Sullivan “Leaning No” on Tax Cuts?
Hallelujah. And well-done John Sullivan. For publicly voicing concern about the sanity of keeping our taxes on the rich at what are currently unsustainable low levels. I pray that you WILL vote NO and break from the majority in your party. The Republican Party needs leadership. New leadership. Maybe you can provide it. The Republicans will not survive unless it evolves beyond Reagan “trickle down.”
To be sure, the weak economy has needed – and continues to need – strong government spending. Deficits are normal and functional during times of recession and war. We are currently in both (for all practical purposes). Lower taxes would also add some “stimulus” to the economy by putting more dollars in the pockets of consumers. This is why Obama has erred on the side of the Republicans on extension of the Bush tax cuts.
But we’ve already thrown a trillion dollars at it. When will it stop? At the very least we need to start tapping the brakes, speaking up, and begin preparing the American people for the reality that the low taxes we’ve enjoyed since Reagan came to office are not sustainable without cuts in spending. As U.S. Congressman Sullivan is quoted today in the Tulsa World, “We simply cannot regain fiscal sanity in Washington if we continue to spend away and bury our children and grandchildren under a pile of debt.” We also cannot continue to expect the economy to remain strong, or recover, without a prosperous middle class. Nearly every dollar placed in the pocket of lower and middle class Americans gets spent in the economy, almost immediately. Dollars placed in the pockets of the wealthy do not enter the economy as readily nor directly. Add to this reality the considerable size of the middle class? We need money in the hands of middle class citizens to boost consumer spending, i.e. the locomotive that pulls the U.S. (and world) economy.
Written by David L. Perkins, Jr., Managing Director of Tulsa-based Acquisition Advisors and Managing Editor of The Business Owner Journal.
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Ok, David, you’re my friend but this article burned me up. The tax package may have been flawed, but not because it didn’t raise taxes on those making in excess of $250,000 per year. Here’s a whole list of reasons why raising taxes on the wealthy is just WRONG:
1. Having one class of people pay more than another is inherently discriminatory. It isn’t morally right discriminate against the wealthy any more than it is to discriminate against jews, the poor, or democrats.
2. Progressive income taxation is a tenet of communism/socialism. See The Communist Manifesto – chapter two.
3. The wealthiest 5% of wage earners pay 60% of all income taxes. To ask them to pay more is confiscatory and unfair.
4. Progressive taxation punishes success. Over 75% of Millionaires are self-made. Why become a millionaire only to give it to the government?
5. The US Government has been a poor steward of taxpayer money. Any solution that reduces the deficit must START with massive budget cuts.
Elimination of agencies and a 10% across the board cut in agency budgets is a good start. People do this, why can’t the government?
So, my taxes aren’t going up, and its what’s right. By the way, we need a flat tax or consumption tax, scrap the whole code.
Brent, my friend, in reply:
1)the greatest periods of economic expansion in our nation’s history, such as in the 50’s and 60’s, have occurred when we’ve had 80 and 90+ percent tax rates on the highest levels of individual income.
2) I see nothing inherently wrong with taxing the first $50K of personal income at a lower percentage than monies over, say, $10 million per year. You really do? The guy that makes $50K will need most all of that income to live on. The guy making over $10M?
3) Just because something is a tenant in the “Communist Manifesto” does not make it inherently fair or unfair for us.
4) This is silly. I can promise you that little Johnny and Sweet Susy Q in their respective classroom, dreaming of success and wealth, do not check to tax code so see if it’s worth it. Equally, the men and women out there making $100M per year are not going to “work less” because they have to share more with the government to pay or wars, roads, bridges, welfare benefits, unemployment benefits, etc.
5) I sure agree that we need to spend less. The reason there is considerable pressure to tax the rich is:
a) the poor don’t have any money, and
b) we have huge deficits
I agree we need to scrap the code. Put all these smart accountants and tax lawyers to real productive use. We need a simple to implement tax like sales or consumption tax. But, none of these will raise enough to pay for the huge spending going on today.