Meanwhile, as we bail out anyone with a distant claim to victimhood, we’re still discussing the “cost” of reductions in marginal tax rates and tax cuts for the “wealthiest 1%”. As to the latter point, the top 1% of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 36.2% of total taxes in 1999, the top 10% paid 66.5%, and the top 50% paid 96%! Is this progressive enough? It’s enough to make one wonder along with former Congressman Bill Archer why the lower 50% will ever again vote for tax rate reduction except for the fact that they understand how jobs and prosperity are created. And the “stimulus” plan now being executed does nothing for long-term growth. In fact, a case can be made that it is counter-productive. But, of course, what matters more than anything is the Romantic notion that good intentions are more important than good deeds and that intensity of feeling and “concern” justify the resulting policy.
