forgottenliberty.com

The House passed an extension of the estate tax (death tax) on Thursday, Dec. 3rd.  The tax was supposed to temporarily expire next year, but those in power couldn’t stand to let money stay in the hands of citizens.  The extension places a 45% tax on estates worth over 3.5 million dollars.  This extension could quite possibly kill jobs in a time when we need every job we can get.  I know 3.5 million sounds like a lot of money, but if someone owns a successful job producing small business, the 3.5 million threshold  can be met fairly easily.  If a small business owner passes away, the business and/or equipment would most likely have to be sold off just to pay the tax.  This would cause jobs at the business to be lost  The death tax is an overall bad idea, but the attitude of many liberals about taxes in general is what is really unsettling.

One of the many differences between a liberal and a conservative is their respective views on personal property.  The conservative views personal property as a right that cannot be taken away.  John Locke, who was a major influence on our founding fathers, claimed that we all have a right to Life, Liberty, and Property.  We all have the right to own and protect our property and no one has the right to take it away from us.  We allow, by way of our Constitution,  a portion of our property to be taken in the form of taxes to pay for the necessary functions of government .  The key phrase here is, “We allow, by way of our Constitution”.  The government does not own our property nor does it have a right to our property.  It only has the ability to tax us because we have given it that ability in the Constitution.

Liberals views personal property in a different light.  They believe

When did it become acceptable for politicians to decide how much money a company is allowed to make?  When did profit become a bad word?  When did our government seize the power to decide how much is too much and to tax away any profit they deem excessive?

The AFL-CIO and many Democrats are now pushing for a new tax on stock transactions.  It would specifically target large firms, like Goldman Sachs.  Some of these firms have recently started to make money again and now, some of it might be taken from them.  The proposed tax would be very small, about a tenth of one percent on all stock transactions, so it would not have much of an impact on small time traders or the average middle class investor.  It would, however, have an impact on large firms that trade a huge volume of stocks each day… and that is exactly what it is intended to do.  Apparently, making a profit is wrong, and it needs to be seized by the government so they can use it for more programs and entitlements.

Thea Lee, policy director at the AFL-CIO, spoke of the proposed tax and said,

“This would discourage numerous financial transactions.  People flip their assets several times in an hour or a day.  They make money but does it really add to the productive base of the United States?”  source – The Hill

Lee is claiming that since the profits these large firms are making do not add to the productive base of the United States (which is a false statement), they are fair game for government confiscation.  Does this seem

Health care reform has been in the news every day for a month now, and my recent posts have been a reflection of that.  I’ve covered the angry citizens at Town Halls, insults from leading Democrats directed towards anyone who disagrees with them (here’s a new one from Harry Reid, evil-mongers), and reasons why more government involvement in health care will bring the quality of care down and lead to rationing.  However, up to this point, I have not posted on a certain aspect of this debate that goes to the core of my political philosophy.  This morning, I was given the motivation to blog about it from a Mr. Larry Bassett, who wrote a letter to the editor in my local newspaper.  This particular letter raised my blood pressure a little bit.

The letter was titled Reform Needed Now.  Here is a portion of it:

During the campaign, we all heard Obama say over and over again that he would not raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 a year.  George Stephanopoulos, on his “This Week” program, asked Treasury Secretary Giethner if taxes would have to be raised on the middle class to lower the record deficit the Obama administration is creating (transcript of the interview).  Giethner’s response was, “…we’re not at the point yet where we’re going to make a judgment about what it’s going to take.”  Stephanopoulos pressed him saying, “But you’re not ruling it out, you can’t rule it out.”  Giethner replied, “I think what the country needs to do is understand we’re going to have to do what it takes, we’re going to do what’s necessary.”  Apparently, to the Obama administration, doing what’s necessary to reduce the deficit includes raising taxes on the middle class.  I have an idea.  Instead of raising taxes, how about we stop spending TRILLIONS of dollars we don’t have.  I guess that’s not an option.