President Obama and many in his party seem to have adopted the misguided Occupy Wall Street effort of blaming income inequality for our economic woes. Like Obamacare was misguided in attacking a symptom – lack of health insurance access – instead of the root causes of healthcare problems, the President and his party seem to be addressing the wrong issue again with income inequality. That’s okay, however, as doing so only increases the contrast in choices for voters in 2012.
The argument that raising marginal tax rates on high income earners will boost the economy is nonsense, although it may take advantage of voter angst and frustration. Charles Krauthammer succinctly describes the absurdity of the President’s message:
As is his solution, that old perennial: selective abolition of the Bush tax cuts. As if all that ails us, all that keeps the economy from humming and the middle class from advancing, is a 4.6-point hike in marginal tax rates for the rich.
While income inequality is a concern, it’s only a symptom. We need to grow the economy and reduce our debt, not simply redistribute a small amount of income that would achieve neither goal. The Democrats, however, seem to want to focus on income inequality because they think class warfare gives them their best chance to win in 2012 (as opposed to promoting Obamacare, the stimulus, etc.). That’s why we’re seeing games of chicken over minor issues like the payroll tax instead of serious discussions on needed spending cuts and entitlement reform.
Democrats want to say that attempts to cut spending and to reform entitlements, as opposed to simply taxing the rich, are unjust and mean. Republicans, they say, are protecting the rich at the expense of the middle class. That’s the message they want for 2012. What is truly unjust, however, is allowing crushing debt that is holding back the economy and threatens to do so far into the future, especially when we can make necessary changes much less painfully now than we will be able to later after the problems have worsened (see Europe).
We can focus on taxing the rich, which will not make a dent in the debt, salvage entitlement programs, nor grow the economy, or we can address the real causes of our problems. The income inequality argument is just a distraction from what we need to focus on, and from what the Democrats are unlikely to reform (see e.g., California, where the latest Democrat plan is to raise taxes yet again without structural spending reforms). While that distraction may be politically beneficial to the Democrat party, it might not help solve our problems.
Republicans have offered and will continue to offer entitlement reform that preserves the programs, tax reform that broadens the tax base and lowers rates, and spending cuts that shrink government and help reduce our debt. One may not approve of all Republican proposals on those issues, but it’s clear that only one party is actually going to address the root causes of our financial problems. Voters can choose in 2012 which approach they prefer. If we want to attack the red herring of income inequality by increasing taxes, then the Democrats are surely who to vote for.
I do not have the answer to our problems, but I know from what I have seen that neither side knows what to do. Republican tax cuts do not work and democratic tax hikes and stimulus packages do not work. I know without a doubt that as long as both parties think they are the only answer that nothing will be fixed. Both parties have got to STOP doing what is best for their parties and what is best for America.
No the GOP is not what is best, and no the Democrats are not what is best.
Both parties have been fighting the same way for decades about who is best, but honestly nothing changes. Both need to get their s*** together and their egos out of the way and do what is right.
That was a ridiculous response. “Republican tax cuts do not work” is utterly false. Tax cuts have worked ever time they have been tried. The Mellon tax cuts in the 1920′s, the Kennedy tax cuts in the 1960′s, the Reagan tax cuts of the 1980′s, and the Bush cuts all helped the economy. The record is quite clear. “taxes’ were not cut, rather “tax rates” were cut, which had predicable effect of increasing tax revenues, not cutting revenue. Tax collections almost doubled in the 1980′s while the tax rates were cut from 70% to 28%. Meanwhile, the history is very clear on whether or not a “stimulus” helps the economy. It never has help, in any country, in any period of history. Giving it two minutes of thought, and child could figure out why it wouldn’t work.
The Nelson makes the another absurd comment that politicians need to get their egos out of the way and do what is right, after he just said neither knows what is right. One party is doing what is best for America, and the other partyy is doing what is best for themselves.