Posted by
John Caile on Sunday, October 05, 2008 1:18:31 PM
The roots of the "credit crisis" are in government mandated bad lending
practices - forcing banks to lend money to "sub-prime" borrowers -
people unlikely to pay it back. Then, when they fail to do so, having
the government (i.e. taxpayers) cover the losses.
But another crisis is looming on the horizon, in many ways far more
worrisome than the people who are bad credit risks. I'm talking about
what I would call "sub-prime" voters, those who, much like sub-prime
borrowers, are the direct result of bad government policy, in this case, taxes.
Contrary to the drumbeat of the Democrats (and, admittedly, some
Republicans) who claim that the so-called "rich" aren't paying their
"fair share," the opposite is true - they are carrying a hugely disproportionate, and
arguably UNFAIR share of the tax burden. The top 5% alone (you know, the one's Obama thinks aren't paying enough?) already pay 55% of ALL income taxes!
More broadly, we are now at the point where the top 50% of workers
(anyone making over approximately $32,000 - hardly "rich") are paying
97% of all income taxes, while the bottom half pays a paltry 3%. Worse, an astonishing 30% of these WORKING Americans now pay NO
Federal income tax at all!
And forget the lie that they "pay Social
Security" taxes - many of them not only pay no income taxes, they instead receive a CHECK that more than wipes out their modest FICA and Medicare contributions. This is the mislabeled "Earned Income Tax Credit" (how
can you get a "tax credit" when you haven't paid any tax to begin with?
Call it what it is: welfare).
And it's getting worse - estimates are that in 10 years or less the
number of "free loaders" (and that is exactly what they are) is likely
to be at 40%. More to the point, there are those in the political
classes (read: Democrats) who are doing everything possible to make
this a reality.
But why? Simple. Forget the disingenuous rhetoric about "compassion" for
the poor - that's the line they feed to their liberal supporters to get
them on board with more and more government give-away programs. The
truth is that Democrats are building a voting constituency: sub-prime
voters.
Sub-prime? Yes. Sub-prime borrowers are those with little to lose in a
lending process that gives them something they don't deserve - a loan.
And even if they default, it has become clear that someone else (you
and I) will foot the bill.
Sub-prime voters are in a similar situation - they are the ones with little
to lose, and everything to gain. Thus they vote more and more for those
who will give them all sorts of government "goodies," while the rest of
us pay for it.
A new government welfare program? Why not? They'll likely be the
beneficiaries, not you. A huge tax increase? Sure, they'll be all for
it - after all, THEY won't be paying any of it, YOU will.
Now, we've all heard the absurd justifications for such confiscatory
policies - "How can you expect the poor to pay? They have no income to
spare?" Well, setting aside the obvious - that they certainly do have
"income to spare" for color TV's (with cable of course), cigarettes,
soda pop, nail salons, and on and on, the real question is why ANYONE
in America should be getting a free ride on the backs of their
neighbors.
I for one oppose the idea of an income tax at all. But if we are going
to have one, then the only truly "fair" application of it is a
flat-rate tax on EVERY dollar of income, starting at dollar one. That
way, whenever a politician talks about "raising taxes" ALL of us would be affected (which would still have "the rich" paying
proportionately more, by the way).
A side benefit would be the clear understanding that every working voter, regardless of income, has an
obligation to pay for their government - an attitude that has been all
but destroyed by the modern welfare state with its mentality of
"entitlement."
Liberals love to see themselves as "caring" people - but luring poor
people into loans they can't afford is cruelty, not compassion. And
legislating the same people into a lifelong dependence on the
pocketbooks of others is nothing less than immoral.
It is not hyperbole to say that once the increasingly lopsided tax
burden reaches the tipping point (and we may already be there) we will
be well on our way to moving America from capitalism to nothing less
than outright socialism.
George Soros and the American Left must be rubbing their hands with glee at the thought...