OPINION:
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio thinks he’s found a solution to fix his city’s broken subway system — by going after the rich and imposing a special tax on them.
How unconstitutional. How anti-American.
Consider this, from Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises … but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
That would seem the general spirit of what state and city governments ought to abide by, yes?
Well, here’s de Blasio, with his own interpretation. He wants to hike the top income tax rate on the city’s wealthiest, about 1 percent of the population, from 3.9 percent to 4.4 percent. The tax would hit couples earning more than $1 million and individuals earning more than $500,000.
And the money would go toward fixing the city’s subway system — something the city’s top wealthy probably don’t even use.
“Instead of searching for a quick-fix that doesn’t exist, or simply forking over more and more of our tax dollars every year, we have come up with a fair way to finance immediate and long-term transit improvement,” the mayor said in a statement reported by The Hill.
Actually, tapping the rich does seem like a quick fix.
A longer-term fix would be for the city to stop spending money it doesn’t have, and put the money it does have to better uses — like transportation, instead of, oh, I don’t know, say, sheltering illegals from deportation.
“Rather than sending the bill to working families and subway and bus riders already feeling the pressure of rising fares and bad service, we are asking the wealthiest in our city to chip in a little extra,” de Blasio said.
Again with the skewing.
Since when are taxes voluntary — or requested?
Taxing the rich to provide for the poor is a principle that belongs in socialist nations, not free market, capitalistic America. Besides, robbing Peter to pay Paul never lasts because sooner or later, Peter’s pockets are emptied.
De Blasio knows all this. He’s just banking on the fact that Peter’s pockets are going to be full enough to get him through his mayoral term. Drumming up class warfare is the political world’s lowest form of politicking — which, of course, makes it a common tool of the left and of people like de Blasio.
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