ClydeR
03-01-2009, 07:10 PM
I just finished my weekly review of the Sunday morning political teevee programs. Most of the Sunday morning talk dealt the tax increases that Obama proposes for 2011 in his newly released 2010 budget summary (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy10/index.html). Specifically, Obama wants to raise the top tax rate in 2011 to what it was during the Clinton years. Fortunately, Obama wants to limit that increase to those people making more than $250,000 per year, which Clinton did not do. But that kind of tax increase is still to much, and the teevee hosts were wise to spend most of their time on this issue and less time on Iraq and Afghanistan.
All the liberal folks on the teevee pretty much used the following facts from Obama's budget summary.
According to the Internal revenue Service, the Nation's top 400 taxpayers made more than $263 million on average in 2006, but paid income taxes at the lowest rate in the 15 years in which these data have been reported. In constant dollars, the average income of the top 400 taxpayers nearly quadrupled since 1992.
It's no surprise, then, that wealth began to be ever more concentrated at the top. By 2004, the wealthiest 10 percent of households held 70 percent of total wealth, and the combined net worth of the top 1 percent of families was larger than that of the bottom 90 percent. In fact, the top 1 percent took home more than 22 percent of total national income, up from 10 percent in 1980 (see Figure 9, Top One Percent of Earners).
While true, that analysis misses the important point. Most of the taxes in this country are paid by one small group. That group is 5% of the population. Although that 5% of the population owns 95% of the nation's wealth, they also have to pay 50% of the taxes. It's not fair or productive to impose 50% of the taxes on 5% of the population.
The purpose of changes in tax law should be to promote job creation. History has shown time and time again that the way to create jobs is to allow entrepreneurs to keep and reinvest their accumulated wealth and to unburden entrepreneurs from onerous government regulations. After pushing and pushing, Bush finally got us to the position described in the above quoted paragraphs, which is exactly where we need to be to create a lot of jobs when we emerge from the recession. The way to invest in the future is to continue Bush's policies. I hope Republicans continue to speak in favor of that strategy, or else Obama will undo it all.
All the liberal folks on the teevee pretty much used the following facts from Obama's budget summary.
According to the Internal revenue Service, the Nation's top 400 taxpayers made more than $263 million on average in 2006, but paid income taxes at the lowest rate in the 15 years in which these data have been reported. In constant dollars, the average income of the top 400 taxpayers nearly quadrupled since 1992.
It's no surprise, then, that wealth began to be ever more concentrated at the top. By 2004, the wealthiest 10 percent of households held 70 percent of total wealth, and the combined net worth of the top 1 percent of families was larger than that of the bottom 90 percent. In fact, the top 1 percent took home more than 22 percent of total national income, up from 10 percent in 1980 (see Figure 9, Top One Percent of Earners).
While true, that analysis misses the important point. Most of the taxes in this country are paid by one small group. That group is 5% of the population. Although that 5% of the population owns 95% of the nation's wealth, they also have to pay 50% of the taxes. It's not fair or productive to impose 50% of the taxes on 5% of the population.
The purpose of changes in tax law should be to promote job creation. History has shown time and time again that the way to create jobs is to allow entrepreneurs to keep and reinvest their accumulated wealth and to unburden entrepreneurs from onerous government regulations. After pushing and pushing, Bush finally got us to the position described in the above quoted paragraphs, which is exactly where we need to be to create a lot of jobs when we emerge from the recession. The way to invest in the future is to continue Bush's policies. I hope Republicans continue to speak in favor of that strategy, or else Obama will undo it all.