The Rich Pay More

No matter how many times the fact-free Democrat party says it, The Rich are paying more of what they earn in taxes.

Fair Share of Taxes?

This chart from Professor Mark Perry.
1396 US taxpayers collectively paid far more income tax than 70 million Americans who paid the least tax.
And yet the constant drumbeat, "The Rich don't pay their fair share of taxes".
Darn right, it's not a Fair Share.

The Income Tax is More Skewed Than Ever

President Obama announced that in his State of the Union Message he would propose  to raise income taxes on The Rich. This announcement came in the same week that the IRS published new data for 2012 that show that income taxes are more skewed than ever before. Now we know facts and analysis are not the President's strong suit, but wasn't there anyone on his staff who could read charts for him? Or maybe it's the same staff that told him that Obamacare would reduce healthcare costs by $2500 per year? Or (more likely) the President just doesn't care much about the truth.

Only The Rich Will Pay More Tax in 2013? Think Again.

For the last five years President Obama repeatedly told Americans earning less than $250,000 a year that their taxes wouldn’t go up — “not one cent.” Only “millionaires and billionaires” would see their taxes increase. So you think you're not the target of  "Fiscal Cliff" agreement? Think again.

The Tax Policy Center of the Brookings Institute provides a simple Do-It-Yourself calculator to compare what you would have paid if Congress had simply kept 2012 taxes as they were to what you will pay in 2013

A family of 4 with a salary income of $150,000 (certainly not officially one of The Rich)  plus some minor dividends, interest and capital gains, would pay nearly $5000 more in Federal income tax in 2013 on exactly the same taxable income as they had in 2012.

Let's halve that income to $75,000 (what would certainly qualify as the Middle Class that the President promises to protect). That family would pay almost $2000 more this year.

On top of that the $75,000 earning family is going to be paying another $1500 in federal payroll tax this year. So $3500 more -- or nearly 5% of their gross income. Think that will have any effect on economic activity in the future?  Of course, not. The President has told us it won't. Just like he told you that you will pay “not one cent” more.

Cliff Notes

What are we to make of the Democrats' position on the so-called Fiscal Cliff? It boils down to: Raising taxes is a bad idea --  except on The Rich.  There are only two possibilities here:

A. Raising taxes retards growth when applied to the 98% of the population. For the other 2% it has a positive growth effect (Logically, they cannot be arguing that tax rates don't matter, else they would be seeking to raise them on 100% of the population).

B. We should be willing to sacrifice some economic growth in order to punish those who earn more the $250,000 annually.

Despite the fact that I would pay to see Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid argue Position A in front of an Economics 101 class, I haven't noticed anyone actually advocating that theory. So, we're down to Position B. That at a time when growth has been falling every year since the "recovery" of 2009, we should pursue policies which dampen growth further -- all for the satisfaction of seeing tax rates increase for high earners. I guess we'll have to call this the "cut off your nose to spite your face" position because it surely doesn't make any sense for the US economy as a whole.

Capitalism is a Dirty Word (ask Kim)

Capitalism produces income inequality. It simply enriches the privileged few at the expense of the rest of the population. Ask any Korean.