From the Concord Monitor Online:
John Edwards says if he’s elected president, he’ll institute a New Deal-like suite of programs to fight poverty and stem growing wealth disparity. To do it, he said, he’ll ask many Americans to make sacrifices, like paying higher taxes.
Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, says the federal government should underwrite universal pre-kindergarten, create matching savings accounts for low-income people, mandate a minimum wage of $9.50 and provide a million new Section 8 housing vouchers for the poor. He also pledged to start a government-funded public higher education program called “College for Everyone.”
As the polls show Comrade Hillary to remain clearly in the lead in Democratic Presidential hopefuls, the closer we get to the Democratic Primary the more you’ll see the others showing themselves as “more Liberal“, hoping to grab some of the True Moonbat vote, while you will see Hillary appear to be “more Moderate” in the hopes of swaying more of America’s core voters.
Here Edwards is simply stealing money from those that have worked hard and earned it and giving it to those that haven’t - basic Socialism. Thus Edwards, knowing that he won’t be getting much of the vote from the successful, is trying to buy the votes of those that haven’t succeeded in life.
Look, I know full well that, sometimes, life is not fair and treats some people very harshly. Just look at the families helped by Extreme Makeover Home Edition to see some really sad stories. But Edwards is actually helping to create a government-dependent lower class, a guaranteed voting bloc for the future, a class of people that totally rely on the federal government, and therefore will always vote for him.
Who will pay for the universal pre-kindergarten? Who will provide all the funds for the matching savings accounts for low-income people? Who’s income will be lessened to subsidize the government-funded public higher education? Remember this fact: the government has absolutely no money of its own. It does not have bake sales. It does not sell used cars. All the money the government has, or will ever have, comes out of the wallets of taxpayers. Those that pay no federal income tax, about 50% of registered voters, will see no change in the thickness of their wallets. The other 50% of taxpayers - you and me - will have the “opportunity”, under the threat of arrest, to fund all these programs of which we will reap very little benefit.
An enormous percentage of taxes are payed by a minority of Americans:
- The Top 1% of taxpayers pay 29% of all taxes.
- The Top 5% of taxpayers pay 50% of all taxes.
Our tax system is not so much progressive as it is confiscatory — Frederic Bastiat called this phenomenon “legal plunder.” A progressive tax is based on the premise that those with more income can afford to pay more taxes, and conversely, those with little or no income should pay no tax. However the U.S. tax system has become far beyond progressive. Fully half the taxpayers contribute almost nothing in individual income taxes.
The Top 1% of income earners (comprising about 1 million families) earn about 15% of the total income earned by all wage earners in the United States, yet they pay almost 30% of all individual income taxes.
The Top 1% are shouldering a roughly 50% higher proportion of the overall income tax burden than they did in 1977.
The argument most oft used against tax breaks are that they benefit only the wealthy. It is clear from even a cursory look at the numbers below that the ‘wealthy’ will receive the majority of any income tax reduction because they pay a disproportionately huge percentage of the income taxes.
Edwards’ plan is two-fold: (1) redistribute income to create a government-dependent voting bloc, (2) try to appear more Liberal than front-runner Hillary in order to remain relevant in the media. Either of these reasons is enough to forget John Edwards was ever born.
John Edwards, New Deal, Democrat, Liberal, Moonbat, Socialism, taxpayer, tax, income
