In the know: Obama raising taxes
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 23, 2011 1:38 a.m.
Obama’s several attempts at increasing taxes on the wealthy have often been countered with the argument that taxing the rich keeps them from doing what they do best: creating jobs. I can think of three campaign promises that have withered under the glare of this unfounded rebuttal: repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, ending tax breaks for oil and gas companies, and phasing out itemized deductions and tax exemptions for high income earners.
Sen. Barbara Boxer in an MSNBC interview Tuesday said that “since 1995, the top 400 wealthiest families have seen their incomes go up 400 percent and their tax rates go down 40 percent.” PolitiFact has independently found this assertion to be mostly true (if measured until 2007, the income hike is 400 percent; 2008 onward it is more like an increase of 276 percent.)
Which brings me to my point: People who say taxing the rich keeps them from making jobs are fools. If all that the rich needed were money, then their enlarged coffers would be bringing us a period of unprecedented job creation. The rich are wealthier now than they ever were in the boom days of the ’90s, and we are floundering in the waters of stagnant job growth. Maybe we should tax the rich. We could probably use the money.
Compiled by Ram Dolom
