I write to contest Keith Hansen’s editorial in the Sept. 10 Dispatch in which he concludes that taxing those who make over a million dollars a year on 100 percent of their income would not appreciably reduce our federal deficit. He was using Paul Ryan’s figures, based on IRS statistics in 2008 which, applied then, would have created a surplus of $370 billion.
Even though taxing the wealthiest at 100 percent sounds outlandish, a historical study shows we have been close to that. It was 92 percent during the Republican Eisenhower years of 1952 and 1953, shortly following World War II, 91 percent from 1954-1963, then dropped to 50 percent from 1982-1986, to 39.6 percent from 1993-2000 and 35 percent from 2003-2012.
The fallacy in both Hansen and Ryan’s thinking is their support for “trickle-down” economics. That has never worked. We must support “middle-out” economics, where the middle class income grows, increasing consumer spending and bringing greater prosperity to all.
The issue is that of simple fairness. The wealthiest should be taxed at a higher rate than those in the middle.
Pastor Don Utzman, retired
Lake Hubert
Comments (31)
Add commentI think they know that
I think they know that transferring the nations wealth into the hands and offshore accounts of the 1% is going to destroy the middle class. It is deliberate.
If you confiscate
every dollar that every millionaire + in the United States has you can't pay this year's deficit and then what will you do next year? For that matter the GNP for the ENTIRE US can't cover the deficit this year!!!!! This administration is a train wreck that has to go!
You liberals need to find a new lie and quit spending.
Well Fish I am the middle class
and I'm tired of paying for people that don't pay ANYTHING!
They transfer their wealth offshore because we are not...
...competitive in terms of taxation--especially with regard to corporate taxation (we are consistently close to the highest in the world). Pastor Hutzman should have stayed in retirement or at least studied economics for a couple of minutes before writing this letter because he's missing four obvious things. First, if a person is taxed at 100 percent, they have zero incentive to make any money past the point that they will have to fork it over to the government, so as FNB notes, "What are you going to do the next year". Second, the government does not create jobs, it simply shuffles money around and generally wastes it, so taking all the money from the rich who are the job creators will without question prevent jobs from being created. Third, forcing a person to work for free is slavery, which is a moral no-no. And fourth, taking all the fruits of a person's labor without recompense is stealing, another moral no-no.
I agree that we need to crack
I agree that we need to crack down on freeloaders.
That includes the welfare cheats who steal a few hundred a month AND the corporate cheats who have corrupted our political system with their wealth and influence to get special favors that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions.
Fairly unbalanced example shows a lack of understanding how money works in the economy.
Money in the pocket of working class Americans gets recycled within the economy daily. As it flows through the veins of our economy it multiples and creates jobs. That's why the dollar in an offshore account is worth more than a dollar to our economy. Money in offshore bank accounts is removed from the stream of money that flows like the blood in our veins.
This country isn't broke like the wealthy are telling us. It's anemic because they have removed too much money from our veins.
Tax those lazy rich people
Contest all you want, Don, Keith is absolutelycorrect. Any and all taxes bilked from those dreadful rich people would not be used to rduce our debt, but would go in the general fund and be used on more social give away programs designed to garner votes. Do the math, smell the DFL koolade and let history be your guide. Love, hope and change to all - Steve
Thanks Pastor Don, but
It's important for everyone concerned with the future of the state and country to know this: every truly bi-partisan committee and expert analysis that has looked into our economic problems has said the same thing.
In order to pull out of our mess and start reversing the debt, we need to do both of these things--increase revenue coming into government, and decrease spending going out.
That means we can't solve it--it would help but won't solve it--by simply raising taxes.
And we can't solve it--though it might help--by cutting spending.
We have to do BOTH.
So yes we need to raise taxes. Raising them on the rich seems like a good start, especially when you know how much they have been cut over the years.
And yes we need to cut government spending. The kicker there is most of the things the republicans want cuts in amount to peanuts. You can eliminate every penny spent on earmarks and welfare waste and not reverse the climb of the deficit. You can eliminate all those evil regulation agencies that protect children, the environment, etc. and not reverse the growing deficit.
Increased taxes and spending cuts. Republicans fight against one tooth and nail, Democrats the other.
The only party in our state that takes a pragmatic view of both is the Independence party.
Vote independent this fall if you really want to see an improvement!
The issue is not simple fairness
Pastor, please leave the economics to the professionals.
