Leftist Claims High Taxes are Better for Economy and More Moral
The insanity of liberals knows no bounds. Paul Waldman writes for American Prospect. His latest blog post argues that conservatives don’t support tax cuts because they help the economy grow. “The real source of the conservative support for tax cuts is moral, not practical. They believe that taxes are inherently immoral — the government stealing from you the fruits of your labor (or inheritance or wise investments, as the case may be) to enact its nefarious schemes.”
One would think that stealing from people would be condemned.
It’s the liberal belief that the government is better equipped to spend the money that people work to earn. Money taken and spent by governments is on a higher moral plane.
Liberals contend that governments are best suited to govern almost everything, and as a result, taxes are needed to fund these programs. Obviously, this means that millions of people are going to get money they did not earn, and these wealth transfer programs keep growing.
In order to bolster his argument that tax cuts are counterproductive, Waldman points to the tax cutting policies of Kansas governor Sam Brownback.
“Kansas governor Sam Brownback had a plan when he got elected in 2010… Pass huge tax cuts, then watch the state transform into a kind of economic heaven on earth. Brownback surely could never have doubted it would work, since he and those in his party have been saying for decades that tax cuts deliver economic growth, rising tax revenues, general happiness, and shinier, more manageable hair.
“[G]rowth in Kansas did not, in fact, explode… [R]evenues plummeted, leading to severe cutbacks in education and other state services. Brownback nevertheless managed to get re-elected, because it was a non-presidential year and because it’s Kansas…”
Two things immediately come to mind. First, if spending continues at the same rate or even increases, there’s going to be a deficit. Any family or company that follows a budget knows this. But unlike governments, families and businesses can’t increase revenue by forcing people to give them money or buy their products. That would be immoral. Did Gov. Brownback cut spending? Too money Republicans defend and use a bloated government to stay in power. They fear cutting programs and the costs that go with them.
Second, federal taxation and regulations have a role to play in what people at the state level do with their money. As a self-employed small business owner, I know how much businesses are squeezed by the Federal government. The salaries of two full-time workers is taken from me each year in the form of taxes and spent by the Federal government on mostly unconstitutional and unproductive national programs. The money that I have left, I must save in order to insure against possible business losses, a downturn in the economy, and retirement.
But contrary to Waldman, morality is at the heart of taxes. It’s my money. It’s your money. Why is it moral for politicians to increase the tax rate to take money from you and me, but it’s not moral for you and me to keep our money and spend it as we see fit?
It’s immoral for you and me to rob our neighbors. It’s immoral for you and me to get a group of some of our neighbors together to rob another neighborhood. But somehow it becomes a moral imperative for a majority of the people to vote legislatures into office so they can steal for them.
A “moral success,” as Waldman positions his high tax imperative argument, is to have the State confiscate more money from the productive members of society so it can be redistributed to others to gain votes and increase the power of the State.
Waldman is correct that conservatives “believe that taxes are inherently immoral — the government stealing from you the fruits of your labor (or inheritance or wise investments, as the case may be) to enact its nefarious schemes.”
Of course we do, and it’s shocking that he and others like him don’t.