OK, let me try it this way.
No one ever got rich working with their hands.
I was told this, in one form or other, in school, in the Navy, and since in various times and places. You get rich by having people work for you (you provide jobs) or by selling stuff, or both.
Now riddle me this. You raise taxes on a rich guy, one that provides jobs or sells stuff. You take money out of his take-home pocket. What happens then?
My guess is, he has less money to pay workers - cuts jobs. Or he raises the price for the stuff he sells.
The point is, that the only one that you can tax and *not* cost someone else, is the wage-earner.
You don’t like the way the rich guy takes home lots of money? You don’t think it is ‘fair’ for someone to inherit wealth, or flip houses or businesses or whatever and gain a big net worth? The solution is to look at laws that prevent Joe the Plumber and his kids and their cousins from doing well, too.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was *right* in what it did. It removed artificial restrictions, removed barriers to people living and achieving better than they had. Laws that prevent companies from rejecting applicants because of prejudice and bigotry are great. Laws and regulations that punish companies and individuals that succeed - could be biting your kid in 10 years. Or putting you out of work, or raise your utility bill too high to pay.
Obama promises to bankrupt utility companies that burn coal. Wow. That sounds like a recipe for really high utility bills. Or no electricity available. In winter. That doesn’t make sense at all.
You can’t tax a utility company or any other company - they pass the tax on to their customers as increased cost of doing business. So all their customers pay higher bills, those that can afford the increase. Or they choose to stop selling. Or make the product elsewhere to avoid being punished for being successful.
Suppose Obama concludes that Christmas isn’t a Muslim holiday, and decides to impose a 50% tax on Christmas and year end bonuses. Seems reasonable, right? Only people that are rich get sizable bonuses - and it is a bonus, not what they need to live on. Or to pay for extra holiday gifts. Or higher heating bills. But for wage-earners and those on fixed incomes, that stuff doesn’t make sense.
There is nothing more wasteful, more draining on the economy - on the jobs that employ American’s workforce - than the money taken for taxes. Taxes are needed for the defense budget. There is a certain amount needed for regulating business and imports and exports. Most of the rest of the budget - including all direct-to-citizen payments - are add-ons. Partly we as citizens agree, that our representatives in Congress voted in our interest to create the Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Sciences Institude, the Natural History Museum, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Parks, the Department of Education, etc. But arguably, these are all expendable as expenses to the government. We may not like it - Various groups have been trying to dismantle the Department of Education for more than three presidencies now, for one example of a bureaucracy that is no longer needed.
If you want to boost the economy, increase job availability, ease the credit crunch among industry - cut corporate taxes, and punitive taxes for larger incomes. A simple flat tax - same tax rate for everyone - with very few loopholes and exemptions, would give the economy a real boost.
Jimmy Carter during his Presidency proved that in a couple of years, raising taxes cripples the economy and revenues drop. President Reagan then showed that it takes five (5) to ten (10) years to drop taxes, to re-grow the economy. Rebuilding takes longer than tearing down the economy. It just works that way. Which is why the spectre of Obama’s vote-buying agenda scares those of us that remember, or remember part of their American history.
You can’t tax money, take money away from, the well-to-do. It cannot be done. They can conceal, they can use big-money tax dodges and strategies, they can move their money to other countries, where their wealth builds other economies. Same with corporations. You cannot tax a corporation and expect the tax revenue to be a simple cost to the company. You will either cause them to fail, to cut back - and eliminate jobs - or increase the cost of what they sell - and take money away from every customer - or both.
Anyone that tells you that you will be better off by taxing someone else - is a damned liar.