Liberals Just Don’t Get it
Friday, February 27th, 2009Many liberals, including the one who occupies the White House currently, believe in a socialist/communist society where everyone shares everything, regardless of whether or not they help to earn it. This post by Mike Thomas is typical:
So I want to make a standing offer right now for any rich people who are unhappy about the prospect of paying higher taxes. I will take their heavy, oppressive tax burden onto myself (and their heavy income as well, of course) and give them my comparatively light and miniscule tax burden (and my teeny-tiny salary to boot). I’m sure there are other brave people out there like myself who would be willing to offer the same deal to any struggling rich people. So fear not! We are here for you.
It’s apparent that people like Mike think the wealthy do nothing else but sit around all day and think of ways to screw the poor out of their money. This is wrong, of course, but it fits the liberal narrative that they repeat ad nausium: the wealthy are evil and the poor are virtuous, so there’s nothing wrong with screwing over the wealthy. Remember, the oldest play in the liberal playbook is that if you repeat something false often enough, it will eventually be believed to be true.
The trouble with Mike’s point of view is this: The country was founded on freedom. The freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, free from government interference. This freedom includes working as much or as little as you want, and to enjoy the fruits of your labors. Wealthy people have worked hard for most of their lives, and the fruit of those labors is the wealth they have accumulated. What gives Obama, or anyone else for that matter, the right to go barging in and tell the wealthy that they don’t have the right to enjoy the fruit of their labors, and that they have to give their hard-earned wealth to someone else? This is exactly what Obama and his socialist agenda are doing right now.
Remember, after being in office for only one month, Obama has already spent more money than anyone else in the history of the world. And he isn’t anywhere near done yet. By the time he gets through pushing his socialist agenda through the Congress, all U.S. Citizens will be living below the poverty line and the only entity that will have any money at all will be the government. Now, how he figures that this will create jobs and fix the economy is anyone’s guess.
It’s no sin to be wealthy, especially if you worked your ass off to get there. This country was founded by people who worked their asses off to achieve their goals. Why is it that Democrats want to punish hard-working Americans for being successful? Is it envy? Jealousy? I think it is their overwhelming lust for power over people’s lives. They simply won’t be happy until they are running everyone’s life and forcing you to live in their socialist society.
Folks, we’re in more trouble than you think.
The America created by the Founders and enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights is being destroyed from within, by a socialist President and his willing accomplices in the Congress. One day very soon, you’ll wake up and wonder what happened to the country you loved and the rights you cherished. They’ll be nothing but memories as the government hauls away all you’ve worked for so that they can give it to someone else they deem more worthy than you.
Was this the “change” you were hoping for?
Print This Post
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
My goodness, Nick! Chill out, man!
You think raising the top tax rate to 39 percent is socialism? That’s ridiculous!!
If a 39 percent top tax rate = socialism; then what kind of country was this back under Ronald Reagan when the top tax rate for most of his presidency was 50 percent; or under Richard Nixon when the top rate was 70 percent; or under Eisenhower when the top rate was 90 percent?
Seriously now. Answer the question. This country grew strong under tax policies that you would consider outrageous today. No one is asking to go back to anywhere near that level of taxation either. But something has to be done to get the economy back on track and start to pay down the huge debts that have accumulated as a result of several decades of Republican fiscal irresponsibility.
You say the country was founded on “freedom from government interference”. Does that include freedom from responsibility?
We are a strong nation today because we have been responsible, not just to ourselves, but to our neighbors and to our country as a whole. We have a strong economy because it was built on a foundation of responsible, tax-paying citizens who built up our infrastructure of roads and bridges and highways and schools and hospitals and police stations and fire departments and because of the responsible tax-paying citizens who sacrified blood and dollars to defend it and protect it. We are a strong nation because we have a strong safety net that keeps our elderly, our sick and our young from falling into poverty.
But all these things now are in danger of being eroded away because of the selfish, irresponsible policies of Republicans for the past several decades. What a bunch of cry babies! The Founding Fathers would be appalled.
Oh BooHoo! Woe is me! The government is going to raise my taxes by 5 percent because we’ve run up a $10 trillion debt. I won’t be able to enjoy my wealth! Wahhhhhh!!!!
Give me a break!
