On Tuesday, a group of 82 left-wing groups – labor unions, activists and think tanks – heaped fawning praise on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for imposing a radical economic agenda on the country through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Still, it was not enough, the groups said in a letter. They demanded – as tiresome liberal rhetoric always does – that we must start “making the rich and corporations pay their fair share.”
The problem, of course, is that the rich already pay more than everyone else. As the National Taxpayers Union notes, the “1-percenters” pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes, the top 5 percent of earners pay another 20 percent, and the next 5 percent chip in another 11 percent.
Stated differently, the top 10 percent in earners – people who make more than $150,000 a year – pay 71 percent of all federal income taxes.
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The bottom 50 percent, meanwhile, collectively pay just 2.9 percent in total.
To fix this “inequality,” the 82 pro-Biden groups want Biden to increase the top marginal tax rate, raise corporate tax rates, tax offshore income, and boos the estate tax.
Among other “sensible tax reform proposals,” Biden should entertain a 10 percent surtax on income above $2 million, a “tiny” tax on stock transactions, and a new wealth tax on “ultra-millionaires.”
These pro-Marxists insist these programs are popular, even with “rank-and-file” Republicans. Citing one survey, they wrote, “Few issues generated broader, more intense support than raising taxes on those earning over $400,000 a year and closing tax loopholes for big corporations.”
But on Tuesday, Reason magazine noted Americans are fond of billionaires – perhaps because they may need them to pay for ridiculous tax gouging like these 82 lefty groups propose, as that will surely trickle down to the middle class if Biden enacts it.
Citing a survey by the liberal website Vox and a group called Data for Progress, the libertarian magazine noted, “In what may have been something of a disappointment, Americans overwhelmingly rejected far-left rhetoric about wealth, tech companies, and the place of billionaires in society.”
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Eighty-two percent of those polled by Vox said billionaires should be allowed “to exist,” while 68 percent disagreed with the idea that it is “immoral” for a society to allow people to become billionaires. Only 18 percent said it was a bad thing that America is home to people who have amassed personal fortunes topping $1 billion.
By a margin of 47-33, respondents said billionaires do a “good job” of giving away money to charity, and by a 54-28 spread, rejected the idea that billionaires are a threat to democracy.
Interestingly, the group with the warmest feeling for billionaires was black Americans. Forty-five percent of blacks held a positive view of the super-wealthy, compared to 38 percent of Hispanics and 34 percent of whites.
It wasn’t all good news for the uber-wealthy. Seventy-two percent of those surveyed said it was “unfair” that billionaires got wealthier during the pandemic, and by a 52-38 margin, they said it was better to solve problems by raising taxes on billionaires than encouraging them to give away their money.
On that latter point, 68 percent of Democrats wanted higher taxes on the billionaires club, while only 36 percent of Republicans agreed.
Margaret Thatcher, the late British prime minister, once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people’s money.”
Hand it to Democrats: They’re damned determined to prove Thatcher wrong.
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