Why the Rich Should Not Pay More Taxes

With all of the talk about congress letting the "Bush Tax Cuts" expire at the end of the year, Ive heard several Republicans arguing against it and their arguments are almost as lame as the Democrats' in favor of it. This is a little frustrating to me because it's not a complicated issue and I talk to regular people from all walks of life everyday who have a complete understanding of it. How do we keep electing people who don't get it? The rich or evil rich, as the left call them, don't mind paying their fair share of taxes. In fact, since the income tax began, they've paid far more than their fair share. Before the Bush tax cuts, the top 10% of income earners paid 78% of all personal income tax; after the cuts their share increased to 81%. The percentages paid by every other income bracket went down. Yes, the wealthiest Americans got the greatest portion of the cuts, because they pay, by far, the greatest portion of the taxes. You don't have to have a degree from MIT to figure that out! The really big lesson that keeps getting ignored is; even though their rate of taxation went down, the actual amount of taxes they paid went up, and it's not some sort of magic or a fluke of nature. The exact same thing has happened every time we've had major tax cuts in this country; google it and see for yourself. Hell, you can find it easily at whitehouse.gov. When you cut tax rates, people get to keep more of their money and when they have this incentive of higher earnings, they invest more of those earnings back into the economy. When they are penalized for their success with higher taxes, further investment is not worth the risk; so they move their money to protect it; not because they're greedy, because they're smart. We would all do the same thing. We should all be opposed to raising taxes on the rich to pay for entitlements because it's socialism. But the main reason we should oppose it is because it will lead to less federal revenue, not more. Republicans have to stop playing by the other sides rules and call this what it is if they want to be the party of conservatives. Entitlements, redistribution of wealth, social justice, or whatever else they want to call it is, quite simply, taking money from people you don't like and giving it to people you do like or perhaps, people you think will vote for you. Wealth is not distributed; it's created, or earned, or inherited. Therefore, you can't redistribute it, you can only confiscate it from one group and distribute it to another. If that's what you believe is right for America, fine; just say so and quit babbling about fairness and social justice. Then, let's see if that's what the majority of America wants to vote for. I'm not holding my breath for Democrats to do that, but it would be nice if Republicans put that challenge on the table.