Bush confronts Democrat class-conflict agitation
By Charles A. Morse
web
posted March 19, 2001
While the Democrats continue to extol the virtue of the burgeoning authoritarian State, engorged with taxes, President Bush is practically reduced to begging the American people to accept a refund of their hard earned money. Bush's tax cut proposal faces a tough fight in the Senate as Democrat billionaires like Ted Kennedy and his ilk want to keep the surplus to pay off more bureaucrats and build more constituencies dependant on government largess. The Democrats sell this scam to the American people by fanning the flames of division when they call the Bush proposal a tax cut for the rich.
This Democrat propaganda campaign raises several questions. How does taxing the rich help the poor? What has big government ever done to reduce poverty? How much taxes do liberal billionaires like Ted Kennedy actually pay now?
The poor and working class are supposed to understand that, somehow, if richer people are taxed, however rich is defined, they benefit. The liberal big lie is that If richer people get a tax break, poorer people are hurt. Of course the opposite is true. It would be nice, for once, to see a liberal stop the demagogue routine and explain, in rational language, how this works. How does a tax cut for so called richer people hurt the poor? The truth is that very rich people, like Ted Kennedy, pay little in taxes.
Most of their income is tied up in trusts and tax shelters. The taxes are actually paid by the middle and lower middle class. The harder the workingman struggles to raise himself and his family above living from paycheck to paycheck, the higher the tax burden becomes. It's curious to note that the majority of the rich, those bellowing the loudest about the danger of tax cutting, tend to be liberals. The sight of the bloated Kennedy screeching from the well of the Senate against tax cuts "for the rich" is beyond bizarre.
 Gates |
Furthermore, liberal billionaires like Bill Gates of Microsoft, who signed a full page ad in the New York Times rejecting a repeal of the estate tax, have no intention of having that tax actually assessed on their own estates. They can afford to hire attorneys who make sure the tax is not paid. Perhaps, in a demonstration of their sincere support of the estate tax, these rich friends of the Democrats would be willing to sign a legally binding pledge that their estates will be assessed the full tax upon their demise. I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening any time soon.
Again, the struggling 80% of us who make up the middle class get stuck with the bill. The estate tax often forces the small business owner and farmer to liquidate the inherited asset in order to pay the tax. They are often driven out of the business their predecessor spent a lifetime creating. The business or farm is than purchased, often at bargain basement prices by, you guessed it, the millionaire who, more likely than not, supports the estate tax and other liberal programs. And why not?
President Kennedy understood the issue when he passed an across the board tax cut through Congress. He poetically stated at the time that a rising tide carries all boats. Capital accumulating at it's source, with the owner or creator, has a rippling effect, like a pebble tossed on water. The capital is either exchanged for goods and services, which helps production and employment, or is invested in companies which results in the same thing. The poor benefits by the opportunities opened up in the process. The beneficiaries of high taxes are government bureaucrats.
The authoritarian left and their billionaire and millionaire supporters have held the high ground in this country for several decades. They know how to manipulate the emotions of working people with bogus offers of improvement at the expense of their more successful neighbors. This is an appeal to the lowest impulse which is envy, greed, and covetousness toward another mans property. All the while, the left has, rather than improving the lot of the poor, managed them in a massive system of dependency and perpetual poverty.
The left wants to control and manage, not help the poor. The left, and
their rich friends want to expand their power over our lives and, at the
same time, stuff their pockets with our extracted income. This is what
President Bush is up against and he needs our support. 
Chuck Morse is the author of Thunder out of Boston which you can buy at Amazon.com.
Other related articles: (open in a new window)
- Getting real about tax cut numbers by W. James Antle III (March 12, 2001)
- The unmerited inheritance tax by John Burke (February 26, 2001)
- Death tax should be laid to rest by Nicholas Sanchez (February 19, 2001)