The Press-Dispatch
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Opinion C-2 Wednesday, December 19, 2012 The Press-Dispatch Observations by Thomas Sowell Taxing the poor Hallelujah He is born — May you and your loved ones rejoice in the Miracle of Christmas, and may your home be blessed by His many good graces throughout the holiday season and beyond. Noel! With all the talk about taxing the rich, we hear very little talk about taxing the poor. Yet the marginal tax rate on someone living in poverty can sometimes be higher than the marginal tax rate on millionaires. While it is true that nearly half the households in the country pay no income tax at all, the apparently simple word "tax" has many complications that can be a challenge for even professional economists to untangle. If you define a tax as only those things that the government chooses to call a tax, you get a radically different picture from what you get when you say, "If it looks like a tax, acts like a tax and takes away your resources like a tax, then it's a tax." One of the biggest, and one of the oldest, taxes in this latter sense is inflation. Governments have stolen their people's resourc- es this way, not just for centuries, but for thousands of years. Hyperinflation can take virtually your entire life's savings, without the government having to bother raising the official tax rate at all. The Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1920s had thousands of printing presses turning out vast amounts of money, which the government could then spend to pay for whatever it wanted to pay for. Of course, prices skyrocketed with vastly more money in circulation. Many people's life savings would not buy a loaf of bread. For all practical purposes, they had been robbed, big time. Continued on page 3 The no-spin zone—by Bill O'Reilly Merry Christmas What happens in Vegas Many of our more "mature" readers will always remember the column "Looking Out The Office Window" by my late grandfather A. J. Heuring. As in past years at Christmas time we are using one of his "Christmas" columns. This was one of the two holidays he believed in celebrating. The other was the Fourth of July. To him all the others were little more than a nuisance. Not that he did not believe in what others stood for, he just did not want them interfering with his work. The birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ was, as long as I knew him, first and foremost in his life and was a holiday which he thought should be observed. The other holiday was also a birthday, the birthday of the nation. He would observe this one also, and usually for each holiday would write an appropriate column. This year's Christmas story was written for Christmas 1938. Vegas is money. Whether you spend it on gam- ly change. The money is mostly used a town that bling, live shows or fine dining, it's up to feed their compulsions. looks better at to you. The money flow supports tens On the other end, the rich 1 percentnight. Millions of thousands of service workers and, at ers hustling the gambling tables are of lights pierce a much higher level, the movers who trying to increase their affluence by the darkness run the tourist businesses. If you can't taking chances. In the process, they creating a visual that is both energet- make a decent living in Vegas, you are are providing salaries for the hardic and trance-inducing. The multilay- in major trouble. Responsible workers working men and women who keep ered lightshow is dazzling and unique are sorely needed. the entertainment establishments runin America. But still there is destitution on dis- ning. Bottom line: Both the wealthy But when the sun comes up, Las Ve- play. Addiction is the primary driver and the poor in Vegas are exercising gas speaks directly to the recession. of that, although laziness is featured, their personal freedoms. Half-completed buildings loom over as well. Some of the poor in this town From observing the action in Vegas, the landscape like giant steel skele- simply want to play all the time. And Obama might finally realize that it's tons. Some developers ran out of mon- they pay a price for that, as prosperi- freedom of choice that most often dicey and simply walked away leaving ty eludes them. tates who fails and who succeeds in the huge, hulking abandoned structures Some of the have-nots sit on side- capitalistic system. In Vegas, no outwalks hoping for money from pass- comes are guaranteed and no governto absorb the desert wind. But just down Las Vegas Blvd. are ersby. Sometimes, gamblers give the ment can level the playing field. ProsSeveral times in this col- sins, to soothe our woe, To umn I have expressed my die the death which only the winners: lavish hotels that cater beggars casino chips. Panhandlers say perity or lack thereof is all about indifeelings for the multitude of he can die; To do the work to one's every need. This is a city that the best time for them is after midnight vidual decision-making. But the president would most likeholidays we have on the cal- which only he can do, And best defines the two Americas and our when the winners emerge from the endar. They are so numer- lift the lost one to the land very competitive capitalistic system. If gambling dens. Redistribution is much ly never admit that, because it goes you want to understand the free mar- easier when you've just run the table. against his belief that government can ous that they become just on high." President Obama should spend impose a form of