TAXES!

There are certain things that I do not understand about the free market argument against certain policies of the Obama Administration. I understand that free marketeers see high income taxation as a way of deterring entrepreneurship and investment and therefore deterring growth in the economy; however, economic growth is not always the most important factor in making policy decisions.

Conservatives have always had a strange relationship with taxes. Some wish to lower taxation to "starve the beast," or in other words, lowering revenue in order to force a reduction in government size and spending; however, this is NEVER the real case because government doesn't by its very nature get smaller (history has concluded in my opinion that governments may change hands but they don't tend to change shape and system). As our nation ages, its systems become more complex and the government is required to change with it...making changes that rarely if ever involves shrinking. There are other conservatives, however, like John Kyl and Mitch McConnell who believe that tax cuts do not detrimentally affect revenue (they are believers in the Laffer Curve, the theory that describes a tax rate peak that will produce the most revenue, after which revenues decline). It is my opinion that the conservatives either don't really understand this theory or intentionally use it as an excuse to cut federal income taxes on those who already pay very little considering the amount of money they make.

Why do high income taxes, which could be used to build schools, repair roads, fix the rest of our crumbling infrastructure, and of course fix our deficit, scare the entire nation into anti-government rage? Americans may not want to hear it but we will not be able to pay back our deficit without increasing taxes to much higher rates than we've seen in a long time. It may seem like ancient history now, but back in the 1950s - at our glorious height of prosperity - the eisenhower administration had a top tax rate of 90%! Now, okay, i will admit that 90% is ludicrous (although, remember that was only for the extremely rich). Under the Kennedy Administration (and along the lines of the Laffer Curve), tax rates dropped to 70% - a fact that conservatives never stop talking about. After all, Kennedy cut taxes! Oh my! Yes a democrat cut taxes - from 90% to 70% not from 35% to 25%. The Laffer curve is a CURVE.... 70% is i would wager much closer to the peak efficiency of tax revenue collection than 25% or even 35%. The latter figures are the numbers of fiscally moronic demagogues, perhaps those that figured they could use a huge deficit crisis as a reason to shrink government and reduce spending(which isn't going to happen either way, just so you know, with two wars on our plate!).

Here is my general message: If you want to live in a country with realistic low taxes, go to a country with no transportation or energy infrastructure, with no public schools, with a military that is badly underfunded and has no ability protect its country, with no social safety net, where those who can't make ends meet starve on the street (soon to be the USA by the way). If you like our military, our roads, education, etc. be realistic and stop fighting taxation. If you want those things and still hate your taxes, go talk to China - they own all of our debt.