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Progressive Economics – An Oxymoron

The wealthy should pay a much larger share of taxes than the poor – the election year mantra for the extreme left.  Unfortunately for them .. it’s all they have.

Turning the most-successful members of our society into voodoo dolls is silly, but effective.  Certainly those that make more should pay more, but it should not be so ridiculously over-weighted against the top workers in our economy.

I’m not running for office, so I can say it straight – quit turning successful Americans into monsters – EVERYONE should pay their fair share.  That’s just common sense, but is it the right fight?

What really gets my goat (no I don’t actually have a goat) is that the right isn’t fighting the good fight.  Yes, fight the tax increases the left is proposing, but make a much stronger and publicly-visible statement on spending.  I don’t want to see another balanced-budget amendment – it’s far too late for that.  Now we need a positive cash-flow amendment.  Why aren’t the Republicans proposing that every budget approved by Congress MUST be 10%+ under projected revenues.  That forces the government to have a 10% savings rate.  That’s 10% that will go to pay back the debt or pay back Social Security (because these morons have already stolen every dollar that it managed to save up).

If the GOP can’t absolutely commit to ZERO earmarks and a positively-funded budget amendment, talking about tax cuts is of limited value.  If they can change the conversation to spending, it’s the spendocrats that will be on their heels – even more so than now.  Take the fight to them!

The reasons the extremist left focuses on tax cuts for the rich is to make it palatable to raise taxes on the smallest group of tax payers – the wealthy.  Once they’ve raised their taxes, the next wealthiest will find themselves in the cross-hairs of government revenue – then the next lowest group, and the next, and the next – until no one is left.  Each progressive tax hike takes one more group out of the fight.  “Don’t tax me and don’t tax thee, tax the man behind the tree” – Senator Russel Long had it right all along.

This is the progressive economic strategy – tax and spend.  It’s Keynesian, authoritarian and proving to fail at every turn.  Proggies know they can’t just raise taxes on everyone at once, so they do it one little bunch at a time.  If any one group in America tolerates a tax increase on any other .. they will soon find themselves having a tax levied upon them that everyone else tolerates.

The liberals idea is that somehow stealing from the top earners to have the government pay to clean some silly statue or pay for a cow fart study does more to help our economy  than just letting that earner hire people to do more work – or even the same work – yup, silly.

If Americans want to get mad, how about the nearly half of all citizens that pay NOTHING?  According to an AP article published on Yahoo! Finance

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That’s according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.

Why isn’t anyone mad at them?  A family that makes as much as $50,000/year paid ZERO income tax in 2009.  Why?  Progressive economics.

While I totally agree that someone making $50,000 (not chump change) should pay less than someone that makes $150,000, I think they should absolutely pay something.  There is a major issue with someone voting for representatives when they have no skin in the game.

Sure, our founding fathers had an issue with taxation without representation, but shouldn’t we have an equal issue of representation of the untaxed?  Having a voting population that may elect an official that pours on the spending and votes to tax groups that are not in his/her district is unconscionable .. and it’s being done today.

Low income districts tend to vote in anyone that promises them more government programs and federal assistance.  Those same candidates would never consider taxing anyone making under $50,000 – something for nothing, and your votes for free.

Everyone must pay something if we ever want our government to return to responsibility.  Which means they would have to pull back spending on ridiculous programs, like a 2 year long unemployment benefit. Joblessness will then drop.  If joblessness drops, tax revenue will increase.

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Rich Mitchell

Rich Mitchell is the editor-in-chief of Conservative Daily News and the president of Bald Eagle Media, LLC. His posts may contain opinions that are his own and are not necessarily shared by Bald Eagle Media, CDN, staff or .. much of anyone else. Find him on twitter, facebook and

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