For centuries, conventional medical wisdom held that ailments ranging from diabetes and gout to epilepsy and insanity could be successfully treated using the scientific technique known as phlebotomy. This is commonly known as bloodletting, or drawing blood from a patient to release the sickness. The technique is as old as ancient Greece, and was commonly used in Europe and North America well into the 19th Century.
Though this treatment has largely been discredited, and common sense tells us that a sick person can ill afford to lose multiple pints of blood, phlebotomy still has a few adherents today. Likewise, liberals still view taxation of the private sector as a cure-all for economic ills, stubbornly clinging to a demonstrably false and dangerous practice of draining the economy of its live-giving essence.
The Obama economy is clearly in critical condition
The Obama economy is clearly in critical condition. Our national debt and deficit are several times as large as those of any previous administration (and more than all previous administrations combined). Unemployment is in double digits, home values have plummeted, gas prices are soaring, and various sectors of the economy have been taken over by the government to prevent their total collapse. The United States is in danger of losing its AAA credit rating, a significant portion of our debt is owed to Communist China, and the dollar is no longer the undisputed king of world currency. The Obama economy is very sick indeed–weakened, staggering, dependent on borrowed life support. What does the Obama administration prescribe as a cure? The fiscal equivalent of bloodletting–higher taxes on those sectors of the economy that are still functioning.
Liberals like to distinguish between the private (business) and public (government) sectors of the economy, and certainly favor the latter. The private sector is competitive, open and responsive to free market forces. The public sector is non-competitive, closed, and is insulated from free market forces. But the most important difference is that the public sector is paid for entirely by the private sector, through taxes. The more robust and successful the private sector, the greater is its capacity to support and fund the public sector.
Obama wants millionaires and corporations to "pay their fair share of taxes." No one pays a fair share of taxes.
Obama wants millionaires and corporations to "pay their fair share of taxes." No one pays a fair share of taxes. The top 10% of income earners pay 70% of all taxes. The top 25% pay 86% of all taxes. The bottom 50% pay less than 3% of all taxes. Obviously, the highest earners cannot be accused of paying less than their share. The majority of the top earners, the ones Obama has targeted for increased taxes, are those who own companies large and small, employ Americans at all income levels, and contribute to the strength of the American economy. Corporations, similarly targeted by Obama, are also employers, providing precious jobs and injecting value into the economy by goods and services offered, payrolls distributed, and taxes paid. It is from these groups that Obama wishes to draw more blood.
These targeted groups are also the most able to respond to punitive tax policy by voting with their feet. High income earners and corporations can migrate to more tax-friendly environments. We can see this already in the flight of companies from high tax states like New York, California and Illinois to low- or no-tax states. However, these individuals and corporations are not bound to remain in the United States with its increasingly burdensome tax policy. Services and manufacturing plants can be moved overseas, corporations can shift their headquarters to lower-tax nations, and individuals can relocate to tax havens around the world. As these individuals and companies are drained of an increasing percentage of their worth, they will escape to avoid being bled to death.
Rapid decline of our ailing economy as its life blood is drained away by ever higher taxes
The result will be ever more rapid decline of our ailing economy as its life blood is drained away by ever higher taxes. The higher taxes go, the fewer individuals and companies will remain to pay them, and revenues will decline. The private sector will no longer be able to sustain the public sector. The government will go into cardiac arrest.
The only way to stop the outflow of our most prosperous citizens and corporations is to lower income and personal taxes. When this happened under Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush, revenues increased, the economy gained strength, and the nation prospered. Higher taxes, as prescribed by President Obama, can only weaken our economy and our nation. Higher taxes may wound our economy, or they may kill it. Either way, the Obama administration will have blood on its hands.
