Soaking the Rich

Jonah Goldberg penned an excellent editorial in the NY Post today entitled "The Trouble with Soaking the Rich". He opens his article with a telling quote from Hillary Clinton's chief economic advisor:

The question is should we be giving an extra $120 billion to people in the top 1 percent?

Goldberg goes on to explain the thinking behind this comment:

Translation: It's the governments money and anything left over after Uncle Sam picks your pocket is a "gift".

This article really makes me think. Here I am on a train with thousand of other people on their way to work in Manhattan. I leave my family early in the morning and try to arrive home in time to say goodnight to my children. And yet, according to Hillary, the money I am earning belongs to her to spend, not me.

The article goes on to talk about who actually pays taxes:

The top 1 percent of wage earners already pays 40 percent of Federal income taxes; the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers only about 3 percent.

Given the facts there is really something unseemly about the rhetoric from some on the politicians when they continue to say that the system is unfair to poor people. The system is definitely unbalanced and it is unbalanced against those who actually pay taxes. He drives all of his points home in the closer:

I don't know what the best tax rates are, for rich or poor. But I'm pretty sure that it's unhealthy for a democracy when the majority of citizens don't see the government as a service they're reluctantly paying for - but as an extortionist that cuts them in for share of the loot.

A truly scary thought. You can read Jonah's column here.

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