Have you ever ran a business,
hiring employees, collect the taxes for the government,
adhere to all the regulations? And start the business with
your own savings and funding. I do know that small business does most of the hiring but,
you have a distorted view of how the whole system works.
It is not going to help the middle class if the evil 1%
doesn't use their money for hiring and inviesting. The middle class has
suffered the most under President Obama. Is that fair?
Price of food, price of gas, everything has gone up, up, up.
What cuts do you recommend Pastor?
Was it so bad under Reagan, Sadie?
Taxes on the rich were 15% higher under Ronnie than they are now. Seems to me our economy was a lot better back then, no?
And if cutting taxes on the rich helped the economy so much, why aren't we in a lot better shape today? After all, taxes on the rich are MUCH lower now than they were back then! And that's not even going into the eye-popping actual tax rates that most of the rich actually pay after all the dodges and shelters available to them these days.
Everyone needs to share the pain.
This country cannot afford to let the rich escape any if we really want to improve our future.
The government creates jobs
Teachers, firemen, infrastructure building and repair, military...
Gov. Dayton just awarded $47.5 million for job creation. Guess he is helping.
I liked the note
a teacher sent home with a student last week, asking the parents to help do her job so she would have more family time.
Taxes, we must pay our "FAIR SHARE"
So often of late we hear that the rich must pay their fair share. This is the term which has been introduced and kept in the forefront by our President. The problem that I see is that no one, including the President, has defined the term fair share and it's implications on every citizen of the United States of America! If the richest must pay a fair share should not the poorest have a fair share defined concerning their fair share due? As we progress in our form of government we seem to forget that we are all afforded the right to the persuit of happiness rather than the right to happiness!
government cant create jobs without private sector taxes
you can not sustain a working government and public sector jobs without tax dollars from the private sector.
Do a little test...stop private sector tax dollars coming in and see how long public sector jobs last...wont be long.
As for the money Dayton awarded...are we still in debt in this state? How can we be issuing money we dont have?
Pay off the debt, dont add to it
I agree that spending cuts are needed, as are tax increases.
But why cut off at $250,000? Why not start at $100,000? Why not tell people if you did not pay any taxes, don't expect a refund. Why do those on unemployment have to pay taxes on their income and not those who receive any other form of government handout? What about cutting all monies to other countries, especially those that want to continuously kill us?There are probably hundreds of ideas that we all could come up with, but unfortunately no one is listening!
scary, and your point?
How about making every person in this country pay at least $1 into the government and get nothing back. So all those single mothers who breed to make money no longer get $25,000 back in taxes, they now have to pay $1 into the government. Do that the millions of times that it is possible in this country and you now have your bridge
PDNET and IDWD: Good posts.
PDNET and IDWD: Good posts. Good ideas.
Flat tax % everyone shares the pain. No sheltering.
No one gets more back in taxes than they pay in. Ever.
Make everyone contribute $1 monthly, extra, non-refundable. Put it right to debt reduction.
Stop foreign aid...it's a luxury we can't afford right now.
See....the regular people can come up with all kinds of ways to create some revenue while still be fair and not causing additional pain to those already hurting. Why won't our elected officials listen?
Please people, the private
Please people, the private sector pays taxes that pays for the government employees no matter who they be.
That is blunt and simple.
The creation of government jobs cannot happen without
private sector taxes.
I like the flat tax. no exceptions. I am so sick of "fair share"
that I could puke. 50% of people don't pay federal taxes so, how is that a fair share? They have "no skin" in the game and therefore may not care about how the economic system works.
What happened under Reagan or any previous administration stays there. This is now, that was then.
Now is our current problem.. Let's keep the focus on now.
"Taxing the wealthiest at 100
"Taxing the wealthiest at 100 percent sounds outlandish"? Wow! I hope the good pastor didn't preach just envy, greed, bitterness, jealousy, animosity, class warfare, and hatred from his pulpit and that he at least seasoned his messages with a little bit about honesty, honor, self respect, generosity, work, and the value of non material things. Barack Hussein Obama does no service to anyone, including the lemmings, with his pledge to "not allow the half of Americans who pay no taxes (the "no fare" share crowd) to bear the burden of the other half who aren't paying their fair share."
Time to get off the wagon and
Time to get off the wagon and contribute to the ride.
Sadie, don't forget that
Sadie, don't forget that public sector employees who work those government jobs ALSO pay taxes that pay for public sector jobs.
And public sector workers BUY the products/services of private sector businesses so they CAN pay taxes.
