the point. We could pass a law to confiscate all of the wealth of all of the top 1% and it wouldn’t make a dent in our structural spending addiction. We have a long term deficit problem created by too much spending, not too little revenue. The Tea Party Debt Commission is serious about trying to tackle that problem, so serious that they have come out with a plan that they say cuts $9 trillion in spending and balances the budget in four years. All these millionaires would do with their tax hike is give the government another few billion to burn. That doesn’t change anything. They’re not serious, they just want to do is feel good about themselves and align themselves with a pet cause. And while they’re putting their faces on this call for higher taxes, rest assured that their accountants are busy finding and exploiting every possible tax deduction.
These “patriotic” millionaires could show some seriousness by calling for real spending cuts. They’re not doing that. So they’re just a bunch of jokers, really.
I’d love to see someone ask that question — “Are you voluntarily paying above your tax liability to the Treasury now?” — to Pelosi, among many others. She’d probably say: “Are you kidding? Are you kidding?”
Please view the short video. One of the richies spilled the beans on their true agenda. He said that the middle class should also pay more.
Answer me this: Who can better afford more taxes, somebody earning $50k or somebody earning $1M? Who needs their after-tax money more for discretionary spending on things like clothes, food, shelter? Who can afford to cut back more easily?
Rich people can downsize from mansions to modest 3 bed, 2 bath homes and still live comfortably. They can shop at Wal-Mart and still live comfortably. Where do other people go to downsize?
(Nothing against wealthy people. I’m only against them using the system to tilt the playing field so that others lose equality of opportunity to employ the free market system to become upwardly mobile. You know, that same system which enabled these wealthy pro-tax ninnies to fly to DC on their dime to whine for more taxes.)
When politicians talk about raising taxes, they generally are talking about tax rates. Many on the Left naively believe that by raising tax rates, you raise revenues by the same amount. This believe – called static analysis – has been proven wrong many times.
If you want to raise more revenues, you should look to the things that’ve done the job several times in the past. Two of those things are to reduce marginal tax rates and cut capital tax rates. You see, when you raise tax rates, people change their economic behavior to reduce their tax burden. When you lower rates, people have incentives to earn more. If you examine IRS data from the 1980s to the present, you’ll find that “the rich” are paying more taxes (both as a percentage of all taxes collected and as a percentage of their income) today than they did before the tax rates were cut in 1986.
If your goal is “fairness” rather than raising revenue, then you’re deluded. During the 2008 campaign, Obama was asked about raising the capital gains tax rates and he said he was for it. When pressed further, he admitted he’d be for the rate increase even if it resulted in lower revenues because he thought that would be more “fair.” To me, that shows he is evil. In his warped view of fairness, he wants to punish “the rich” even if it also hurts the country.
“Answer me this: Who can better afford more taxes, somebody earning $50k or somebody earning $1M? Who needs their after-tax money more for discretionary spending on things like clothes, food, shelter? Who can afford to cut back more easily?”
You’re asking the wrong question. The government cannot possibly keep all the (finanical) promises it has made – there is not enough money – raising taxes on the ‘rich’ cannot cover the gap. Math doesn’t lie. And to continue to increase taxes on the private sector will lead to a contraction of our economic system (government is inefficient at allocating resources – and also too motived by its own political interests). The contraction will make us all poorer. The only people to benefit from an outsized government are government officials and the people closely conencted to government officials.
I don’t know who thought that giving most of our power and money to a group of self-interested politicians was a good idea? Who could possibly think this would end well?
Not the wrong question, just not the one you wanted to ask. By attempting to cast aspersions, you played into the feudalists’ gambit of divide and conquer. Think before you post.
“Think before you post” indeed.
You’re the one with the simplistic ‘raise taxes on the rich” plan. The rich do not have enough money to cover all the obligations and promises our government have made. The math just doesn’t work.
Secondly, I believe your plan to cut out the ‘rich’ from the herd and bleed them dry is the divide and conquer strategy.
Think before you post is still in effect here. What makes you think I’m promoting more taxes at all? You see what you expect to see. Two points:
1. As taxes increase, rich can afford the squeeze, because a smaller percent of their after-tax income is required for survival needs like housing, food, etc. These pro-tax richies know that they can afford to play their “compassionate” game here because in the end they will destroy competition from the upwardly mobile lower classes.
2. By making (wrong) assumptions, you detract from this discussion. So we’re still focusing on the need for you and others here who won’t use their real names to understand how their ignorance and lack of doing homework plays into the feudalists in both parties who want us to fight each other while they continue to pass laws eroding our rights. Divide and conquer, and you and “poster” below just got played.
Not only do I want taxes reduced across the board, I want my damn money back that the government has stolen and wasted.
“I’m only against them using the system to tilt the playing field so that others lose equality of opportunity to employ the free market system to become upwardly mobile.”
So true, but “the system” is government. Big Business (and Big Labor) has such a foothold on our country because self-interested politicians use their public power (and money) to benefit the people who support them – which are Big Business and Big Labor. It’s a symbiotic relationship between these groups. I think your real grip is with Big Government.
Prostiticians bought and paid for by corpy pimps. It’s all a cluster f*** and the 99% wasn’t invited.
Oh, this is cute. We have our own ‘Occupy’ troll here.
Is this “Occupy PJ Media”?
Howard may be many things, but a troll he is not. In fact, he’s a frequent PJM and Tatler contributor.
I say lets put John Kerry and Pelosi in chains and parade them around the country so people can throw eggs at them at $100 a pop.
The deficit will disappear in no time.
Personally, I would begin budgeting immediately for the monthly visit.
Never forget that it isn’t their advantages that they want eroded, it is your advantages.
What goes on between Washington DC and the banksters isn’t free enterprise, it is regulatory capture and crony fascism.