{"id":31788,"date":"2009-02-26T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:40:34","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:40:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:40:34","slug":"a_teachable_moment_on_tax_hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/26\/a_teachable_moment_on_tax_hikes\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teachable Moment on Tax Hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: The Wall Street Journal today, a brilliant, brilliant piece that any of us who understands taxes, trickle-down, supply-side, economic growth understands without reading but there\u2019s some interesting data in it that I still want to share with you. ‘President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it.\u2019 See, that\u2019s the first mistake. He doesn\u2019t have to figure out how to pay for it. If he were worried about paying for it, he wouldn\u2019t be doing it. I don\u2019t mean to sound pompous. Don\u2019t confuse my desperation that you understand this for pomposity. There\u2019s no concern in the Obama administration about paying for anything. They got rid of that fear long ago. They can print the money. They can sell some debt to the ChiComs, or whoever else. They don\u2019t care about paying for it. If they cared about paying for it, they wouldn\u2019t be doing any of this because we can\u2019t pay for it. That\u2019s why there\u2019s going to be a fundamental restructuring of our country. We cannot pay for what\u2019s going to be done, and at some point the fact that there\u2019s no money to pay for what is being done and what\u2019s going to happen is going to come out, it\u2019s going to be a collapse like you can\u2019t believe, dwarfing what this is looking like. <\/p>\n

‘On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end ‘tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans,\u2019 and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won\u2019t see their taxes increased by ‘one single dime.\u2019 This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can\u2019t possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama\u2019s new spending ambitions. Consider the IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and ‘the wealthiest 2%.\u2019 Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That\u2019s about 7% of all returns; the data aren\u2019t broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% — about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 — paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues.\u2019 You could confiscate all income over $500,000 a year and you wouldn\u2019t even come up with half our budget deficit. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here are the numbers. You confiscate all taxable income over $500,000, you could do that one time \u2019cause who\u2019s going to worry about earning all that again, so $500,000 over that, you confiscate it, you raise $1.3 trillion in revenue, less than half the 2006 federal budget. You ain\u2019t going to balance anything. It\u2019s only going to punish people and cause jobs to be lost.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know what you\u2019ve been saying if you\u2019ve been listening the full first hour, ‘So what, Rush, if they raise tax on the rich? It\u2019s only a small percentage of taxpayers. They\u2019re going to have enough left over afterwards. Why does it matter? Clinton raised taxes on the rich in the nineties and the economy was just fine.\u2019 Yeah, but you realize at the same time we were balancing the budget in the 1990s? You can\u2019t compare the two eras. But there\u2019s a more fundamental reason why this ought to concern everybody. Remember, rich now starts at $250. That\u2019s a lot of small businesses, and it ain\u2019t rich. It\u2019s not rich and it certainly isn\u2019t wealthy. Let me give you these numbers again. I said earlier this program is a series of teachable moments today. The basic numbers are these. Most recent year for data, 2006. Obama says he gonna raise taxes on the wealthiest 2%. That\u2019s 3.8 million filers in 2006, 7% of all returns. The wealthiest 2% paid about $522 billion in income taxes, 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1%, 1.65 million filers, the richest 1% above $388,000 paid $400 billion, or 40% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported US income. <\/p>\n

You keep hearing about the gap between haves and have-nots. It\u2019s not quite what they tell you. So the vast majority of the tax burden is being paid for by 1%, 2% of American taxpayers. Now, Obama is saying that we have to raise taxes on these people to reduce the deficit. Well, that\u2019s where the numbers don\u2019t work. His new rate of 39.6 starting in 2001 is actually going to be 42% because the percentage that these people will be allowed to deduct on genuinely deductible items will only be 28% of every dollar. So if they give a buck to a charity, they\u2019ll be able to deduct 28 cents of it. There\u2019s probably going to be a lot less charitable giving as a result, but that\u2019s another point. So you have a 42% break. So the Wall Street Journal says let\u2019s confiscate, let\u2019s just confiscate 100% of taxable income from everyone earning over a half million dollars, most recent years, 2006. That would generate $1.3 trillion in revenue. That\u2019s less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and is tiny compared to the four trillion that Congress is going to spend in 2010. So even taking every taxable dime of everyone earning more than $75,000 — let\u2019s go to that level. If you take every taxable dollar from people earning more than $75,000 a year, you would have barely yielded enough to cover the $4 trillion budget in 2010. <\/p>\n

