Adapted from a Facebook thread
‘Grok friend Robert Jursik had a link where Michele Bachmann suggested that everyone should pay taxes (almost 50% pay no Federal income taxes); I have written many times that this would be a good idea – ALL should pay for the Government we have with no exceptions.
Immediately, there was blowback from a Liberal with a snarky line of "how dare the poor waste the little money they have on foolish things like food and housing…and need to eat". Bob correctly pointed out that 300 million people paying a small amount in taxes produces better revenue than 70 or 80 million paying more than 40% of whatever they earn and that:
we’re in a circumstance now where we have an entire class of Americans who are only too happy to keep voting for those politicians who will promise them all kinds of benefits and entitlements, knowing full well they’ll never have to foot the bill for them. That’s an outrage. And in the same way, you have entire tax brackets that are coughing up at least 45% of their income to pay for welfare services and entitlements they’ll never use – basically getting screwed over to pay for somebody else’s public dole. Our Michele is quite right: the answer here is not to bleed those brackets even more. The answer is to tell those entitlement classes to get off the sofa and start pulling the wagon for a change.
Well, Bob was right. If you examine the revenues for both NY and CA, you can see that they plummeted during the beginning of the recession. Why? Their state level income taxes were very skewed; using a Progressive rule of thumb, they highly taxed the rich in their states and not much at all on others. Well, weighting that skew SO much meant that when the rich were no longer rich as the recession deepened, neither were the State coffers – a lesson that Progressive Obama would be wise to learn (50 labs of Democracy and all that). Anyways, what Bob said didn’t set well with the Lib and he challenged that 40% taxation number. Of COURSE, I chimed in on the topics of that skewness, those who have "excess" ("cover your utilities, housing, food and medical care?") should pay more, who should be able to decided when someone, as Obama stated, has enough ("excess" was the actual word), and that times have changed since the Declaration of Independence was written:
Right now, the top 1% of all income earners pay more than the bottom 95% in income taxes. <redacted>, from your accusatory posts for Robert, it seems that you are just fine with "free riders" on the system. frankly, IF we get the chance to look back, we will see that separating the receivers of Govt largesse from helping to pay for that largesse will be one of our biggest mistakes. Why? If one pays nothing for something, it is not as valued as having to have worked for it. What we are generating a social class that is selfish – "Govt, give me more and what NEXT are you going to give me?" Doubt me? Just look at Greece where former largesse recipients are rioting in the streets because the Govt can no longer afford to give them ANYTHING – the money is gone.
So, you have the hubris to decide who has "excess" and who doesn’t? <Redacted>, you get to decide upon whom "coerced charity" will be enforced? This is my main problem with Progressives / Liberals: they have little regard for the Law of Private Property. They have no clue the message they send to others: that THEY and THEY alone are reasonable and moral, and thus, should have the power to take from others – their ends justifies their means. How nice….
The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC–Greedy Socialists Frisking TaxPayers Cash) is a partisan non-profit, which for years has insisted it is a non-partisan group advocating an income tax in New Hampshire. But the GSFTC is non-partisan the way MSNBC is. They use the dark side equivalent of the Jedi mind trick. ‘The force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.” And while there is nothing wrong with being a left wing partisan group, started by a social-justice driven religious organization, to advocate for a top down income tax, there is something wrong with acting like this is a non-partisan effort.