And another thing, about those wealthy people. While I am sure that many of them are hard-working, the vast majority of them were born wealthy. And raising the top tax bracket by 5 percent isn’t going to make them poor. Nor will it force them to shut down businesses and lay thousands of people off. That’s what eight years of unfettered Republican rule gets us.
Oh, and before I forget, while Obama’s stimulus package does have a lot of spending in it (which will create many, many jobs), it also includes the LARGEST TAX CUT IN HISTORY!!!!!
Sheesh!
But please do address this issue of the top tax rate from WWII til 1986 or so and explain to me how we were able to grow and prosper as a nation under such an oppressive tax system that punished the rich and did not allow them to enjoy the fruits of their wealth.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Absolutely false. In fact, the vast majority of wealthy people worked and earned their wealth. Anyway, why does it matter how they got their wealth? Are you saying that if a person inherits their wealth, its OK for the government to take away as much of their wealth as they want?
Also, I never said Obama was turning us socialist because he raised the tax rate; I said he was turning us socialist because he was taking hard earned wealth away from the people who worked for it and giving it to people who didn’t. By the way, please tell me: how will taking wealth away from the people who worked hard to earn it stimulate the economy? The people he is taking the wealth away from are the same people who hire workers for their business and purchase equipment for their factories. By taking wealth away from these people, he is forcing them to not hire additional workers and not buy equipment. In fact, if he takes enough away, they’ll probably end up laying off workers.
Finally, as for “responsibility,” it isn’t the government’s job to force its idea of responsibility upon its citizens. By the way, the PEOPLE did not run up a $10 trillion dollar debt (soon to be $13 trillion thanks to Obama), the GOVERNMENT did.
Largest tax cut in history? Yeah, thanks for that extra $13 a paycheck. It will probably be consumed by Obama’s other tax increases.
Yes, the government needs to levy and collect taxes to pay for its responsibilities and obligations. As envisioned by the founders, these responsibilities and obligations for not include over $100 million for various charities (the government has no right to take my money and then give it to charities IT deems worthy), or the $7.7 Billion in earmarks in the current spending bill.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Of course if you survey people and ask if they “work” for their money they are going to say yes. And I think it is debatable as to whether you should consider investing the same as working. But my point is not whether of not people are working to maintain their wealth. The point is that most were born wealthy to begin with. And there is nothing wrong with that. I wish my kids would have been born wealthy.
The point is also that a 5 percent increase in the top tax bracket is not going to make them poor or force them to curtail businesses and lay people off, etc.
And here is another key point:
My goodness!!! The Top 1 percent has increased their share of the national wealth from 10 percent to 20 percent! That means the other 99 percent of us have to split up the remaining 80 percent. (And I bet a big chunk of that goes to those in the Top 5 percent).
And so do you STILL think that paying a bit more in taxes is going to be a huge burden to these people???
Also, you avoided answering my question about how we fared so well as a nation before Reagan and the Republicans turned us into a debtor nation.
It seems we have some major disagreements over the role of government in our society, which is no surprise. But one thing we should at least be able to agree on is that the government is not some foreign entity separate from “the people” as you seem to imply. We govern ourselves in this country. We have a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”, and I like to think that we are competent enough as a people to have a fairly good government for the most part. You may not like all of it, especially when the other party is in charge, but this venomous government bashing so prevalent on the right these days is, to me, deeply disturbing.
March 6th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
You’re missing the point, Mike. It doesn’t matter whether or not a 5% increase in the tax rate will make the rich poor. What matters is that government is reaching into the people’s wallet and extracting cash to pay for it’s overspending. What government should be doing is cutting their spending to fit the budget they already have.
You’re proceeding from a false assumption here, namely that there is only a finite amount of wealth to go around. Hard working Americans have been creating new wealth for decades. Wealthy people do not get wealthy by taking money away from the poor; they get wealthy by providing a product or service that other people want and will pay for. In this capitalist system, you are free to go out there and create as much wealth as you want to within the limits of the law. Why Obama chooses to punish the people who take advantage of this opportunity is beyond me.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:08 am
I wonder if Mike believes a mugger who robs from the rich to give to the poor isn’t guilty of a crime? More to the point if he were the victim of such a mugging wouldn’t he wish the mugger to go free as long as the mugger gave the money to a good cause?
Of course not. Now how is the government different from that mugger?