Class Warfare and Math
Obama's speech this morning, outlining his economic plan, from CBS.com:
Taking a defiant tone against Republicans unwilling to raise taxes in order to close the deficit, President Obama today unveiled a $3 trillion long-term deficit reduction plan that relies heavily on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
"This is not class warfare -- it's math," Mr. Obama said, addressing GOP critiques of his plan head on.
"The money has to come from some place," he continued. "If we're not willing to ask those who have done extraordinarily well [to do a little more], the math says everybody else has to do a lot more. We have to put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor."
The core of Mr. Obama's deficit reduction plan is $1.5 trillion in new taxes. About $800 billion comes from repealing the Bush-era tax rates for couples making more than $250,000. The plan also closes certain corporate tax loopholes and limits certain tax deductions.
The president is also putting forward a measure he's calling the "Buffet Rule" -- named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett -- to raise taxes on those making $1 million or more a year in income. Taxpayers making $1 million or more often make their fortune through investment income, which is taxed at 15 percent, compared with the top tax bracket of 35 percent.
So that's what he's got: raise taxes on "millionaires and billionaires." And probably the rest of us, too. On the other hand, the problem with his brand of "not class warfare" seems a lot like class warfare. But as the graph shows -- thanks to Jason Fichtner, hat tip to @AndrewStilesNRO -- that class warfare is a double-edged sword. There is a segment of Americans that isn't paying its fair share. But it's not on the left hand side of the graph. It's on the right.
What happens when American voters take a good hard look at who actually pays for the federal government and who doesn't?
Talk about class warfare.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Class Warfare and Math
James Jones
shelby_forthright
liberal jim
I guess you and Obama have something in common you both seem to be ardent users of class warfare rhetoric. I would like to see you tell a hard working mother who pays only 15% of her earnings in pay roll tax because she does not earn enough to pay personal income tax whose son just lost his life in Iraq she is not paying her fair share. · Sep 19 at 9:43am
Actually, she pays half that. Her employer pays the other half. · Sep 19 at 9:51am
Meaning she pays all of it. If her employer didn't have to pay the tax, she'd get paid a compensating amount...
You don't know that. Part or all of the cost of the tax could have been simply transferred to her employer's customers. Remove the tax and maybe she gets some of it. Or maybe her employer's prices go down. Or maybe he invests the savings elsewhere in the business.
May '10
Re: Class Warfare and Math
Here is yet another example of center-right, well-intended hyperbole, but it is simply not accurate. Read this headline:
"Obama Wants Americans to “Pay Their Fair Share” Except For the 47% Who Pay No Taxes"
We don't win the debate and persuade the independent voters that we understand what it is like to struggle for a living, despite our opposition to punitive taxes on the "rich", when we throw false statements like that out there as our lead thought. You can argue what "fair share" means- I think it means a minimal-deductions flat tax. But the 47% who "pay no taxes" certainly do pay taxes, at least most of them do.