The Obama administration, big-labor, and far-left extremist (a.k.a. progressives) are repeating a destructive mantra: tax the rich, tax the big oil companies, share the sacrifice.
According to Forbes the three oil giants in America are paying more than the standard corporate rate and certainly much more than Obama’s favorite company GE.
America’s three biggest oil companies, ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM – News), Chevron (NYSE: CVX – News) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP – News), all endure income tax burdens of more than 40% — higher than the statutory U.S. rate of 35%
Tack on top of that the measly 5.7% profit margin that the oil companies operate under and it becomes painfully obvious that if taxes are raised on oil companies, it will unquestionably be passed on to consumers – or the companies will be forced to move operations overseas. If Obama and the loony left get their way, the additional taxes will show up in the price at the pump or the over 9 million people employed by the oil companies may become unemployed. The progressives will give them no other choice.
Exxon, Chevron and ConnocoPhillips aren’t the only target for the tax-hungry liberal elite. The Obama administration has brought class warfare to an entirely new level. Constantly pandering to the unions and those dependent on entitlements, the President is asking the wealthy to pay even more in taxes.
The wealthiest 1% of earners pay more in income taxes than the lowest 50% – in fact, almost half pay no income taxes at all! Imagine 100 people going to a movie together. Half of the crowd is told that their ticket is being paid for by the one person “over there” in the crowd. Upon arriving at the movie theater, the one person that is paying for the free-loaders is told that his ticket will cost $400.00, he decides he doesn’t want to play and goes, by himself, to another theater and pays his $8 – his fair share. The 49 that were prepared to pay for their own tickets are now told that the top 5% of them will need to pay a few hundred dollars to buy tickets for the free-loading fifty. Of course, they leave too. This continues until only one person is left who turns away having been denied his “free” movie ticket. These are the effects of a highly-progressive tax system.
The wealthy also pay the death tax – a tax on their property for simply passing it on to their heirs. These “wealthy” also include cash-strapped farmers and family business owners.
On the purely emotion-driven liberal side, it is repeated that the wealthy are holding on to their money and depriving the economy of their wealth. First, it’s their wealth – they earned it and can do whatever they want with it. One might argue that those that take social security at 62 are robbing the country of their productivity. What about that wealth?
There is also the fact that when the wealthy “hold on” to their money, they invest it. They don’t stick it in giant vaults in the basements of their houses. They put it in banks, or investments and that money is multiplied through re-investment (basis for leverage). If that money goes to the government, it does not grow.
These are empirical facts, not emotion-driven propaganda. By the numbers, progressives are wrong.
Good article Mitchell.
Another thing that is incredulous from democrats is their slogan, “Shared Sacrifice.” What a bunch of crap that is, since the freeloaders aren’t sacrificing a single dime. It is the inefficiency of government that takes in enormous tax revenue, corrupts it, and then spits out bread crumbs to the enslaved progressives. The only thing shared sacrifice accomplishes is greater fleecing of the rich to support a growing non-working class of people, yet the bread crumbs don’t get any bigger.
I think conservatives need to brand “Shared Prosperity” as our slogan running up to the 2012 elections. Americans are tired of being told the only “hope” on the horizon is in the form of economic pain with no end in sight. Cut programs, not taxes. Create Jobs, not unemployment lines.
I kinda like “prosperity – if you can grow it; wealth if you can keep it.”
Very good description.