TO THE EDITOR:
It seems as though the Obama administration and Democrats still don’t get it when it comes to taxes. All of a sudden they are fiscal hawks, saying we can’t afford to continue the Bush tax rates for those top income earners who simply don’t need them.
The thing we cannot afford is to raise taxes on anyone during these uncertain economic times. Those supposedly evil rich people have made their wealth via entrepreneurship and risk taking, and should not be punished for succeeding in the marketplace. Those at the top have significantly more flexibility with their wealth and work, and seizing more of their earnings will result in them working and investing less. This leads to an overall downturn in government revenue.
More than half of business earnings are reported on individual rather than corporate returns. This means that the “rich” the Democrats want to go after are the businesses that create jobs in this country. Moreover, many of these top earners are angel investors, who provide capital for businesses to start up. It seems like discouraging this investment is the opposite of what we would do in these hard economic times.
Democrats need to understand that we have a spending problem, not a tax problem.
Brandon Hartness
Sophomore
Political Science and History
