Posted 10:05 pm Friday, July 20, 2012
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It's Not A Tax Cut, July 20
President Obama has proposed raising the tax rates applicable to individuals earning over $200,000 annually, and families earning over $250,000 annually, back to the levels they were at when President George W. Bush lowered them. However, in discussing his proposal, the president consistently does two things: he refers to his plan as a tax cut, and he equates cutting taxes to increasing federal spending. To illustrate, consider the following statement made at a July 13 campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia: “If we spend a trillion dollars on tax cuts for them (referring to wealthy Americans), we're going to have to find a trillion dollars someplace else” to avoid making our deficit spending and debt problems worse.
Although the first of these mischaracterizations may be insignificant, the second is definitely important. Implicit in the notion that a change in tax rates equals a change in federal spending is the idea that all income belongs to the federal government, which then determines, based on its needs, how much income taxpayers can retain. While this concept is likely foreign to most Americans accustomed to enjoying private property rights, it's entirely consistent with the doctrine of socialism, which embodies collective control of the means of production as well as distributing the fruits of production.
Cliff Hickman
Henderson
Although the first of these mischaracterizations may be insignificant, the second is definitely important. Implicit in the notion that a change in tax rates equals a change in federal spending is the idea that all income belongs to the federal government, which then determines, based on its needs, how much income taxpayers can retain. While this concept is likely foreign to most Americans accustomed to enjoying private property rights, it's entirely consistent with the doctrine of socialism, which embodies collective control of the means of production as well as distributing the fruits of production.
Cliff Hickman
Henderson
