Tax Lawyer's Blog

Joe Biden and the Democrats have been oozing the class warfare argument that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire will affect only 3% of small business owners.

But if the wisdom of a government policy were measured by the number of Americans it hurts, one would be justified in supporting the following policies:

• Denying Muslims the right to practice Islam – Muslims make up less than 2% of the American population
• Denying Jews the right to practice Judaism – Jews make up less than 5% of the American population
• Interning Japanese Americans during World War II – Japanese nationals made up less than 1% of the American population
• Incarcerating the fans of Keith Olbermann – They make up less than .0000000001% of the American population

These proposals are, of course, absurd, but it is equally absurd to consider tax increases wise merely because they hurt only 3% of small business owners.¹

Make no mistake, the only reason Biden and the pro-tax Democrats make the argument that 97% of Americans won’t suffer from the failure to extend the Bush tax cuts is because they see political value in fomenting resentment of the rich.

The left has always tried to sell tax increases by appealing to the worst in people. They cynically assume that Americans will support the taking of wealth from other Americans if they can be convinced that it won’t affect them.

Thank God Americans are smarter than the left assumes them to be.

Footnotes:

¹ Joe Kristan and others have pointed out that this statistic is false. The failure to extend the Bush tax cuts will adversely impact a swath of small business owners much larger than 3%.

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