Every job is important to the economy, whether private or public. One is not better than the other as long as they are producing a needed good or service and resulting in a person who is taking home a paycheck that they will circulate back into the economy.
Southie
"The government creates jobs
Teachers, firemen, infrastructure building and repair, military...
Gov. Dayton just awarded $47.5 million for job creation. Guess he is helping."
1. Where do you think that money came from?
2. Do you believe that it was Gov. Dayton's money?
3. How do you think that government sector jobs are created?
Okey
Agreed but, for all the taxes including property taxes that
a public employee pays, what percentage of their own
salary, benefits, retirement does their total tax payment cover?
Take the Chicago teachers with a salary of around $75.000
plus benefits and retirements and a private sector worker
in Chicago is around $45,000.
Private sector is also paying sales, property, fed. and all the other misc taxes.
Interesting you say that one is not better, but the trend is for the public sector to have bigger salaries, benefits and better retirement benefits. This is what is so frustrating.
This is not sustainable.
2 comments for scary and ine for OkeyDokey09
scaryphailin, you asked, "How ELSE do we pay to replace our bridges BEFORE they collapse???"
Well, what's wrong with user fees? We have gasoline taxes (user fees). We have auto registration fees (user fees). We have hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses (user fees). We have property taxes which are user fees.
Those are a few examples of user fees. How about toll roads and bridge tolls to pay for the roads and bridges that we all, rich and poor alike, use? And, by the way scary the auto and property taxes fall in line with the progressive movement because the more more valuable the auto or property the higher the tax (user fee)!
Then , scary, you stated, "From 2001 - 2007, the republicons controlled the presidency, the senate, the house of representatives and the supreme court and did NOT do what you suggested".
Well scary, until 2007 when the non-progressives had controll of sorts, things weren't going along real well but they weren't all that bad either. The Democrats took control of the House and Senate in 2007 and that's really when things went (as the saying goes) to Hell in a hand basket. When your guy Obama took office he had control of both houses for two full years. Since he took office we have not had one federal budget written! Now, I am aware that that is the fault of the Republican House in your mind. However, the House did write and present a budget each year but a certain boy named Harry never brought a single budget of any sort to the Senate floor for a vote!
Now, OkeyDokey said," Sadie, don't forget that public sector employees who work those government jobs ALSO pay taxes that pay for public sector jobs.......Every job is important to the economy, whether private or public. One is not better than the other as long as they are producing a needed good or service and resulting in a person who is taking home a paycheck that they will circulate back into the economy."
Yes Okey they do pay taxes, however every penny they earn comes from the private sector because even though they do provide needed 'services' (note that I skipped goods because public sector folks do not produce goods) they do not provide any NEW dollars, only those recirculated dollars from the private sector!
Please, if I have this stuff all wrong, show and tell me where I have erred!
I was responding to the GOP mantra
that only the private sector creates jobs, not the government. The government jobs have declined since 2009. So someone is saving money...cities, states and the Feds.
And of course we know that taxes enable that. Duh.
So someone is saving money
NOT when the government employees use unions to get pay and benefits far above the other-than government employees that are paying their wages, at the same time their's are dropping.
As eyolf would say, The DFL Meme, is what I am responding to.
35%?
I thought Romney only pays 13% ?
User Fees ,Value Added Tax , Wait TPAW taught us the difference
Anybody that had to live with the conversion of Highway 12 (West of Downtown Mpls) into Highway 394 , with "sane" Lane
only open 1 direction for a few hours day( Toll Road) must have certainly missed the departure of the new young MN DOT Eng. as he packed his bag and quickly moved to PA.
The question from residents was simple.
What were you thinking about tearing this road apart for years, displacing hundreds of home owners and Businesses, then rebuilding it back with exactly the same number of lanes ?
His response " We were trying to get people out of their cars "
That my friends was the beginning of trickle down economics.
Hold on here, pastor. Why
Hold on here, pastor. Why all the concern for the middle class, whoever they are. Those wealthy middle class guys have more than the lower class guys and that just isn’t fair, so let’s go after the greedy middle class. This won’t elevate the lower class but will make it more fair if, as the Rev. Jackson proposes, we all have the same sort of living room. We can then get after the no class guys like Jackson,Sharpton, Clinton, Schultz,Biden and Letterman.. Love to all but the above - Steve
I always thought that if you
I always thought that if you want to get out of the hole you should quit digging.
Take all the money from everyone and divide it evenly between everyone-with in a year the same people will be rich and the same people will be poor.