Quote of the Day

"Our tax money is going to support these wealthy companies, in the form of tax breaks"

-Tim Burga, AFL-CIO

What a curious thing. The government is distributing wealth to someone by not collecting wealth from someone. Can I take this a little farther? If the poor receive tax breaks, as they do, are they made wealthier? Or is it merely that what little wealth they have is more preserved from the ravages of taxation. I suppose it doesn't matter much to Mr. Burga that increased corporate taxes would likely result in more expensive products, reduced demand from higher prices, and in all probability a reduction of jobs available for the very union workers whose interests he claims to uphold.

But consider this: If tax breaks were given to the wealthy, does this mean that more taxes are then collected from the poor? The answer is no. Cutting taxes for the rich never increased the taxes for the poor. In reality, they just shared a little more of the overall tax burden for a smaller collection of revenue for government.

If the rich are taxed in greater proportion of their earnings, does this in turn increase the earnings of the poor? Again the answer is no. In the progressive tax scheme, there is no winner except government. Everybody will pay taxes of some kind, and if history is any indicator, those taxes will increase with the insatiable appetite of government programs.

Remember, when the 16th amendment was passed, it was largely thought that only the very top 5% of wage earners would ever pay taxes. Now, teenagers with part time jobs at grocery stores have to pay their fair share. Our tax system is no longer a suitable means of collecting revenue, but has become a mechanism for the dispensation of social justice, with a complex tax code and loopholes to prove it.