Vice President Joe Biden has regularly caused uproars with his off-the-cuff remarks and serial gaffs. However, his most interesting remarks are not gaffs but clear statements of his views on some subjects. This is particularly evident on issues of taxes. Biden has called previously for the redistribution of wealth and called higher taxes an act of patriotism. For many, he epitomizes the image of a tax-based liberal and this week he seems intent of ratcheting up that image. At a Black History Month event at his official residence, Biden called for a new “emancipation:” freeing money from the rich.
Biden told the group that “A lot of wealthy white and black people aren’t bad but they control 1 percent of the economy and this cannot stand . . . It’s not fair because the business experts are saying that concentration of wealth is stunting growth. So let’s do something that’s worthy of emancipation.”
Freeing the wealth of some of their money, Biden suggests, would help them as individuals: “What happened is not only did we move toward freeing black Americans but also the conscience of white Americans.”
Biden’s continued commitment to the idea of redistribution of wealth stands in contrast to the White House talking points. Many have argued that the White House is committed to redistribution through higher taxes. However, the White House has been careful to justify tax increases on specific program support. There is a conceptual difference (even if not much of a practical difference) in higher taxes for social welfare programs and higher taxes to redistribute wealth. The goal in the first case is improving the social net while the goal in the latter case is to achieve greater wealth equity.
The United States has never embraced the notion of wealth distribution as a primary goal, or even a secondary goal, of tax policy. Moreover, top earners probably disagree that they are in need of moral rehabilitation through taxation. The top one percent of earners in this country already pay a high percentage of taxes collected by the state and federal governments (though some question the fairness of this comparison). Many of us are concerned about the growing wealth disparity in this country and the world, including myself. I have written regularly about the widening gap. However, I am also leery of politicians who start to speak of taxes to redistribute wealth — particularly as a form of moral improvement.
Source: USA Today
The idea of distributing wealth from the one class to the other classes seems to always involve the middleman of the government: which then takes it all.
Inga (Annie) – “Jim,
Well if that’s how you really feel, tell your elderly parents that you’ll take care of them and that they should refuse their SS and Medicare. Put your principles where your mouth is, so to speak.”
Nope, forced into paying into those redistribution schemes so I have no problem taking from them. So let’s see, I work my whole adult life and get property stolen from me every paycheck and then you want me to forfeit what was stolen from me so that people who were lazy and lived off of others can have it. Try again.
former, Sen. Rockefeller.
I have no argument with keeping the Bush’s out of any further government ‘service.’
“I guess Bush, Koch, Walton and Rockefellar, escaped your keen eye”
Walton and Rockefeller père are dead.
West Virginia Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller is one of the wealthiest U.S. senators, having a reported estimated worth north of $100 million.
I think anyone who proposes more taxes should put their principles where their mouths are, and choose not to take the deductions and tax credits owed to them PLUS write the government an additional check more than what they owe.
Mr. Schulte
I agree with you in most cases. Also, if you would please send your previous email – I have a different email: yancythigpen16@yahoo.com
Jim,
Well if that’s how you really feel, tell your elderly parents that you’ll take care of them and that they should refuse their SS and Medicare. Put your principles where your mouth is, so to speak.
Karen, I heard a joke the other day that went somethign like, With all of the cold and snow going on in Mass., Elizabeth Warren will break the ceiling by declaring her Eskimo heritage with her run for president.
Biden should start with “emancipating” his own wealth. He makes almost 1/3 of a million dollars every year, plus any extras.
Apparently, only 1% of the population makes more than $250,000/year for more than 10 consecutive years. Biden will get at least 8. I do not know what he was making before, or what he will make after, but it appears he is a “one percenter.”
So much for his “us and them” pitch. So sleazy.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/08/defining_rich_in_america_what_are_the_income_cutoffs.html
Inga (Annie) – “No disability checks or social security for all the moochers! No siree! Make ‘em work until they fall down dead,”
Sounds like a good plan. I’ve been living that way for my whole adult life.
Pogo – but wait. Don’t Liberals tell us all the time that if they raise taxes, absolutely no one will engage in evasive behavior and leave?
Of course wealth redistribution is a primary goal of Liberals. Ever heard Elizabeth Warren on her own version of you didn’t build that? Apparently, according to her, all the taxes the wealthy contribute that pays the freight in the US, according to analysis, entitles them to absolutely no use of schools, roads, and bridges, while ONLY those who pay little or nothing are entitled to use of infrastructure.
