Cracking open today’s WSJ, you’ll find an article entitled “There’s No Escaping Hauser’s Law” by W. Kurt Hauser on its opinion pages. The pull quote reads, “Tax revenues as a share of GDP have averaged just under 19% whether tax rates are cut or raised. Better to get 19% of a larger pie.”
Seems plausible enough. At least, there appears to be enough data to back it up. So, why is our government doing everything it can to keep its heel firmly planted on the neck of business?
The Left’s battle cry remains, “Tax cuts? Who will pay for it?” It implies that there is presently not enough money to pay for government programs. We can agree on least that much. The solution would seem to be growing the pie and thus increasing the revenue stream to government coffers by first and foremost lowering taxes.
Since we refuse to do this, it becomes obvious that for the Left tax revenue is not the issue. Socialism is.
The disagreements we have on this blog are relatively minor. We all share the same basic assumptions. Not so the Left. The Left does not believe in economies; they do not believe in the individual’s right of free expression; they do not believe in success; they do not believe in failure as an option. The Left intends to enforce equality. For this to happen, success must be reduced to failure. Failure is so much easier to achieve. So, failure it is; standards removed; judgment banned.
It took Marx over 300 pages to write “Das Kapital”. It would take me at least that much to refute it. And even so, the Left cannot be converted. Equality is like a religion to them. And it’s taken on aspects of jihad. That’s why the Left refuses to engage (except on its own terms). The Left aims to win. Worldwide communism; worldwide Caliphate.
Anyone who still thinks Obama is in some way deficient is a fool. In the U.S. president’s mind he is succeeding. Brand Obama a socialist or a Muslim all you want. It does not scare the Left. They operate under entirely different assumptions. To them, capitalism’s success is a false success. It is evil. Equality is their one and only goal. Whether it is achieved by forced labor (“Arbeit Macht Frei”), gulag or shariah is all the same to them. Capitalism must be destroyed. It’s a war in which the only outcome can be the domination of one over the other. Metrics don’t matter.
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It's odd to call these "tax cuts" when they aren't cuts at all, but just an extension of existing rates.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they think they can sell their scheme to the public by calling them "cuts".
"... why is our government doing everything it can to keep its heel firmly planted on the neck of business?
Some time back, Obama was asked in an interview about tax cuts for the rich. The interviewer asked him if he believed that cuts would improve the economy.
Obama agreed, but said "it wouldn't be fair".
Recently, a commentator (I think on the Batchelor Show) said that not only should we not increase tax rates for the rich, we should decrease them.
The Left seems to view the rich as playboy jet-setters who light big Cuban cigars with $100 bills and hop on private jets for weekends in Monaco. (Of course, it's OK for Al Gore to jet across the planet for a weekend conference, because his heart's in the right place.)
It's not the poor who hire people, build businesses, and grow the economy - except for those few who see that the way up is to do just that. But it's the rich who have the businesses already, who can hire people already - if only the government would step aside.
Another argument in favor of lesser taxes for the rich is that it would encourage and enable the middle class to work themselves up.
Then there's the odd fact - which you won't hear from the Left - that the richest, making up 5% or so of the population, pay 40% or so of all the taxes collected (approximately), and that 40% (or so) of the population pay no taxes at all.
I'm sure there's some economic term to describe the process of collecting exorbitant taxes from the people with money, and giving it to people without (and naturally, keeping a cut for themselves).
"40% or so of all the taxes collected (approximately), and that 40% (or so) of the population pay no taxes at all."
ReplyDeleteI've always had trouble with this one. Everyone pays some kind of tax: sales, usage, property, pass-alongs. And even those who get it all back at the end of the year are denied the interest they would accrue if they had deposited that same money in the bank.