Raising anyone’s taxes is bad for America

by a NewSeniors contributor, January 10. 2011

Forget about what the politicians say, income redistribution it is classism. The richest among us already pay a disproportionate share of the taxes with the very wealthiest paying most of all the tax dollars collected by the government. The recent attempt to increase the taxes on some suggests that the next group of earners might be targeted later as Washington over spenders scramble to more find ways to fund their addiction.

Singling out those in the presumably envious position of being in the nation’s top tax bracket is purely political and designed to pit some Americans against their fellow Americans. What is left out of the equation is that many of the so-called rich are small business people operating as sole proprietors and S corporations. These are the folks who are responsible for creating most of the jobs in this country. So why penalize them in any way and thereby restrict recovery from the Great Recession?

Yes, there are other top earners who will benefit from the continuation of the existing tax rates; but they do buy goods and services, particularly at the high-end. Additionally, these individuals are investors, and will help the economy by doing just that. The idea of increasing capital gains for wealthier Americans did not stop with them. All capital gains would have been taxed, hurting retirement portfolios and investments in general with the result being another possible market crash. How would this have helped the job market?

On top of this, the estate tax, or death tax, takes money earned by individuals over their life times – money that they paid taxes on and then paid taxes again in the form of capital gains – and takes a sizeable chunk before their heirs get their rightful inheritance. In the case of family owned businesses and small farms, heirs may be forced to sell the business, which may mean putting employees out of work. Why should the government be allowed to get its hands on these assets? Individuals built these operations. It’s theirs.

The American dream is the notion that through work hard anyone can achieve success. New Seniors were taught this concept throughout our formative years. Now that we are retired, or about to be, most of us want our grandchildren to be able to reach for the stars and accomplish great things. Would we want them to be unfairly taxed or have our great grandchildren lose what should be their inheritance?

And while we were worrying about the tax rates for the next couple of years, the Congress made a mid-December last-ditch effort to push through a 1.2 trillion dollar budget for the new fiscal year. This omnibus bill was about 2,000 pages in length and loaded with nearly 6,500 earmarks. Worst of all, virtually no one had read the bill in its entirety. Yet the lame duck Congress tried to force passage of this increased budget. Instead the matter will be addressed when the new Congress convenes.

Did Washington get the message sent via the November’s election? Is Congress aware that its rating is at an all-time low? When will the government realize that its job is to serve the people and not the other way around?

New Seniors