It boggles the mind. But people rush to defend them, deny what they say with their own mouths, or they blame Republicans.
Is it because of the Liberal brainwashing going on in public schools? We really need to get personal politics out of the classroom if this is any measure of critical thinking.
It’s also true that we are forming a class of elite government employees. They can break the law with impunity. They can engage in fraud that leads to people dying (VA), and not get punished or lose their jobs. In fact, they can sit in a chair and twiddle their thumbs all day and have job security (thanks to the mob like Unions.) They have benefits far and away what the private sector enjoys, whose taxes support them. Our politicians gift each other with pork spending to get through the legislation they want. They lie to us without consequences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-P-CoSNYaI
DBQ – my husband buys his guys lunch, too.
Well, at least he’s being honest about what the people in the White House really think, regardless of claims otherwise.
I love how anyone who disagrees with appropriating all the money from the rich is branded as not caring about the poor. Typical.
By printing 80 Billion a month they seem to be devaluating the dollar which penalizes the disappearing middle class tax payers
Pogo, you left out the Kennedys too
No disability checks or social security for all the moochers! No siree! Make ’em work until they fall down dead, That would be good for those low down section 8 no goodniks. There is a extremely wealthy family that my daughter and son in law have in their social circle here in Waukesha County. They are the Quadracchi’s of Quad Graphics, they are Democrats. The good conservatives of the county who are looking to rise in their social status are all a titter when they get an invitation to the Quadracchi’s home, or have them accept an invitation to theirs. Then one can sit back and observe the behavior of the slighty wealthy conservatives. Absolutely no bashing of Obama, no talk of those nasty disabled people, no talk of moochers or Secrion 8 no goodniks, no talk of paying too much taxes, etc. It’s a chuckle fest and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it when they’ve been at my daughter and son in law’s home. I adore the Quadracchi’s, nice down to earth multi millionaires, not greedy people jealous of those who get disability or social security. Good rich folks.
Pogo:
Ah, just an oversight I see. Of course.
Jim22
Well, actually they are still around and doing quite well given the hundreds of years they were put down. Between art, casinos, and limited self rule, they are living in a world within a world. The point of this is not the typical us or them approach but that there are aspects of experiences that bear reviewing and perhaps a closer look. It goes without saying that the indigenous peoples of lands invaded by civilizations with superior means and methods of making war typically don’t fare too well. This can be seen happening today.
Pogo,
John Kerry knows how to swap out wifes like balding tires
How Teresa Heinz and John Kerry Met:
They had briefly met in 1990 at an Earth Day Rally. In 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, John and Teresa met again at a United Nations sponsored Earth Summit.
A few months later they renewed their acquaintance at a Washington dinner party, and took a walk together to the Mall and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Their courtship began in late 1993. They announced their engagement in November, 1994.
Voice from grave of John Kerry ex-wife:
She still associates politics ‘only with anger, fear and loneliness.’ In 1988, the final divorce went through. … She later called her relationship with Kerry a ‘suffocating marriage.’”
What kind of man leaves his wife, but especially when she is in the midst of suicidal depression? In addition, there seemed to be a hotly contested issue
when Kerry later wished to marry Teresa Heinz over whether or not he should be granted an annulment.
I should add that I pay the hardest working man I know $40 / hour for lawn and snow work…
Ari. I hear you.
We have only one employee under our S Corp. My husband. We don’t need to have a permanent full time employee or even a permanent part time employee.
However, on occasion he needs to have an extra helper for those big jobs, (like pulling a 5 hp pump on 1 inch steel pipe from the bottom of a 480 ft well and then putting it all back together again) We pay at least $40 to $60 per hour and the cost of the occasional helper is built into the cost of the bid of the job. And… he buys ’em lunch too.
If your worker is hard working, reliable and willing to be an on-call type of worker it is worth it to pay well. We aren’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination but have come up through very hard work on our own and recognize the value. We also do the same for those times we hire someone to help with the heavy lifting on our property such as trimming trees and other strength need jobs that I can’t do.
Now. Biden wants to punish people like us because we worked hard and made a business and have a comfortable life. How DARE we do such a thing. We should give half of what we owe to the Section 8 bums down the road.
Joe wants to pit people against each other and create jealousy, envy and greed. Make them think that they DESERVE to take other people’s money and other people’s stuff?
You want a revolution? This is how you get one.