Patriotic, with ONE exception
I'm definitely an America-firster, almost to the point of telling people "love it or leave it." But if this is Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate and incumbent Delaware Senator Joe Biden's idea of patriotism I may have to rethink my position. Yesterday in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" Biden exhorted the wealthiest among us to take one for the team, accepting a tax increase so they could cut taxes for those making under $250,000. While that sounds good in theory, there's a reality which has to be addressed as well. This is well pointed out by writers at the Center For Individual Freedom, who state in part:
When times are tighter, a “soak the rich” agenda has a certain superficial appeal to many voters. After all, why shouldn’t fat cats pay an even greater share of the nation’s taxes, since they continue to prosper while working families struggle? While working families strain to put food on their tables and gasoline in their automobiles, why shouldn’t those in the top five percent bracket pay an even higher share of taxes?
This is an understandable sentiment.
As understandable as it may be among struggling families, however, here is the problem. Because most of those filing in the upper five percent are actually small businesses, which create most new jobs in America, many of those families will go from struggling to put food on their tables to not being able to put food on their tables at all. And they’ll go from having difficulty filling their gas tanks to not being able to fill their tanks at all.
To explain, one must understand an important – but little-known and little-discussed – fact about individual income tax filers.
Namely, that most small business owners, otherwise known as “S corporations” or “S-corps,” file taxes as individuals.
(snip)
According to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data, fully 75% of individual tax filers in the top bracket are actually small businesses. More importantly for purposes of working Americans, small businesses create 75% of new jobs in America.
Voters should therefore ask themselves whether small businesses encountering softening economic conditions would be more willing, or less willing, to hire new workers after their taxes are raised.
A similar take by Dr. Jim Pelura, Chair of the Maryland GOP, brings the point home to Marylanders:
"Joe Biden said yesterday that paying higher taxes is a ‘patriotic act’. He also pledged that he and Barack Obama would raise taxes. Barack Obama and Joe Biden both voted, in 2007, to raise taxes on anyone making above $40,000 a year. With our economy struggling, the last thing that our leaders in Washington and Annapolis should do is raise taxes. Marylanders have already suffered through the largest tax increase in state history last year. They can ill-afford afford additional skyrocketing taxes on income, life savings, and energy."
"If paying higher taxes is patriotic, then Maryland citizens are possibly the most patriotic Americans in the country!"
You have that right, Jim. And bear in mind that the General Assembly earlier this spring placed into law something similar to the Obama/Biden plan, enacting what's popularly known as the "millionaire's tax" to replace a service tax aimed at the computer services business. Using the CFIF article as one piece of evidence, apparently the small businessman in Maryland had a target on his or her back in either case.
And to listen to Biden, one would think that wealthy Americans aren't paying much in taxes. However, data from The Tax Foundation shows that the 1% who are most well-off shoulder a tax burden which nearly doubles their share of income; even more telling, they pay a share of taxation which equals that of the bottom 95% of all wageearners. Maybe Obama's plan is to eventually have the top 1% pay every dollar of taxes and redistribute that to the other 99 percent, making sure that his buddies in the federal government get a generous cut as the cash passes through.
If you want a perspective on what this would lead to just go out and get one of my favorite books, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. (That's why I have the Amazon link on my site.) Instead, let's work toward making taxes fairer and flatter, or even better encouraging saving and investment by shifting to a consumption-based tax. Would we be bailing out Wall Street firms if people had saved their money instead of overstepping their credit bounds? It's rare that I advocate tax policy to regulate behavior, but in this case there wouldn't be a targeted group because everyone would pay a share of this tax.
True patriotism is showing a love for country and desire to defend our national interests, not having more money stripped from your wallet because you've managed to become an achiever in life.