"Tax the Rich" Is a Winning Strategy...?
So says Politico's Ben White. Um, er, I guess.
While I don't consider myself rich, I am, statistically speaking, rich indeed (upholding myth #2). I consider myself fortunate and am thankful for what I have and thankful to be able to work hard to achieve greater financial reward, but I am not, much like most Americans, unshackled from basic financial concerns.
As a small businessman and entrepreneur there are good years and bad years. The good years can be quite good, but in bad years you have to tighten the belt and alot of our family's wants and desires get scratched off the list. For example, some home improvement projects. I've got a handful of things I want to do around house - bathrooms, a new patio, some not insignificant landscaping, etc. I've made the plans and talked things over with various contractors - my kitchen/bath guys, stone masons, landscaper. But I've been telling them for awhile now that we are on hold until we have people who know what the hell they are doing in Washington, especially in the White House. I don't proselytize my politics to them, I'm not trying to change my plumber's vote (unlike this guy). I'm just talking frankly as one very concerned small business owner to another. "Things are on hold, I feel like there's a big fat target on my butt and business looks so uncertain," I say. And they get it. I'm not the only one telling them this.
Perhaps my landscaper or my stone guy may not internalize what I'm saying or he may not give a rat's tookus what I think, but I gotta think these guys are at least somewhat interested as to why their customers, like me, are holding back. And they talk to other guys in the trades, they sit around the dinner table with their families, and they go to summer barbecues. So when talk turns to politics and the economy, does the tax the rich stuff really resonate positively? I've got a $20,000 patio project teed up but won't pull the trigger because of Obama and the Pelosicrats. My stone guy knows this... is he really gung ho for taxing those "millionaires" who make $200,000??? I'm not so sure.
For every "rich" guy like me there has got to be three or four small businesses run by a guy who drives a van or a pickup truck that knows they would get more business but for all this pitchfork class warfare emanating from the White House. Not that everyone is in my same boat or thinks like I do, but alot are and do. There are nearly four million Americans who make more than $200,000 based on IRS data. If we're holding back on work for three or four service providers, that's 12-16 million other people whose livelihood is affected by our fears and concerns about the class warfare and anti-business rhetoric and policy coming out of the Obamacrats. Obama's popular vote margin was just shy of ten million with unprecedented turnout among normally low turnout groups. The popular vote margin hasn't been over 10 million since Reagan killed Mondale in 1984. More typically, the margin is 5 million or less.
"Tax the rich" is fraught with risk and if only that was the message. Obama's message is closer to "eat the rich" which means the risk is higher. Ben White's analysis seems like so much wonkish DC bubble garbage to me.
While I don't consider myself rich, I am, statistically speaking, rich indeed (upholding myth #2). I consider myself fortunate and am thankful for what I have and thankful to be able to work hard to achieve greater financial reward, but I am not, much like most Americans, unshackled from basic financial concerns.
As a small businessman and entrepreneur there are good years and bad years. The good years can be quite good, but in bad years you have to tighten the belt and alot of our family's wants and desires get scratched off the list. For example, some home improvement projects. I've got a handful of things I want to do around house - bathrooms, a new patio, some not insignificant landscaping, etc. I've made the plans and talked things over with various contractors - my kitchen/bath guys, stone masons, landscaper. But I've been telling them for awhile now that we are on hold until we have people who know what the hell they are doing in Washington, especially in the White House. I don't proselytize my politics to them, I'm not trying to change my plumber's vote (unlike this guy). I'm just talking frankly as one very concerned small business owner to another. "Things are on hold, I feel like there's a big fat target on my butt and business looks so uncertain," I say. And they get it. I'm not the only one telling them this.
Perhaps my landscaper or my stone guy may not internalize what I'm saying or he may not give a rat's tookus what I think, but I gotta think these guys are at least somewhat interested as to why their customers, like me, are holding back. And they talk to other guys in the trades, they sit around the dinner table with their families, and they go to summer barbecues. So when talk turns to politics and the economy, does the tax the rich stuff really resonate positively? I've got a $20,000 patio project teed up but won't pull the trigger because of Obama and the Pelosicrats. My stone guy knows this... is he really gung ho for taxing those "millionaires" who make $200,000??? I'm not so sure.
For every "rich" guy like me there has got to be three or four small businesses run by a guy who drives a van or a pickup truck that knows they would get more business but for all this pitchfork class warfare emanating from the White House. Not that everyone is in my same boat or thinks like I do, but alot are and do. There are nearly four million Americans who make more than $200,000 based on IRS data. If we're holding back on work for three or four service providers, that's 12-16 million other people whose livelihood is affected by our fears and concerns about the class warfare and anti-business rhetoric and policy coming out of the Obamacrats. Obama's popular vote margin was just shy of ten million with unprecedented turnout among normally low turnout groups. The popular vote margin hasn't been over 10 million since Reagan killed Mondale in 1984. More typically, the margin is 5 million or less.
"Tax the rich" is fraught with risk and if only that was the message. Obama's message is closer to "eat the rich" which means the risk is higher. Ben White's analysis seems like so much wonkish DC bubble garbage to me.
posted by Donny Baseball at 1:12 PM
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