Ammunition

Haven't been posted much at all lately. New job is keeping me pretty busy plus I don't have ready access to a computer most days.

Ran across an article over at Legal Insurrection that I just had to link to. I will provide a few details here:

-Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich: 13%, for the middle class: 33%

-The top "1%" paid $84 billion more in taxes between 2001 and 2008. This despite an overall decrease in the tax rates. Funny how it works; when you let the people that spend money to make money keep more of that money (less tax), they tend to spend even more money to make even more money. Liberals pundits derisively call this trickle down. But let's face facts: When rich people spend money to create more money, it tends to create jobs for the rest of us. (More below)

-The bottom half of taxpayers paid $6 billion less from 2001 to 2008. This decrease occurred even though middle class wages were on the upswing. The decrease in middle class wages is only a recent development. Oddly enough, this wage decrease has occurred over the past four years. Lines very precisely with Obama's firsts reign of terror.

-Tax revenues went from $793.7 billion in 2003 to $1.16 trillion by 2007. Again, this was an increase in tax revenue despite a tax rate decrease.

Please read the rest. While it might not convince a liberal that current tax rates are not to blame for our current budget woes (don't bother mentioning too much spending unless you want to see heads explode), at least these points will give you enough ammunition to present a clear and reasoned counter-argument. Of course, the words "clear and reasoned" are not part of the liberal dictionary.

Oddly enough, just recently I had a very heated discussion with a family member about tax rates, revenues, and job growth. Obviously, based on my view point that you are all aware, the family member was not in agreement with me. I laid out many of the facts recounted in the linked article but they could not be persuaded. Even when I pointed out that my family had a very small tax burden in recent years despite the decent wage I was making back then it just came back to the "rich don't pay enough".

It has always kind of made me concerned that liberals just don't have a clue, nor do they care to have a clue, about the facts. On a grand, less personal scale, seeing liberals lose their minds (like Tingles Matthews) when you present them with facts that are indisputable is kind of funny. But on a personal level, when dealing with close friends and family, it is kind of sad to have this view into the liberal mind set.

A little more on the spending of "rich" people. There are many liberals out there who chide the rich for spending their money foolishly on things like yachts, big houses, fast cars and lavish vacations. (SIDE NOTE: personally, I think many liberals are really jealous of those who have this much disposable income and wish they could have the same "foolish" spending habits.) Back to point: When rich people spend their money on what some would call wasteful spending, it does create jobs. If a rich person wants to buy a yacht, it is not often they buy used (opps "gently previously owned"). Rather, they have one designed and built. It could be as simple as a 35 foot sloop, or a mega-yacht one might see on the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Or maybe they have an 8,000 square foot house built in an exclusive neighborhood with all kinds of bells and whistles. One thing seems to escape the liberal mind-set, these items aren't magically pooped. They require skilled and unskilled labor to build them. And while a carpenter never got rich building houses, it does pay a living wage.