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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs

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To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (48717)	10/16/2011 9:08:52 PM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) of 71588

The Republic arguments against Obama's millionaire's tax boil down to the following: Raising taxes on millionaires will kill their ambition and discourage them from working Raising taxes on millionaires will punish successful people for being successful Raising taxes is always a terrible idea—the problem is spending Taxes are a form of theft: The government has no right to take our money away Raising taxes in a weak economy will further weaken the economy Of these reasons, only the last one is valid. They are all valid to a greater or less extent. #1 is valid at the margin, not as an absolute statement. Certainty plenty of rich, near rich, and wannabe rich will still work hard and take risks with the higher tax rates, its just that this hard work and risk taking becomes slightly less prevalent (and slightly more likely to find legal tax loopholes, or illegal evasion schemes) than it would with lower rates. #2 is true. #3 is exaggerated. Raising taxes is usually a bad idea. Usually doesn't equal always. Bad includes terrible, but also lesser negatives. The first part of #4 is valid. Taxes are theft (or if you prefer extortion). That's a matter of simple fact. Whether government has a right to this theft is a matter of your opinion of the proper role of government. We live in a Democratic society, with well-defined laws and processes. In this society, people have agreed that the government has a right to collect taxes and spend money. Which means that a majority of elected representatives of certain types has agreed that government has and should have, such a legal right. It doesn't change the fact that its theft. Unless we radically reshape and re-size the government We already have. The federal government has grown enormously. OTOH we don't have to re-size it to deal with the fiscal problem primarily, or even solely with spending restraint. We just have to restrict the amount we continue to allow it to resize itself upwards. something that would have a huge and almost certainly negative impact on the economy More likely, small negative in the short term, and moderate positive in the long run.

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