Stephen Moore – Who’s the Fairest of Them All (Encounter Books)

The talking point became a mantra for Obama and the Democrats during the run up to the election that the “rich” need to “pay their fair share.” This class warfare line was repeated so many times that my ears started to bleed.

The problem is, not one member of the lazy media ever bothered to ask exactly what a “fair share” really amounts to! When you consider that the Top 1% of earners pay 39% of the total income tax nut, the Top 25% of earner clock in at 86% and the Top 50% reach 97% of all income taxes, it seems like a relevant question.

Economist, Wall Street Journal editorial board member and Club for Growth founder Stephen Moore not only asks the question, but provides a clear, concise (just a shade over 100 pages) and easy to understand (even for the average Obama voter) answer in his latest book, Who’s the Fairest of Them All.. Simply put, this should be required reading for every American.

 

In the space of a couple charts and graphs, Moore slices, dices and hammers to dust the Liberal argument against so-called “tax-cuts for the rich.” He details the undeniable facts that every time it’s been tried, cutting tax rates has resulted in an increase in the tax revenues to the treasury.

Surprisingly, Moore points out, “the Republicans almost universally opposed and the Democrats almost universally favored” the cuts in income tax rates that were proposed by President John F. Kennedy. Makes you wonder about what spurred the 180 degree flip by the parties.

While Liberals may be allowed to hold onto their own twisted version of reality, they are not allowed to twist the facts. Moore lays bare with facts the fallacy of the liberal mindset that tax cuts come with a price tag to the government and that the only way to bring an increase in revenues to the Federal coffers is to elevate the rate of taxation.

 

 

 

Things That Drive Me Crazy

Has we approach Election Day and the political season starts to boil, there are a huge number of things that drive me absolutely crazy! Stupid politicians, even more ignorant members of the media and generally stupid voters truly push me over the edge.

So I decided to run just a hand full down and try to explain the stupidity-

Stupidity- I just love when politicians, generally liberal, Democrat politicians say that “tax cuts cost too much” or we “we can’t afford tax cuts.”

Reality- Tax cuts do not cost the government anything. Think about it. How does the government allowing you to keep more of your money, “cost” them anything? It’s not like you give them the money, they take possession of it, then they give it back! They never have/had it. Let me explain it in simple terms, even liberals should be able to understand; this would be like me saying to you, “hey you owe me $20.” You never loaned me $20. I never did any work or gave you anything that is valued at $20. When you don’t pay me; I go around and say that you cost me $20. Much like the government in the tax cut example, I assumed that you owed me $20 so it was just like me having that money; mystical, government thinking at best!

Stupidity – “Mitt Romney wants to give tax breaks to his big business cronies.”

Reality – Let me say this as clearly and simply as possible: BUSINESSES DO NOT PAY TAXES. Yes, you read that right…BUSINESSES DO NOT PAY TAXES. If you are a business owner, yes you built that! And if you want to keep it, you know that you have to price your products and/or services to include the amount of taxes that you will have to pay to the layers of government. I don’t care if you’re making widgets, creating web pages, or selling me breakfast, you know how much the raw materials cost, the cost of the staff to make it, turning the lights on and other equipment, heck even the cost of that equipment over time, and you price your stuff accordingly, including the taxes and some margin for profit. Those costs get passed through to your customers so at the end of the day, businesses don’t pay taxes! So when politicians talking about raising taxes, adding regulations, and things like raising the minimum wage, businesses aren’t going to pay the additional costs out of their profits, they will simply re-price everything to cover those increases and pass it along to the end consumer. If they are in an extremely competitive business, they may have to absorb some or all of those costs, then they may have to dip into that profit margin and that will have an impact on things like adding staff, growing product lines or locations and salary/benefit increases. 

Stupidity – when it comes to taxes; “The rich need to pay their fair share”

Reality – I am not sure what the definition of “fair” is; given that nearly 50% of U.S. workers pay NO FEDERAL INCOME TAXES. The top 10% of earners currently pay 70% of the total tax nut! What do you think is fair? I have always been a big believer in the mile/inch example. If liberals had their way the tax base would be an inch wide and the taxes would go a mile deep. I believe that fairness calls for the opposite; that the tax base should be a mile wide and that taxes should go an inch deep. Get it? We put more people into the work force to grow that base; in the process we spread the burden over a wider range of people. That way everybody pays something and the burden isn’t left with the few.

Stupidity – As Vice President Joe Biden scoffed and snickered his way through the VP debate he chuckled that the proposed tax increase would “impact only 2.5% of small businesses.”

Reality – while the chuckleheads in the Obama administration will tell you that the 2.5% is “small potatoes” they won’t tell you that that equates to 894,000 businesses! They definitely won’t tell you that if these increases take place, based on the current economic system most businesses project that they will cut 2-4 workers to absorb the impact of the tax increase…see businesses don’t pay taxes above. Do some basic math, cutting 2-4 employees would range from 1,788,000 to 3,576,000 more of your fellow Americans on the un-employment line. Small potatoes…right? Proving once again what a dumbass Biden is.

