Wealthy Will Still Be Wealthy

I love it when wealthy people scream about "socialism" for every little tax hike----taxes to pay for things like taking our infrastructure up from 3rd-world standards, or improving our mediocre-at-best schools, or health-care----hey people, there is no magic money coming out of the sky to pay for things we've neglected for too long. Grow up and pay up.

This from Moveon.org

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This is ridiculous. The media has been obsessing about President Obama's plan to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans—from 35% to 39.6%—even asking if that makes him a socialist.1

But do you know what tax rate the wealthiest Americans paid on the top portion of their earnings at the end of Ronald Reagan's first term? 50%.

Under Richard Nixon? 70%. Under Dwight Eisenhower? 91%!

Shocking, right?

And for all the whining about rolling back Bush's irresponsible tax cuts, the truth is that Obama's plan cuts taxes for 95% of working Americans. Further, it closes huge tax loopholes for oil companies, hedge funds and corporations that ship jobs overseas so that we can invest in the priorities that will get our economy back on track.2

We saw a great chart in The Washington Monthly3 that shows just how absurd Republican complaints about Obama's budget are. Check it out and pass it on:

Sources:

1. "A socialist? Obama calls back to insist no," The International Herald Tribune, March 8, 2009

2. "Tax Cuts," The New York Times, February 26, 2009

3. "Soaking the Rich (Redux)," The Washington Monthly, March 8, 2009

Posted by Christa at March 13, 2009 02:56 PM