Now, folks, you could only do this confiscation one time, because nobody\u2019s going to work to earn more than 75 grand if it\u2019s all going to be taken. Nobody\u2019s going to work to earn more than 250K if it\u2019s all going to be taken. But I use the confiscation simple as an illustration. Even if you confiscate from these people, you don\u2019t have enough to even get close to paying for what Obama is spending, which means what? Which means, hello, middle class tax increase. I don\u2019t care what he\u2019s doing, starting in April with your little $13-a-week tax cut or what have you, by the time we get to 2010 and 2011, you\u2019re going to be in the mix. There\u2019s not enough money in the wealthiest 2% to even make a dent in what Obama is spending, and so the rest of you are going to get taxed just as much. That\u2019s what it means and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important, it\u2019s not just the rich. It\u2019s not enough to cover what Obama is doing. And he\u2019s going to continue to operate under the illusion that he cares about revenue. I\u2019m telling you, he doesn\u2019t. He doesn\u2019t care about paying for anything, but he knows everybody else is concerned about it so he\u2019s going to say, ‘Well, we\u2019re gotta pay for this, and here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to do it.\u2019 Every tax increase is a loss of freedom. Every tax increase runs the risk of losing a job. Every tax increase expands power of government. That\u2019s what they\u2019re after. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: To the phones we go, ladies and gentlemen. I apprroeeciate your patient and holding on. Matthew in Pittsburgh, it\u2019s nice to have you with us, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. Thank you for taking my call.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m calling because it troubles me how yourself and many others classify our legislators and our current president, as Keynesian. John Maynard Keynes stated that during good times, you paid off the debt, and during bad times, is when you increased the debt. They\u2019ve never done neither one. The only one that possibly could have done anything like that would have been a Democrat, believe it or not, Andrew Jackson. That our current president and our legislators were Keynesian? John Maynard Keynes would have rolled over in his grave.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, Keynesian is simply government spending in times of recession, down times, to try to reignite things. It never has worked. If you don\u2019t like the term Keynesian, what do you want me to call it? What do you want me to call them?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Socialist, Marxist as it is. It\u2019s Marxism or socialism, no?<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not using the word ‘socialist\u2019 enough for you. I think I\u2019ve been using the word ‘socialist\u2019 and ‘collectivism,\u2019 (sigh) and I even used the word ‘dictator\u2019 today. I\u2019m sorry I\u2019m disappointing you. What the hell? Where we going? Jamie in Las Vegas. It\u2019s nice to have you on the program. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, Rush, it\u2019s an honor to talk to you today.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to point out something to you about your comments on taxing, and Obama\u2019s own economic advisors agree with you, and it\u2019s in a report that I found online. It\u2019s the Economic Report of the President. It\u2019s issued by the Council of Economic Advisors, which were appointed by Obama, and there\u2019s an entire section in that report that says lowering tax rates stimulates economic growth.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That was then. They have removed that from the website. What\u2019s the woman\u2019s name that wrote that? I\u2019m having a mental block. Romer. Christina Romer. She wrote that. She put it on their website and once Obama won: Bam! It came off, and now in its place is: ‘Spending a dollar generates a dollar and a half.\u2019 It used to be, ‘Reducing taxes every dollar generates a dollar and a half,\u2019 or a half a dollar. They\u2019ve totally reworked it. She\u2019s been neutered, as it were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The Wall Street Journal today, a brilliant, brilliant piece that any of us who understands taxes, trickle-down, supply-side, economic growth understands without reading but there\u2019s some interesting data in it that I still want to share with you. ‘President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Teachable Moment on Tax Hikes - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/daily\/2009\/02\/26\/a_teachable_moment_on_tax_hikes\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"A Teachable Moment on Tax Hikes - 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