I know I'm late to this subject. Here's the problems with the "tax the rich" approach. 1) In our system, about half of those who report an income of +$250K are small business owners filing their profits as personal income. Very large corps can claim many exemptions (oil depletion,equipment and structure maintenance, stock depreciations,etc) not available to small biz operators so there is an advantage to filing this way. That strategy allows them to deduct mortgage notes,cars, and other things. Increasing taxes on these people will,in many cases, remove their profits. Stats show that they do 51% of hiring so imagine how increasing their taxes will affect their hiring posture. 2) The top 10% of our pop pays 70%+ of taxes as it is now so how can we say they aren't "paying their fare share" as Obama keeps saying? 3) If we were to tax all the "millionares and billionares" at 100%, it wouldn't make a dent in the national debt, so why raise their taxes? Because it sounds good and the liberals who are usually affluent and can afford it don't mind burdening the moms and pops who are operating the local dry cleaners with higher taxes. It's class warfare. If taxing these people will NOT reduce the national debt in a significant way and will arguably reduce job creation,what other reason can there be for raising their taxes? 3) Our tax system is hopeless. We all know it but nobody in gov't is willing to "fix it". Why? Because the MANY exemptions and breaks offered to large businesses and special interest groups are simply bargaining chips in obtaining campaign funds and pork for members of Congress. The infernally complicated tax code hides a vast sea of dirty deals. That money is Congress' life blood. I think the reason Cain is getting his sudden audience is because his 999 program at least approaches a solution to the mess we have. I don't know if that plan is viable,but the people wanna scrap the current tax code and with good reason. It's basically a bribery scheme.
I'm not one of those who blames Obama for our current economic distress. Of the $4 trillion+ in added nat'l debt, his stimulus plan only added $800 billion. The huge increase in the debt was caused by lowered revenues in turn caused by reduced business activity. Roscoe and Tyler can confirm that I and others here said his stimulus plan was a total waste of money and was meant only to buy votes. Instead of tackling the drop in revenues by employing REAL job creation planning,his stimulus bill hired few people and just added to the national debt in a crass vote buying scheme. Remember this: Socialism is just communism in a diaper. A government managed economy is a guaranteed failure. Ask the Russians.