I am so tired of hearing about the tax rates of the rich and how they need to be higher. It’s gotten quite ridiculous. And the health care reform bill that’ll be likely voted out of the Senate Finance Committee contains in it a 40%, that’s right 40%, excise tax on so-called “cadillac plans.” By which they mean $8,000+ for individuals or $21,000+ for families. The average health care plan costs people $7,200. Doesn’t take much to get to having a cadillac plan, does it? If memory serves, they increased the point at which the tax takes effect for those in high risk jobs, like mining. How kind of them.
Here’s the key though: Senator Baucus wants to tax the wealthy. How dare you have health care a little above average! This isn’t capitalism. Oh, wait, yeah it is. 40% tax. That’s incredibly high. How dare people want better for themselves than the average American has indeed. Because we wouldn’t want anyone to be above average, would we? But, don’t worry, the people aren’t that opposed to this provision. After all, the rich can afford to pay more, so shouldn’t they?
A progressive tax system is a good thing. It’s not ideal, but unless really drastic cuts in government spending and programs happen (like that’ll ever happen) then that’s the only way to make it work. But people need to get off the backs of the wealthy. I saw a poll recently that said that if Congress and President Obama raised the income tax rate on the top tax bracket to 50% (it’s at more like 39% right now) then over half the country would support that. Really? How ridiculous. The wealthy, between the various taxes and levels of government, brings home less than half of their income. Is that not bad enough? Must we make it worse? People seem to support that.
Then there’s this report, which has just astonishing numbers. Forty-seven percent of the country will pay no income tax for 2009. That’s nearly half the country. Seventy-one million households. In all fairness, the report notes that it doesn’t take into account payroll taxes. Once that’s done, 24% of households have a net liability of zero or less. One fourth of the country will either pay nothing to the federal government or will get money from the federal government as a net gain for themselves personally. But people incredibly don’t think the system is progressive enough. Really? That’s so breathtakingly anti-capitalist it’s hard to comprehend.
To be sure, to call President Obama a socialist would be making heavy use of hyperbole. But to deny that he has any hints of socialism is naivete taken to a ridiculous extreme. The CNN report says,
“He [President Obama] has proposed increasing the income tax burden on families making more than $250,000 and individuals making more than $200,000, while offering new measures to reduce the tax bite for Americans making less.”
The top 20% of this country pays for 80% of this country. But that’s clearly not enough. As I noted at the beginning, the progressive tax system is the only thing that can sustain the kind of spending Americans have come to expect from their government. But they’re still politically equal to the poor, despite paying for a hell of a lot more of this country than the poor pay for.
The rich pay way more than their fair share. They should have their taxes cut. And I’m not saying that because I think trickle-down economics works. I don’t care if it works. The system is too progressive. Some is necessary, but too much is not good. If nothing else, can we agree that there’s an infringement upon freedom to collect taxes? It’s an infringement we all agree upon, in exchange for certain government functions (like the armed forces). But it is nevertheless an infringement. A tax system this progressive is infringing too much upon the successful class of Americans. And what do they get in exchange for it? An ungrateful America complaining about their alleged greed and “too-low” tax rates. Remember, nearly half of this country’s households will pay no income tax for 2009. And one-fourth of households in America will pay nothing or receive some money from the federal government for 2009. Who seems to be not paying their fair share now?
[...] 39.6% of the money they earned so we can cut taxes for the middle class. Nearly half this country won’t be paying taxes this year, and none of those people are the rich. Want to raise money? Don’t do it on the [...]