Moral Imperative

In a show of unity that would make GOP senators blush, 45 Senate Democrats penned a letter in which they take the position that tax reform will work only if the vast majority of people who pay income taxes get absolutely, positively, unequivocally no tax cut. After all, following their tried and true class warfare mantra that the "rich don't pay their fair share", the Dems rely on soaking the rich to pay for the waste, fraud, abuse, and general inefficiency that is federal spending. Tax cuts imply spending cuts, and that is anathema to every Democrat.

Of course there are a few inconvenient facts that the Dems try to avoid. James Freeman describes them:

In February the Tax Foundation highlighted IRS data showing that the top one percent of income earners pay more than 39% of income taxes, and the top 5% pay nearly 60%.

The government has become so efficient at soaking the one percent—even as Democrats have become expert in stoking hatred against this hard-working group—that even a die-hard Sandernista would have to be impressed. The Tax Foundation explains:

In 2014, the top 1 percent of taxpayers accounted for more income taxes paid than the bottom 90 percent combined. The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid $543 billion, or 39.48 percent of all income taxes, while the bottom 90 percent paid $400 billion, or 29.12 percent of all income taxes.

You’d never know it from the standard harangues from Democrats about the rich paying their fair share, but the top quarter of income earners, which is perhaps a reasonable definition of the “upper class,” pay nearly 87% of federal income taxes. If the party’s most hysterical class warriors want to rule out relief for the top half of U.S. income earners, then they’re talking about the group paying more than 97% of income taxes.

Progressives would point out that income inequality is to blame. But again, they would omit the simple fact that such inequality got worse under eight years of Democratic governance. For just a moment, consider what income equality actually implies—that rewards for innovation, education, hard work, perseverance, risk taking, and a laundry list of other characteristics that lead to high income should have no bearing on financial outcomes. That a person willing to give up low, but safe wages in exchange for starting a small business that might have higher financial rewards is not worthy of those rewards. That soaking the rich with taxes will magically lead to equality of incomes. That's fantasy thinking, but predictably normal for progressives. But I digress.

In their letter, the Dems call for “real relief for working families” but absolutely refuse to even consider reductions in the rate of spending (much less actual spending cuts) to provide that relief. It's a wonderful sham—profess to want to help "working families" but do everything possible to stifle economic grow and the resultant jobs and small businesses it creates while at the same time refusing to provide relief to those who pay 87 percent of all income taxes collected.

After all, the Democrats know far better how to spend our hard-earned money that we do. It's their moral imperative to make government ever bigger, ever more intrusive, ever more wasteful, and ever more inefficient.