social justice by forciholidays when the post ofThere's more or less ketplace, Las Vegas is an excellent some time in Vegas. Maybe then he bly redistributing the wages of the succlassroom. fice and the banks close. complaints that Christmas Millions of hardworking folks come would understand capitalism better. cessful. Those who can afford it run has been commercialized here to have fun. In order to maximize No matter how many handouts the panFor Barack Obama, what happens in off to something or other too much. Maybe so. But chasing after what they are those of you who have read, the entertainment, you have to spend handlers get, their circumstances rare- Vegas stays in Vegas. lead to believe will bring and I hope all of you have happiness, only to get back and those who haven't will, home tired, cross and dis- Dickens' Christmas Carol, gusted and about half unfit remember that old Scrooge for work the following day. commercialized until he But Christmas is differ- scoffed at Christmas. But What Does It Mean? but I couldn't. My mind ken today. No words will This is not the first masent. To me it is a state of be- he caught what to me is a A young man barely couldn't go there. My emo- ease their pain." What more sacre of children by someing. It is the celebration of state of being and lived not one unconnected to the the birth of that one thing only happy ever after but 20-years old enters an ele- tional response was checked could he say? Jeremiah, the Old Testa- school. That was at West for which the world is hun- lived to make others hap- mentary school with mal- by cognitive dissidence and ment prophet wrote centu- Nickel Mines School over gry and to which every hu- py. Even amid the commer- ice in his heart. In just a reality. At this point we know the ries ago, "The heart is de- a decade ago. It was an Old man being will respond— cialization of the Christmas few short minutes, eight love. It celebrates the anni- holiday, who can see the love adults and 20 young chil- perpetrator, Adam Lanza, ceitful above all things, World Amish school where versary of the birth of the that shines from eyes of chil- dren are dead; a communi- killed his mother at home, And desperately wicked." a gunman killed five girls, who had no direct connec- Even those words fail to wounded five, and then Savior of the world. "His dren and not catch at least a ty is scarred for life. killed himself. The pictures of the chil- tion at the school where the help channel our birth is recognized," says glimpse of the state of being It has meaning. David Smith, "as the water- from that alone. If they want dren exiting the school are massacre took placed. What emotions when What is it? shed of history." Although it to commercialize, let 'em, riveting and heart retching. does this act mean; no close we try to compreBut the most was the middle of the sixth for in so doing they will help On their faces are expres- relative was at the school? A hend the deaths horrific act century before we began us- the balance of the world get sions of horror, panic, and young man did the unthink- of 20 young chilable. Why did he do this? To dren: eight boys, took place on ing His birth from which to a glimpse into that real love confusion. May 19, 1927, As the details unfolded in kill in mass children is sym- 12 girls ages six mark time and events, and that will help to honor the at the Bath though impossible to de- Christmas spirit and make Sandy Hook, Connecticut, bolic. He is sending us an and seven. All not by a horrible bus Consolidated termine its exact date, it is each one better throughout we barley can understand erie message. what we are told; our minds President Obama said accident, a tragSchool. There no less the supreme event the coming year. the school A lot of changes have tak- cannot process what we are there was "not a parent in ic fire, a dreadful of history, for, as Horatious board treasurBonar wrote, en place in the manner of hearing. I have tried to put America that could not feel plane crash, but myself in the parents place, the pain. Our hearts are bro- at the hands of a er, Andrew KeContinued on page 3 "He comes to bear our young man barely hoe, blew up the beyond school age himself! north wing of the school as it Many would shout, was in session. As people at"String him up, or make him tempted to rescue those insuffer"; but how can society side, Kehoe drove up in a car seek justice when the per- packed with dynamite and petrator takes his own life? set off the bomb inside; 58 Condemning him to the low- men, women, and children est regions of hell provides were killed. Discovered afI'm in the camp that believes Re- name of getting our house in order. as it insulated more Americans from little comfort. We are wait- ter the fire was 500 pounds publicans have no choice but to agree The president talks of a "balanced the cost of government. But it's cer- ing for the criminal profil- of unexploded dynamite and to raise taxes on the top 2 percent of approach" to deficit reduction -- by tainly at odds with the conventional ers and forensic psycholo- pyrotol throughout the baseearners. The party has been success- which he seems to mean more tax- wisdom that Republicans didn't con- gists to explain to us what ment; he intended to kill everyone there. fully caricatured as the servant of the es and (set ital) more (end ital) sider the needs of working Ameri- motivated this child killer. We add another name to I have run out of words rich. This is unjust, yes, but spending. His