editorial by Irwin Kram, Senior Fellow at the Factual American Research Trust (FART)
Yesterday, Pres. Obama showed that his deficit plan is just the Democrats' answer to everything: tax the rich. What he doesn't understand is that by taxing the rich you'll discourage people from getting rich in the first place. It's hard work to become a billionaire. Most spend half their lives as struggling millionaires before inheriting the rest from their parents. If you force them to pay an extra 0.0001% of each billion (which is almost as much as the president is asking for), most would-be billionaires are going to check out and say "what's the point?"
Instead of punishing people for being rich, we need a tax incentive that will make them think twice before deciding to be poor. A targeted "Poor Tax" is the only answer. Some would argue that the current GOP budget plan (which proposes cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Head Start, Pell Grants, unemployment, food stamps, housing aid, public schools, and other social services while simultaneously cutting taxes for the wealthiest) already shifts the costs of society onto its poorest members. I say it is not nearly enough.
Let's not forget who's really responsible for the economic downturn. People like to blame the bankers and fat cats, but if so many middle class Americans hadn't gotten so poor so fast, there would be no economic downturn. It's only fitting they should pay their fair share.
