Advisory Opinion

Tax the Rich!!!

It's all about incentives -- something liberals just can't understand:

The reason America's standard of living is high - and why our poor would be considered middle class in the majority of other countries - is because we produce so many goods and services per person. Monetary rewards, and/or a desire to break out of one's current economic class, are largely what motivate us to produce those goods and services.

Raising taxes on the rich reduces those monetary rewards, which in turn lowers the incentive to work harder or smarter. That's bad enough. To raise taxes on the rich while reducing them on the middle class - Kerry's plan - reduces that incentive even more.

It's akin to your boss cutting your pay if you put in longer hours, and raising your pay if you work shorter hours.

Actually, lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the rich harms economic growth even more than leaving middle-class tax rates intact while raising them on the wealthy. It results in what economists call a higher marginal tax rate - the tax rate on what you earn above a certain dollar amount. It is marginal tax rates - not overall tax rates - that so affect our incentive to produce. Why put in extra work if the extra income that comes with it is going to be taxed higher?

Liberals don't care. Their only way to political power is through redistribution, so they'll be for that no matter what. Political power is their goal. Period.

Benefit of the Doubt

Think about the concept. In criminal law, reasonable doubts are supposed to be resolved in favor of (i.e., to the benefit of) the defendant. Liberals insist on this and would howl with rage if it weren’t complied with. But if criminal defendants deserve the benefit of the doubt, why doesn’t the president of the United States? It’s worse than a double standard. It’s an absurdity and an injustice.

Not only has President Bush not been given the benefit of the doubt by his critics. They have turned doubt into certitude. If it’s not clear whether President Bush acted rightly, he acted wrongly. Critics impute the worst motives to the president. They say that he lied instead of that he misrepresented the facts, when lying is merely a particular type or species of misrepresentation accompanied by, among other things, the intention to deceive. President Bush is expected to be omnipotent and omniscient. If something goes wrong, it’s his fault. No inquiry is made into his actual mental state or into whether he controlled the situation. You wouldn’t want to be held to such a strict standard. Why would you hold someone else, including the president, to such a standard? In criminal cases, there is a presumption of innocence. President Bush is presumed by his critics to be guilty.

Keith Burgess-Jackson is always making sense.

Dogs . . .

. . . are great!

Update: Here's my favorite breed.

Bush!

Some Germans get it right.

Vietnam

It's a beautiful country, believe it or not. Here are some photos of it.

Impressive

This picture of a Bush rally in Jacksonville, Florida is pretty impressive.

The Effects of Communism

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Kerry dumber that Bush?

How will the liberals explain this?

Why I resent liberals

The AnalPhilosopher knocks it out of the park:

John Kerry will raise your taxes. If you vote for him, you are voting for higher taxes. Read this. These are John Kerry's friends. They want big government--government that dictates and coerces, government that subsidizes bad choices and immunizes people from the consequences of their own folly. Note the disingenuous rhetoric. The Times doesn't call for a tax increase. It calls for a rollback of the tax cuts. Nifty, eh? By making the pre-tax-cut situation the baseline, the Times is able to avoid saying that it wants higher taxes on middle-class and working-class Americans. Don't fall for it. Perhaps if liberals such as George Soros would distribute their wealth directly to the needy, there would be no need for big-government programs. It's really very simple. If you want to eliminate or alleviate poverty, work harder and share your wealth. Stop trying to coerce others into promoting your values.

Indeed. Share your own wealth and time. Stop stealing mine.