April 30, 2007
John Edwards Considers Taxing Wealthy
Democratic presidential contender John Edwards said Sunday he would consider raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to fund programs such as universal health care.
Edwards has long said he wants to repeal the tax cuts on upper-income earners enacted during the Bush presidency, but Sunday he seemed to go further, by saying he was open to raising them higher than they were before George W. Bush took office. He also said he would consider taxes on "excess profits," including those made by oil companies.
Edwards said it was more important to level with voters than to worry about the political consequences of advocating higher taxes.
"It's just the truth," Edwards said during a news conference following his speech to the California Democratic Party convention. "It's the only way to fund the things that need to be done."
Excess profits? Since when is the likes of Edwards, who made his fortune off of suing the pants off of doctors, the arbiter of what constitutes excess profits? If that's the case, I'd like to suggest that trial lawyers who make more than $200K per year be subject to an "excess profit" tax. Please make checks payable to me, as it would level my playing field quite nicely.
This is typical leftwing schtick. People who work hard and profit handsomely from their labor have an unfair advantage over everyone else, so they must be punished by higher taxes, which means that they have less money to invest in capital ventures that could end up benefiting many other people by creating more employment, etc. Edwards and other Democrats enjoy their roles as modern-day Robin Hoods -- except that the people they are stealing from didn't get their money by extorting the poor, but from hard work and smart investments. The ones who are being disproportionately taxed these days are the rich.
This is class warfare, pure and simple. I find it highly amusing, however, that instead of actual poor people leading the charge, we have obscenely wealthy politicians like Edwards, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and others who feel they are entitled somehow to tell the rest of us, rich, poor, or otherwise, how much is too much.
And the idea of universal healthcare should definitely scare everyone off. If you'd like to know more about how successful "free" government-run healthcare is, click here to see what's happening up in Canada. It seems "free" healthcare is great, as long as you don't come down with anything more serious than the flu.
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And it's not just Canada. You should check out the British healthcare system - it's so broken at this point that there isn't a fix possible. I personally know someone who had to wait nearly 2 years for a hip replacement - because despite the fact he was wheelchair-bound nearly a year before the surgery, it was considered "optional".
Posted by: Kris, in New England at April 30, 2007 09:55 AM