former cans when they were in power. chairman of the Joint As for the rich, yes, the rates went an infamous list of previous because I lack understandjustice is imperfect in this life. It's political suicide for Chiefs of Staff has fin- down. But the percent of the total killings. The locations have ing, and as all of us know, at Republicans to stand fast on gered national debt as tax burden shouldered by the top 1 become infamous: Colum- times, language cannot exmaintaining current rates the "greatest national percent of earners increased from bine High School; Work- press what we feel. The personification of for high earners even at the security threat" we 37 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in ers Youth League Camp on face. Yet the presi- 2007. The bottom 50 percent of tax- Utoya Island, Norway; now evil isn't Adam Lanza; it is cost of raising taxes for everyone else. Imagine if we dent has yet to make payers paid 16 percent less in 2007 Sandy Hook Elementary the evil that lurks within went over the fiscal cliff. In a genuine proposal to than they had in 2000. Their share School at New Town, Con- man himself. Massacres, cut spending. January, Obama would call of the total burden fell from 3.9 per- necticut. Sandy Hook was genocide, fratricide, ethnic once voted the safest place cleansings, and democide upon Congress to pass a law Republicans must cent to 2.9 percent. Continued on page 3 bow to political realrestoring the tax rates for 98 Mr. Obama has successfully de- to live in America. ity about tax rates, luded people into believing that the percent of filers. What could Republicans do then, refuse? but it's worth a back- rich pay fewer taxes than their secThere is a time for strateward glance to consid- retaries. In fact, as Steve Moore has gic retreat. Republicans are not with- er just how great a victory this is for shown, the top 5 percent of taxpayers out tactical opportunities, though. demagoguery. earn 37 percent of national income MR. AND MRS. FRANK HEURING, PUBLISHERS They can reply, as my friend MiConsider that the Democratic Par- but pay 61 percent of income taxes. chael Medved has suggested, that if ty is now committed, body and soul, Democrats, especially this presiANDREW G. HEURING, EDITOR the Clinton tax rates are desirable, to defending "the middle class tax dent, have scorned the Bush years JOHN B. HEURING, ADVERTISING MANAGER so are the Clinton spending rates. cuts." They are the party of the mid- for their accumulated debt and for Wednesday, December 19, 2012 They could resurrect a budget from dle class, they trill. Yet when these raging inequality. Yet, as Professor 1998 and pass it. Democrats would tax rates were enacted, every living Emmanuel Saez of Berkeley (yes Entered at the Post Office in Petersburg, Indiana for transprotest that 1998 spending rates are Democrat denounced them as "tax Berkeley) has shown, the income mission through the mails as Periodical Mail, Postage paid not remotely commensurate with our cuts for the rich." Every Democratic gap during Obama's first term has at Petersburg, Indiana. Published weekly. needs. But wait, don't they argue that tongue swore that Bush had passed been far more pronounced than it Change of Address—Subscribers changing addresses the Clinton years were economic uto- "tax cuts for the rich." The Repub- was during the Bush years. As Alexwill please give old address as well as new one along with pia? Were people living in cardboard licans piped in response: "No, they ander Eichler of the Huffington Post phone number. We cannot guarantee prompt change unless boxes on the streets in the 1990s? were tax cuts for everyone." But they put it, "The rising tide has lifted fewthis is done. Postmaster: send changes to Post Office Box While they're at it, they could pro- were drowned out. The libel stuck, er boats during the Obama years -68, Petersburg, Indiana 47567-0068. pose Clinton levels of regulation, too. and it persists even now as Demo- and the ones it's lifted have been Points to ponder—by Ford Bond A woman's perspective—by Mona Charen A victory for demogoguery The P Dispatch ress- Alternatively, they could pass the Simpson/Bowles proposal, reminding voters that the president ignored his own debt commission. Simpson/ Bowles has many flaws (including too few spending reductions), but it does at least make big strides toward taming the debt. Endorsing it would show that Republicans are prepared for painful compromise in the crats go to the mat for those Bush middle class tax rates. Also, the Bush tax cuts made the tax code more, not less, progressive. More than 8 million taxpayers were relieved of paying taxes altogether because the Bush reforms doubled the child tax credit and expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit. That may have been a political miscalculation mostly yachts." The demonization of the rich paid electoral dividends: Obama will get his way on tax rates. But the problem he conjured -- the rich getting richer at the expense of everyone else -- was a crude fiction. It's the kind of class warfare appeal that has worked all over the globe. We used to be an exception. No more. Phone 354-8500 • FAX—354-2014 P.O. BOX 68, PETERSBURG, INDIANA 47567 E-mail—news@pressdispatch.net (604-340) SUBSCRIPTION RATES 3 mos. 6 mos. 1 year 2 years Pike and Surrounding Cos. . .....$ 10.00 $15.00 $25.00 $45.00 Elsewhere in Indiana . ............... 14.00 19.00 27.00 49.00 Outside Indiana . ........................... 18.00 28.00 43.00 75.00