Fox News: “Thank God For Rich People”

Bernie Goldberg, Fox News contributor

. . . try to imagine an America without rich people. Rich people contribute a lot to this country. The top one percent of wage earners pay 38 percent of all federal taxes. 

The top five percent pay 60 percent and the top ten percent pay 70 percent of all federal income taxes. 

Now, they pay a disproportionate amount for all sorts of things that help poor people, whether it’s food, or whether it’s medicine, or whether it’s sending kids to college.

Of course, the top 20 percent of American income earners pull in 50 per cent of the national income. If the annual national income in the US were more equitably distributed, the wealthy would not have such an income tax burden.

Likewise, the biggest expenses of the federal government are for defense. Programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are paid  for by payroll taxes by employees and small businesses, not the affluent.

Many wealthy people such as Bill Gates found out they have too much money and give most of it way later in life. Should we give them accolades and honors for their philanthropy?

Not necessarily.

Gates became wealthy because he kept wages of Micro-Softies low. Many IT people wouldn't even apply for work at Microsoft because the salaries were so low. Microsoft would try to convince workers there salaries would be offset with stock options using kind of Las Vegas logic that failed after the stock market tanked.

Microsoft also lost a huge $ billion dollar anti-trust lawsuit with the the European Union.

One third of Microsoft workers are also  temporaries that did not enjoy the perks and benefits of the other Micros-Softies.

What is better for society: produce dozens of Microsoft  billionaires and millionaires or spread that wealth among thousands of  Microsoft workers. If you are a Democrat, you will probably chose the latter.

The Republican party, on the other hand, is dependent upon the American plutocracy for its survival. This is why the Democrats were foolish not to rescind the Bush tax cuts for the top income brackets or for Obama make a ridiculous deal on the Estate Tax. Once you cut taxes, they are hard to restore.

Do we need the rich? yes, if you study the great Depression, it was the 90 per and 77 per cent tax rates on top income earners that got the country through the depression and World War 2. Flattening taxes on the affluent make no sense in view of the deficit the US is now facing.

Why do we have this huge deficit. It started with Ronald Reagan when he cut the taxes for the affluent. Bush stated a trillion dollar war without raising taxes.  Most of the deficit, some economists say more than 90 per cent, resulted from the accumulated expenses of past wars.

This is why Democrats should never buy the argument that war is good for the economy. 

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