Posted on 01/27/2003 10:33:57 PM PST by kattracks
In a single salvo of withering British irony, Winston Churchill demolished the moral pretensions of socialism: "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Socialists and socialist-lite liberals so earnestly envious of success and eternally resentful of its rewards missed the humor and took Churchill's observation literally - so literally that finding themselves unable to redistribute prosperity without destroying it, liberals are content to settle for misery as long as they can redistribute it equally.
Despite socialism's repeated failures, its ethos of "equal outcomes for unequal effort" lives on in the bosom of liberals today. The current federal tax system is living testimony to the liberal's political success at playing the politics of envy. Almost 30 percent of all tax revenues are paid by only 1 percent of the population in the top income brackets, the top 5 percent pay 50 percent and almost 35 percent of those filing an income-tax return have zero income-tax liability or actually receive a check from the government in the form of a "negative-income-tax" payment.
The minute President Bush suggested giving an across-the-board tax cut to everyone who pays income taxes, the liberals' socialist impulse caused them to bleat "unfair to the poor; benefits the rich" - by which they meant the president's tax cuts are "unfair" because liberals think they won't increase the share of the tax burden borne by upper-income individuals. Liberals missed the irony again because every time the government reduces the tax penalty against work, saving, investing and entrepreneurial risk-taking by reducing tax rates, the rich end up paying a larger share of the total tax burden.
Of course there is still poverty, and I saw it firsthand as housing secretary for President George Herbert Walker Bush. But wherever poverty exists in America today, it is due to government policies and taxes that punish work, discourage homeownership and restrict access to capital. Free-market economies are working just as Churchill described: The rich are getting richer, and so are the poor.
Low-income Americans are healthier and live longer, eat better, have more leisure and enjoy a higher standard of living than ever before. A recent report by the Federal Reserve Board revealed that the net worth of Americans in the lowest income quintile (the lowest 20 percent) rose 25 percent between 1998 and 2001.
Yet liberal class warriors who practice the politics of envy would have us believe the plight of the poor is worsening because income gains among those in the upper income tiers have been larger than those at the bottom. (That same Fed study found that the net worth of those with incomes in the top 10 percent rose 69 percent over the same time period.)
What the liberals can't bring themselves to accept is the simple fact that people with incomes in the top 10 percent are where they are because they generally produce more and thus receive greater rewards. What appears to the socialist mindset as a "disproportionate reward" is really an appropriate reward for disproportionate productivity. That reward differential is a small price to pay by those at the bottom of the economic ladder so that they may have jobs, tools and technology with which to raise their own productivity and advance.
The problem with these so-called "distribution studies" is that they deal with abstract statistical aggregations, not real individuals, and they fail to consider the great amount of income mobility that characterizes America. A study by the congressional Joint Economic Committee that corrects this oversight found a remarkable amount of churning as people constantly move up and down in the income distribution. It found that, "the degree of income mobility in American society renders the comparison of quintile income levels over time virtually meaningless." The study found that 86 percent of tax filers in the bottom quintile had exited this quintile by the end of a decade. According to Internal Revenue Service tax data, the study noted that "an individual who began the 10-year period under study in the bottom quintile had a greater chance of rising to the top by the end of the period than remaining at the bottom."
Ten years ago, historian Harry Jaffa observed that, "Under the spurious banner of 'fairness,' socialistic propaganda - motivated by class hatred and envy of initiative, enterprise and individual success - seems to be enjoying a renaissance in our own midst even as it is being scorned to death in the erstwhile heartlands of Communism." Today, this attitude is changing, and capitalism is being democratized as an investment culture develops among workers at all income levels. (More than half of Americans own stocks and bonds, either directly or through their retirement accounts.) Class-warfare rhetoric is a discordant echo from the past, and if the liberals keep it up, they will become relics of the past themselves.
©2003 Copley News Service
I'm not following your other thread, but you may be on to something. Welfare reform, not the programs themselves, may be responsible. Because of the stunning success in recent years of moving the poor from welfare to work, their prior meager net worths may have inevitably increased by their becoming employed and self-supporting.
Howdy Freepers:The following is a suggestion for President Bush to use as his 'closing comments' in his upcoming State Of The Union speech on Tuesday, January 28, 2003.
(Suggested close by President Bush in his S.O.T.U. speech 1/28)
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...and now, my fellow Americans, I'm going to do something that is very hard for me -- or any President -- to do: I'm going to admit I was wrong!With respect to the so-called "stimulus" package that I announced to the nation to help our economy get up-and- running and create more jobs, I am withdrawing it.
Why? Frankly, it will not get the job done that we need to accomplish. That's now clear to me... and, neither will the "stimulus" plan that Senator Daschle and his fellow Democrats have put forward do the job.
There is, however, a plan that WILL stimulate the economy like we've never seen before and create so many new jobs here in America that we'd have to really scramble to fill 'em all. Now, that would be the kind of problem we'd like to tackle, right?
The men who developed this outstanding plan are seated right here in the audience. I think it's worth noting, too, that one is a Republican and one is a Democrat... and both are great Americans.
The plan they developed will r-e-p-l-a-c-e the present incomprehensible Income Tax System (and abolish the IRS). At last, the taxpayers of this nation will be free of the unfair, growth-inhibiting, messed-up, abominable Income Tax System and April 15th will become just another nice SPRING Day!
As individual taxpayers you'll no longer have to File Tax Returns and IRS audits will be a thing of the past.
The plan they devised has now been introduced into the House of Representatives. It's known as H.R. 25, The Fair Tax Act of 2003. It's presently in the Ways & Means Committee, and I'm requesting that it be sent, without delay, to the Floor of the House for debate and passage.
By acting promptly, Congress can implement the Fair Tax so that this coming April 15, 2003, will be the LAST April 15th that you, as taxpayers, will ever have to file a Tax Return.
I'd like at this time to ask that Congressman John Linder from Georgia and Congressman Collin Peterson from Minnesota stand and that we give them a well deserved round of applause for developing this new and fair way to fund our government.
As you leave the Halls of Congress tonight, you'll find a copy of the Fair Tax plan available for you to take with you.
In addition, we have placed a copy on the Internet for you to access and read... and a copy has been released to all the major wire services, so you'll be able to read it in the newspapers tomorrow.
I'm sure, also, that the TV commentators will be discussing the Fair Tax plan following my State Of The Union speech.
I like announcing good news, so I'll say again:
The Fair Tax Plan = FAIRNESS & FREEDOM for all!
Thank you for listening. I wish health and happiness for each and every one of you as we, together, deal with and solve the challenges facing our nation... at home and abroad.
Goodnight, all!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------To: All readers
May I suggest that you logon below and send the above suggested script to the President and ask him to include it in his S.O.T.U. speech to the nation Tuesday night, Jan 28th.
Write To The President of the United States of America!
When you've logged-on, input your Zip Code in the above and it will enable you to write to the President and to your members of Congress as well.
Better hurry... time is of the essence!
Onward & Upward!
Cliff Cofer, Polk County, CD-03 - State Director,
Americans For Fair Taxation, Iowa Volunteer Team
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* * "The Tax System's Broken. Let's Fix It!" * *
* * Summary Of Key Points About The FairTax!
* * Get All The FairTax Facts!
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