Tax Fairness

Today is Tax Freedom Day. The Tax Foundation calculates that all of the money you made since January 1 went to pay your taxes. From now on, you get to keep what you make.

But, for nearly half the country, January 1 is Tax Freedom Day. 47% of the country does not pay any income tax. That includes a family of four making $50,000 per year. 10% of the taxpayers pay nearly 75% of the taxes. While the Democrats painted President Bush's tax cuts as benefiting the rich, they also benefited the poor. President Obama added to that as part of his stimulus package. The result is that while government spending keeps going up, fewer and fewer people are paying for it. This is one reason that it is easy for Democrats to sell new programs - someone else will pay for them.

The Democrats claim to be for fairness but it is hardly fair for the government to be spreading the wealth so lavishly. That is a hallmark of the Progressives, though, and it will increase in the near future under health care.

Taxes should be a shared burden so that everyone feels the cost of government spending. Between borrowing and unequal taxation, this relationship has been broken for a long time and is leading to the financial crash that I wrote about last time.