As the new year is being ushered in and congressional mid-term elections approach, get ready to once again hear from some congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative politicians who are campaigning to finally make sure the rich pay their “fair share.” Hopefully, most American voters won’t fall for the meaningless – false – campaign talking point.
Our friends at the Heritage Foundation conducted research and not surprisingly once again found how the facts tell a very different story than what you hear on the campaign trail but those who want to “tax the rich” at every turn. (By the way, you’re likely “rich” in their eyes, but that’s a conversation for another day).
The Heritage Foundation offers three key takeaways:
- High-income Americans already pay the large majority of taxes, and the U.S. tax system is highly progressive when compared to those of other countries.
- Proposals such as the wealth tax will make the U.S. fiscal system even more unbalanced and would slow our economic recovery.
- Congress needs to stop spending unnecessary trillions of dollars on poorly targeted stimulus and start reforming spending growth.
From Heritage:
“As Congress rounds out its $4 trillion in coronavirus aid with an additional nearly $2 trillion of deficit spending, the pressure to raise taxes on high-income Americans will only grow. But returning to the tax policy of 1960 is not the way to restore American livelihoods.
“However, keeping taxes low requires fiscal discipline. Congress needs to stop spending unnecessary trillions of dollars on poorly targeted stimulus and start reforming spending growth.
“Extracting a larger toll from those who already bear the bulk of government’s cost will not balance the budget. It will make our economic recovery more painful.”
