So one of the proposals floating around Washington this week says this: “The tax code is patently unfair: many of the deductions and preferences in the system—which serve to narrow the tax base—were lobbied for and are mainly used by a relatively small group of mostly higher-income individuals.” These tax gimmicks add up to about $1 trillion a year in lost revenue, and “are disproportionately used by upper-income individuals. There’s nothing fair about that.”
What raging libtard wrote this? Um . . . Paul Ryan, in his budget proposal. Of course, Ryan wants to lower tax rates to a top rate of 25 percent by getting rid of most deductions and special treatments, which would deliver a tax increase to many rich people like Romney. Liberals hate this concept, because what fun is it if you can’t attack the rich and ladle out favors to your rich liberal friends, as, for example, Charles Schumer does with his defense of “carried interest” for his Wall Street pals? Or Obama, who said he favors higher capital gains tax rates, even if they reduce revenue, because it is “fair.”
The New York Times’ James Stewart comments: “A top rate of 25 percent sounds like a cut from current higher rates, but so few wealthy taxpayers pay the top rate that it would be a significant increase for many of them.” In addition, if you means-test entitlements as Ryan suggests, it also means an implicitly higher tax burden on the rich. Don’t expect liberals to get this, though.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.