As reported by Forbes via brainterminal:

“If the government increased the top tax rate from the current rate of 35% to 100% (yes, that’s right 100%), it would only collect an extra $400 billion this year. In other words, confiscating all the income that is currently taxed at 35% would not raise enough revenue to cover any of the annual deficits projected in the next 10 years. There is no way that tax hikes on the rich alone can pay for proposed spending in the current budget.”

Somehow I really don’ t think our reps in Washington will admit this fact and produce reasonable alternatives progressive tax that we currently have.  Is it just me or do they want to make it more progressive and encourage public support by magnifying, politicizing, and dividing the US into socioeconomic groups.  Where is the discussion on the fair tax?

“Barack Obama’s tax plan delivers broad-based tax relief to middle class families and cuts taxes for small businesses and companies that create jobs in America, while restoring fairness to our tax code and returning to fiscal responsibility. Coupled with Obama’s commitment to invest in key areas like health, clean energy, innovation and education, his tax plan will help restore bottom-up economic growth that helps create good jobs in America and empowers all families achieve the American dream.”

Things that jump off of the page:

-”Restoring Fairness”: We already have a steeply progressive tax system.  Please click here …

…to find out how much (also talks about benefits of Obama tax cut for the lower 50%). How much more progressive does it have to be to be fair?  Please see Joe Six Pack Guide to Taxation below.

-”Returning to Fiscal Responsibility” What does this mean? Somehow I don’t believe that it means smaller government, especially when in the same paragraph he is calling for spending investing more in health, clean energy, innovation (this is all by itself; what innovation?) and education”.  But I do recall him saying something about “Pay as you go” in the most recent debate.  Is it like those prepaid cellular phones?  It has a nice ring to it.  According to his website:

“Reinstate PAYGO Rules: Obama and Biden believe that a critical step in restoring fiscal discipline is enforcing pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budgeting rules which require new spending commitments or tax changes to be paid for by cuts to other programs or new revenue.”

So any new spending will be funded by cuts in other programs or new revenue (taxes).  While he mentions where he’d spend invest more in several programs, he fails to say where he’ll make any cuts.  From this I assume that he will raise taxes with a more steeply progressive tax structure…but if that doesn’t work…guess who’ll get the bill (again see Joe Six Pack Guide to Taxation below).

-”Empowers all families achieve the American dream”:  So, some families do not have the ability to do this on their own.  They need the government in order to have this through monetary means by way of socialism.  Oh, goody…the government will fix everything!  So while all men have unalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit (not guarantee) of happiness, Obama plans to ensure that those who have not achieved happiness (and he will define it by your income) will become so by way of those who have achieved wealth by their own sweat and tears.  If this is for you , either you feel that you deserve other people’s hard-earned money or you feel guilty for making too much.  If you want to pay more taxes, send a check to the US Treasury.  I promise they won’t return it.

Former IRS Commisioner T. Coleman Andrews (also ran for president in the 1956 election) had these pointed words about Income Tax that ring true today:

“The income tax is bad because it was conceived in class hatred, is an instrument of vengeance and plays right into the hands of the communists. It employs the vicious communist principle of taking from each according to his accumulation of the fruits of his labor and giving to others according to their needs, regardless of whether those needs are the result of indolence or lack of pride, self-respect, personal dignity or other attributes of men.”

“The income tax is fulfilling the Marxist prophecy that the surest way to destroy a capitalist society is by steeply graduated taxes on income and heavy levies upon the estates of people when they die.”

“As matters now stand, if our children make the most of their capabilities and training, they will have to give most of it to the tax collector and so become slaves of the government. People cannot pull themselves up by the bootstraps anymore because the tax collector gets the boots and the straps as well.”

“The income tax is bad because it is oppressive to all and discriminates particularly against those people who prove themselves most adept at keeping the wheels of business turning and creating maximum employment and a high standard of living for their fellow men.”

“I believe that a better way to raise revenue not only can be found but must be found because I am convinced that the present system is leading us right back to the very tyranny from which those, who established this land of freedom, risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to forever free themselves…”

And an interesting website on IRS Whistle blowers.