by Jim Edsall
MISCONCEPTION 1: Tax revenues are down because the rich don’t pay enough.
FACT: Tax revenues are down because 46% of Americans pay NO federal income tax
The biggest reason that government revenues are relatively low compared to GDP recently is NOT that the tax rate on the rich is “only” 35%. It is because Bush got so progressive with his tax cuts that 46% of Americans now pay NO federal income taxes:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/26/pf/taxes/income-tax/index.htm
Yes, all who are employed pay payroll taxes (“FICA” toward Medicare and Social Security), but nearly half of all Americans pay NO federal income tax.
MISCONCEPTION 2: Ending the Bush tax rates for the top bracket would only increase taxes on “the 1%”, and that is the answer to our national debt and budget shortfalls.
FACT: Ending the Bush tax rates for the top bracket would hurt people who are not in the 1%, and would not produce enough revenue.
“The 1%” are folks who make over $750,000 per year.
http://blogs.barrons.com/penta/2012/05/07/who-are-the-one-percent/
Democrats are trying to end the Bush tax rates for people making only $200,000 per year ($250,000 for a couple). Even Chuck Shumer said that would badly hurt small business owners, farmers with mid-and-large size farms, and even average people working in New York because income levels there are commensurate with costs of living. Shumer pushed for the Buffet Rule, raising the rate only on those making $1 million per year.That would not generate enough money to cure the nation’s ills. The federal government spends $10 billion per day:
Raising taxes on “the 1%” an additional 4.6% only adds $4.7 billion PER YEAR:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57411710/white-house-buffett-rule-a-look-at-the-numbers/
The math does not work. Not remotely close. What we really need is to grow the economy and increase GDP.
Even Obama said that “the last thing we should do is raise taxes in a recession.”
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/07/10/obama_flashback_last_
thing_you_want_in_recession_is_to_raise_taxes
The economy is NOT a zero-sum game. We should not think in terms of taking part of one person’s piece of the pie so someone else’s piece can be bigger. We should, and can, work to make the WHOLE PIE BIGGER.
MISCONCEPTION 3: The biggest reason for the current economic crisis is deregulation of the financial industry by Republicans.
FACT: The greatest blame goes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, who blocked their regulation.
The biggest reason for the current economic crisis is NOT de-regulation by Republicans. It was Democrats blocking regulation of Fannie Mae. I am about to start writing a book about this. I saw it from inside the real estate industry, which was closely tied to the mortgage industry. Fannie Mae was run by Clinton’s Director of OMB, Franklin Raines. They backed sub-prime loans and packaged them into mortgage-backed securities. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd blocked efforts to reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac throughout Bush’s presidency. See this article from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0
It was beyond galling that the financial regulation bill was named for them!
MISCONCEPTION 4: Republicans and the Tea Party are advancing atheism by promoting Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
FACT: Republicans and Tea Partiers agree with Ayn Rand’s View of Capitalism but few if any agree with her atheism.
Most Republicans agree with Ayn Rand’s view of capitalism, and find her tale of how socialist policies hurt individuals and society by policies that discourage and hinder business to be credible. However, most do not agree with the atheism Randian Objectivism. Nearly all Republicans are center-right, or conservatives, not libertarians. Libertarians are to the far right, so much so that they are in danger of circling all the way around to the LEFT, as most are pro-abortion, and pro-gay marriage (not conservative Republican positions, as you well know). The Tea Party is not part of the Republican party. It did not arise from it, and deliberately declares itself independent of any party. It is actually a loose group of groups, whose idea is simply to keep government limited. Here is an interesting NY Times article that I agree with: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/ayn-rand-wouldnt-approve-of-paul-ryan.html
Few Libertarians, and even fewer Republicans, agree with Ayn Rand’s atheism. Paul Ryan, and all conservative Christians, should make that clearly known.
MISCONCEPTION 5: President Obama is not a Socialist
FACT: Okay, he’s just a Leftist with a Socialist Worldview
President Obama may not be a socialist in the pure sense of the term, that is, he has not avocated government ownership of all of American business, just 26% of General Motors. He just seems to be a leftist with a socialist worldview. His mentor, Frank Marshall Davis was a Communist. He was closer to radical ex-terrorist Bill Ayers than he admitted — Ayers hosted Obama’s first political fund raiser at his house; Obama claimed he was “just a guy in the neighborhood.” Why did he lie about it? His pastor in Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, is a proponent of Black Liberation Theology. Obama’s cabinet and czar appointments include numerous people who promote socialist policies (Van Jones, David Berwick, Cass Sunstein): http://www.judicialwatch.org/files/documents/2011/czar-report-09152011.pdf
While an Illinois senator, Obama was a panelist at a celebration of Chicago radical Saul Alinsky: http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/the-connection-between-obama-and-saul-alinsky/Content?oid=5593347&storyPage=2,
… who dedicated his book “Rules for Radicals” to Lucifer!
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100808074147AAWUfU1
No cause for concern in any of this?
MISCONCEPTION 6: The Government needs to start helping the poor
FACT: The Government ALREADY helps to poor
Government ALREADY provides for the destitute and the poor: Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, SSI, CHIP, WIC, food stamps, welfare, unemployment insurance.Republicans pay their taxes toward all of this, too. It already takes the average American 107 work days to pay just their federal, state and local taxes:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/02/pf/taxes/tax-freedom-day/index.htm
And then everything you buy with what you have left is taxed — sales tax, gas tax, phone tax, ad infinitum.
Add to that OBAMACARE, which includes numerous new taxes BESIDES the individual mandate:
Democrats are for ever-larger, more expensive, more intrusive government, at the expense of their own FREEDOM, and everyone else’s, including mine. I PROTEST! Republicans are in favor of working through existing programs like Medicaid, PLUS providing premium support (direct monetary payments) to help cover health insurance costs like they do in GERMANY, while lowering malpractice insurance costs, and allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines to keep costs down. We will allow children up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ policy, and cover pre-existing conditions when we repeal and REPLACE ObamaCare. All of this would help the poor without it being at the cost of their freedom. How can liberals stand being subject to the dictates of the Secretary of HHS? They may think it is just fine now. Will they still think so when the determination of whether they qualify for a procedure is one day determined by a bureaucrat in a Republican administration? My guess is no.
