In this Freeman article, Sheldon Richman addresses Obama’s discussion of “tax fairness” in his recent State of the Union address. Part of Richman’s article tackles Obama’s latest reference to the “Buffet rule.”
All that aside, I want to home in on Obama’s notion of fairness. “If you make more than $1 million a year,” he says, “you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes.” How does he know that constitutes fairness? Obviously 30 percent is an arbitrary figure. If he’s concerned that income and payroll taxes take a smaller percentage of Warren Buffett’s income than the percentage they take from his secretary’s income, why not reduce his secretary’s tax rate?
The notion of “tax fairness” is crude political demogoguing with no moral foundation. It is simply a cloak for power-hungry rulers to conceal their desire to arbitrarily determine what portion of thier justly-earned property citizens shall be allowed to keep.
I think the president’s point should be this… You are an American- maybe by birth or maybe by choice. A true American patriot realizes that a great nation needs things and things cost money. You cannot have a great nation when the wealthiest do not pay their fair share. When a secretary is taxed on her work .. actual physical work she pays more than a trust fund baby like Art Pope or Mitt Romney who just collect money that they never had to WORK for … that is unfair and immoral