OPINION:
President Obama made another speech recently in which he claimed, not for the first time, that extending the George W. Bush tax cuts for the “wealthy” would cost $700 billion over 10 years. According to Mr. Obama, we cannot afford that cost.
By his logic, every dollar a taxpayer gets to keep is a “cost.” If someone makes $100,000 per year and pays, for example, $30,000 in federal income taxes, the cost to the government obviously is $70,000 in Obamaland. The total cost of all those dollars not paid in taxes must be truly staggering. Mr. Obama’s comments betray the typical liberal attitude toward fiscal policy. In the liberals’ view, all the money earned by everyone actually belongs to the government. In their beneficence, they allow wage earners to keep some of it, even though the government must incur tremendous costs to do so. I suppose taxpayers should fall to their knees and express tearful gratitude for any scraps their betters deign to give them. In a perfect liberal world, all money would be turned over to the federal government to be spent as it sees fit. We would all be serfs - but at least the government would have no more costs.
STEVE BRADLEY
McLean, Va.
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