Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share?

To listen to the Democrats, the next worse thing to ISIS (and to some, climate change), the terrorist Muslims in Syria and Iraq, are the wealthy individuals in the United States of America. They keep harping on the erroneous fact that that the rich don't pay their “fair share” in paying income taxes and that they are greedy besides, and have become rich on the backs of the poor. Is it true that the rich don't pay their “fair share” of income taxes?

As former Democratic candidate for president, Al Smith (1928) once said, “Let's look at the record”. According to the 2010 (which is still valid today) non-partisan Tax Foundation report, the top 1% earns 19% of the gross national income and pays 38% of all federal taxes. The top 5% earns 34% and pays 59%. The top 10% earns 45% and pays 71%. The bottom 50% pays just 3% of federal tax. If that isn't soaking the rich”, I don't know what it is? Shouldn't everyone have a dog in the fight by paying something to the government?

It is true that during the 8 years of the Obama Administration, the rich have gotten richer and the poor and middle-class have remained stagnant or have lost income, mainly due to the run-up of the stock market, which the rich are heavily invested in. The spending policies and the regulatory policies of the Obama Administration, and the low interest rates of the Federal Reserve, have also contributed to this income gap. The only economically sound way to stop this difference in income differential is to get the economy stimulated with policies that will encourage entrepreneurship so that we can produce more jobs, and in return generate more tax revenue to the federal treasury, so that we can reduce the burden of taxation on the upper and middle-class taxpayers. The policies of the Obama Administration did not work for most people, and change was needed (not the hope and change “snake oil” promoted by Obama) to get us back on the right economic track. President Trump, before and after his election, has proposed a reform of our tax system to make it easier for people to pay their taxes and to reduce the rates that all taxpayers now pay. If and when those reforms are passed, our economy will take off upward as it is now doing without the needed reforms in place.

But, the inexperience of former President Obama in economics , and his lack of sound fiscal and administrative knowledge, he seemed to have a “tin ear” as to what was needed to get our economy booming again. The voters had the chance in 2016 to elect a real “money man” of integrity in Donald Trump, and they voted him president.

The semi-Marxist/Socialist plan, espoused by President Obama (and the Democrats), did not get us out of our stagnating economy during his 8 years in office. He preached “income redistribution” by blaming the wealthy of not doing their “fair share” to contribute to the government's revenue. Without the wealthy class paying the vast majority of the income taxes, we'd be in a much greater financial bind than we are in right now, approaching $20 trillion in debt. Even the “evil” Koch Bros., as the Democrats like to call them, have a company that employs over 67,000 workers at better than average wages, yet they are vilified as being un-American by the Democrats, and some have even claimed that they should be jailed for being so “rich”. What, for being successful and wealthy? Are the Democrats that out of touch with reality or what?

We need many more Koch Bros., and other millionaires and billionaires, in order to get our economy moving upward like it should be going. The Democrats and the Liberals should stop demonizing the wealth creators for purely partisan political purposes.

So, the answer to this editorial's headline is - YES - the rich do pay their “fair share” and we do need more people to get a well paying jobs so that we can get out of the economic malaise that the Obama Administration nas kept us in for 8 years. We should all strive to become millionaires and billionaires, as it would be good for our country and to the entire world. Instead of “sharing the wealth” by taking from the rich and giving to the poor (the Robin Hood syndrome) in the form of handouts and financial government “goodies”, in order to gain votes by the recipients of those “goodies” at election time, we should be promoting the “sharing the opportunity” for all to succeed and achieve financial success. That's the American way. A hand up instead of a handout is what will make America great again.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann