Tax Lawyer's Blog

Dennis Cauchon of USA Today reports that 2009 taxes were at their lowest levels in sixty years:

Amid complaints about high taxes and calls for a smaller government, Americans paid their lowest level of taxes last year since Harry Truman‘s presidency, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data found. Some conservative political movements such as the “Tea Party” have criticized federal spending as being out of control. While spending is up, taxes have fallen to exceptionally low levels. 

Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8.% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010. 

Cauchon then quotes Michael Ettlinger, head of economic policy at the left wing think tank, Center for American Progress:

The idea that taxes are high right now is pretty much nuts.

Ettlinger appears to be yet another demagogue (and both sides have them) whose commitment to ideology comes at the expense of reason.

Here’s a quick lesson in basic logic for him:

• That taxes are at lower levels now than they have been in the past does not mean that taxes are not high. It merely means they are not as high as they once were.
• That President Obama and the Democrats have not yet enacted their tax increase proposals does not mean that they are tax cutters. They overtly state that their goal is to increase income taxes on one class of Americans while covertly attempting to tax the other classes through the backdoor mechanisms of consumption taxes and sin taxes.
• That taxes are relatively low across the spectrum of taxpayers does not mean they are low for all taxpayers.
• That President Obama has thus far cut taxes for many Americans does not mean that he plans to cut taxes for all Americans or that he doesn’t plan to increase taxes on most Americans at a later date.

People who oppose the President on the issue of taxes do so based on what he promises to do, not necessarily on what he’s already done. Stated another way, the fact that conservatives have succeeded in stopping President Obama and the Democrats from enacting their soak-the-rich policy proposals in no way imposes on those conservatives a duty to applaud.

Related Posts:

• Obamacare to Increase Taxes by $412 Billion
• Cato Institute’s List of Creative Obama Taxes
• Democrats Propose Special Surtax on the “Rich” to be Added to Obama Tax Increases

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