Stupidity – “The economy is better positioned to handle higher gas prices”

Reality – While driving one day, I heard that gem escape the lips of some member of the genius media class…unfortunately, I didn’t catch who dropped that pearl of wisdom. But it got me thinking; A- Does anybody really think that the fragile (and even that term is generous) U.S. economy is in any position to “handle” higher prices at the pump? B- Where are the Liberal, Democrat members of Congress who were soooooo apoplectic about blaming “oilmen” Bush and Cheney for the high price of gas? Then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi  and the Dems held a price conference at a gas station with the price of $3.19 a gallon as the back drop, today a photo of that same station with a price of $4.45 per gallon.

 

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) issued a release that day, July 12, 2006 stating; “Oil companies are tipping American families upside down and shaking money out of their pockets and guess who is helping them? The Bush Administration and this GOP Congress. Last week, a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $2.93 nationally, which represents a $0.71 increase over prices at the same time last year, and a whopping $1.66 increase over the $1.26 charged for a gallon of regular gasoline when Bush took office.”

Yet today they only thing coming from Liberal Democrats is…the sounds of silence…insert the sound of crickets here. Seriously…the price of gas has more than doubled since Obama took office (then $1.84 or $1.79 per gallon depending on the survey you read) and has remained consistently high and yet there is not talk about investigations or protest from Democrats. The solution is simple; start to tap into the resources available in this country. While Obama continues to lie about his record on domestic oil production claiming it’s increased, the reality is he has put a road block in front of new production that isn’t taking place on private lands; the only increase is coming on private lands, like the shale oil  in North Dakota and the Marcellus Shale right here in PA. Gee wonder why North Dakota has a 3% unemployment rate and a growing economy? It’s really not brain surgery.

 

Common Sense Vs. Politi-speak

I love politi-speak. More often than not politi-speak comes about when liberal politicians need to use words to fashion a more voter friendly message. As the debate over raising the debate ceiling continues to rage we have been inundated by calls from President Obama and what passes as leadership of the Democrat party for a solution that includes;“an increase in revenues.”

Washington claims they need more money, so what better way to get more money than to “increase revenue” right? This poltii-speak has become very popular with the media; with members of the drooling moron media from MSNBC, CNBC, CNN and the like latching on and repeating the term with regularity.
The problem is, not one of the drooling set has called this politi-speak what it really is; an increase in taxes! The Democrats know full well that they can’t come out and tell the American people that they want to raise taxes!
Concerned that there might be a handful of folks who can see through the ruse of “revenue increase” the Democrats have also taken to painting this tax increase as “closing loopholes” in the tax law that give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations for private jets.
That sounds good too, right? Stick it to those greedy bastards and their luxury items. Once again the drooling moron media buys into this line of crap too. Hey even “Republicans” like Joke Scarborough from Morning Joke on MSNBC has labeled this idea as “common sense.”
Here’s the problem, you may think it’s absolutely stupid to give corporations and billionaires tax breaks for buying private jets, but think about it this way; not about who buys these planes, who builds these planes? Add to that who sells these planes? Add to that what goes into building those planes?
Think about it? There has to be millions of parts; plastic, metal, fabric, rubber, the list goes on and on that goes into the building of an aircraft. All of those parts and pieces are built by somebody, sold by somebody, engineered by somebody, manufactured by somebody, sold buy somebody. These somebody’s have JOBS! And they pay taxes! Yes they contribute revenue to the Federal Government!
If we follow the “common sense” thinking of Morning Joke, what is the likelihood that billionaires are going to cut back on buying new or additional planes? If this so-called loophole in the tax law encourages them to take advantage of savings and buy a plane, then that loophole is doing something the Obama administration has failed miserably to do; it’s created jobs!
Instead of closing this alleged loophole, maybe we should look at additional ways to encourage billionaires and corporations to spend more money! The same fundamental flaw exists in the Democrats “increase revenue” strategy. The U.S. economy is consumer driven, when you raise taxes, you not only take money out of the system that could be spent on goods and services, you also create an environment of uncertainty so consumers, businesses and even greedy billionaires stop spending.
This isn’t brain surgery! If you don’t buy that widget, then the guy who builds the widget doesn’t need to make more, and the guy who sells it, sells less and the guy who supplies the pieces of the widget sells less, and needs to build less, and the guy who supplies the raw materials for the widget sells less…and so on. In the end if you sell less then you may need less people, which means more unemployment and less revenue to the Federal Government.
So the genius of the Democrat strategy is to actually create more unemployed people during one of the most difficult economic periods in our history. Instead of raising taxes, what we really need Washington to do is to CUT SPENDING! and CUT TAXES!
If you cut taxes, you will increase revenue to the Federal Government! If you just swallowed your tongue: follow the logic. Tax cuts equal more spending which equals more goods needing to be manufactured, equals more people to make the stuff, equals MORE TAX PAYERS! Now look at history; every time tax cuts have been tried, it has resulted in an increase in revenue to the Federal Government. EVERY TIME!
Think about it; would you prefer a system that relies on a small number of people contributing to the tax base of a country or would you prefer to spread the responsibility of funding government over a wider group of people? What is a more stable foundation for anything; something that is an inch wide and a mile deep or something a mile wide and an inch deep? Spreading the responsibility over a wider range is truly COMMON SENSE!