Democrats the real party of the rich

One of the great misconceptions in American politics is that Republicans are the party of the rich.  That title belongs to the Democrats, who regularly garner the big bucks of America’s moneyed elite.  David Elliott of the AP reports: For as often as Democrats attack the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch for their heavy spending on politics, it's actually the liberal-minded who shelled out the most cash in the just completed midterm elections. At least, that is, among those groups that must disclose what they raise and spend. Read more at American Thinker
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Ayn Rand Was Right: Wealthy Are on Strike Against Obama

By Wayne Allyn Root (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler)
The U.S. economy is crumbling. Businesses are collapsing in record numbers. Jobs have disappeared. Tax revenues are down dramatically. Coincidence? ∴ Everything happening today under Obama resembles the storyline of Ayn Rand’s famous book, Atlas Shrugged, one of the most popular books of all time, selling over 7 million copies. Now, under President Obama, Atlas Shrugged has come to life. Rand prophesized a country dominated by socialists, Marxists and statists, where looters, free loaders and poverty promoters live off the productive class. To rationalize the fleecing of innovative business owners and job creators, the looter class demonized the wealthy, just as Obama and his socialist cabal are doing in real life today. Read more at Big Government... Read More......

Detweiler LETTER, 11/24

11/24/2009, Pre-Publication: LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Submitted to the Corvallis Gazette-Times by John H. Detweiler - On January 26th we are going to vote on raising taxes on nasty corporations and the undeserving rich. Presumably there will be negative consequences for all sorts of groups if we don't raise taxes. On the other hand, there will be negative consequences for business if we do raise taxes.

Corporations make decisions in their best interests as they see them. Raising taxes on corporations increase their costs of doing business in Oregon. If they can, they will raise prices on their goods and services to recover those costs. If they can't raise prices, they will cut costs other ways. They may fire employees. If they have to accept reduced profits, they will do so in the short run. In the longer run, they may move out of Oregon or choose not to expand in Oregon.

The rich also make decisions in their best interests as they see them. In the short run they will pay the tax increase. In the longer run, they will change their behavior to avoid the tax increase. If they are professionals, they may reduce the amount of services they sell because they don't earn enough to make the marginal work worthwhile. If they are small business owners, they may reduce the size of their businesses firing employees and contracting the economy. They may move out of Oregon.

If we treat corporations and the rich as endless sources of funds, they will make decisions to avoid being treated as money trees.

--
John H. Detweiler; web page => www.peak.org/~detweij Read More......

Seven Myths About Taxing the Rich

Curtis S. Dubay, Senior Analyst in Tax Policy in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, discusses the effect of President Obama's plan to raise taxes on high income earners and Rep. Rangle's (D-NY) plan to levy a surtax on these earners to help fund government-run health care in Backgrounder #2306, Seven Myths About Taxing the Rich. For a brief summary of the seven myths...

Myth 1: Raising taxes on the rich will close budget deficits.
Truth: Increasing the progressivity of the income tax code by raising the top two rates will not close the deficit. In fact, it will lead to more revenue volatility, which will lead to larger future deficits.

Myth 2: The rich do not pay their fair share.
Truth: The top 20 percent of income earners pay almost all federal taxes.

Myth 3: The income tax code favors the rich and well-connected.
Truth: The bottom 50 percent of income earners pay almost no income taxes and the poor and middle-income earners benefit greatly from the tax code.

Myth 4: It is all right to raise tax rates on the rich-- they can afford it.
Truth: Just because someone can afford to pay higher taxes does not mean he should be forced to do so.

Myth 5: Higher tax rates in the 1990s did not hurt economic growth, so it is all right to raise them to those levels again.
Truth: High tax rates in the 1990s were a contributing factor to the 2001 recession and returning to those rates will damage the already severely weakened economy.

Myth 6: The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts did not generate strong economic growth.
Truth: The tax cuts generated strong economic growth.

Myth 7: Raising the top two income tax rates will not negatively impact small businesses because only 2 percent of them pay rates at that level.
Truth: Raising the top two income tax rates will negatively impact almost three-fourths of all economic activity created by small businesses.

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