Obama on Taxes

It is a well known fact that President Obama and the democratic party believe that the very wealthy in this country have some of the lowest taxes in history.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that “tax the wealthy” has been a recurring theme of the Democratic party.

Tax the Wealthy a Bad Idea?

Republicans, on one hand, say Obama’s position of “tax the wealthy” is ridiculous and uncalled for!

They say that more taxes on the rich will encourage them to invest in other countries and will KILL jobs in this country.

Tax cuts for the rich, republicans say, will supposedly spur a new era for this country where EVERYONE has a job. Apparently they forgot how well the Bush era tax cuts worked (yes, I’m being sarcastic).

Guess what? We’ve been trying that for the past decade, and America has experienced one of the worst economic growth periods in the history of this country. When taxes on the wealthy were higher, when Clinton was in office, our country experienced one of the greatest growth periods in its history.

Getting into an argument about economic benefits and taxes on the rich is a complex one to get involved in, so let’s take a different view on it.

Let’s first take a look at how much these Bush era tax cuts for the rich actually COST America.

If you compare the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the TARP funding for the bank bailouts, Obama’s stimulus package, and the Bush Era Tax Cuts on the rich, would you be surprised to learn that the tax cuts for the wealthy cost MORE than ANY of these programs?

Yeah, a trillion dollars. Republicans said that if the rich have an extra trillion dollars (that’s $1,000,000,000,000) that the job crisis in this country would be over! Since, after all, the people who hire everyone else are all rich, right?

Instead, what did Bush tax cuts result in?

-Higher bonuses for CEO’s,

-More $$ in the hands of big banks and the wealthy

-A manipulation of the American people through politicians in Washington who were BOUGHT OUT by Corporate America (go do a quick search on how much money BP and EXXON give to political campaigns)

Oh yeah, and the oil companies still receive billions and billions of dollars of tax breaks through oil subsidies even though they are some of the RICHEST CORPORATIONS IN THE WORLD!

Clearly, the Republicans are OWNED by the corporations. Guess that’s what money does. It corrupts.

Now let’s take a look at what the REPUBLICANS wanted to cut out of our budget this year during the great DEBT LIMIT CRISIS.

This year, several government programs came under attack in terms of cutting funding, such as:

-Medicare

-Medicaid

-Social Security

-Education

-EPA

-And so on and so forth.

Mind you, the Bush era tax cuts on the rich were NEVER questioned whatsoever.

The trillion dollar tax breaks for the rich were so protected that it caused our country to go into the most ridiculous debt limit “CRISIS” that was ever performed in Washington.

“NO NEW TAXES”, screamed the Republicans. Instead, your grandma who may not be able to afford Health Care on her own was on the chopping block for Medicare.

The family who barely makes enough money to have one meal per day (let alone health insurance!) was put on the chopping block for their Medicaid benefits.

The REPUBLICANS said that raising taxes on the rich was untouchable, but cutting funding for an 85 year old woman living off of her social security check was OKAY to do!

They said raising taxes on the rich was not a question, but the 5 year old child with a rare blood disorder DOES NOT have the right to health care if his family couldn’t afford it!

AND ON TOP OF THAT, the overwhelming majority of Americans (EVEN 50% of REPUBLICANS) agreed to a compromised plan that would raise taxes on the rich (effectively eliminating the Bush tax cuts) and cut funding across the board as well!

So Tax the Wealthy?

Instead of cutting funding from Medicare, Social Security, Education, etc., why not bring taxes on the wealthy to a more FAIR level that we’ve seen before?

That money could be used for a wide variety of things:

-Making it more affordable to go to college

-Hiring more construction workers to rebuild America

-Putting $$ towards our 15 trillion dollar debt

EVEN the rich, like Warren Buffet, one of the richest people in the world, claimed that Washington was “coddling” the rich and that taxes on the rich would help solve so many issues Washington fights about.

It’s time to stand up.

It’s time to really SHARE the sacrifice in our deficit crisis.

Raising taxes on the rich is the first step towards that goal.