A Stitch in Haste

A modified version of a comment I left at another blog on the not-news that John Edwards is continuing to make class warfare the centerpiece of his (soon to be failed) presidential campaign — this time in the form of ever higher federal taxes on the people who already pay most of the federal tax bill anyway:

Meanwhile, what two words appear nowhere in the article?

That's right: "deficit reduction."

I could almost not loathe him and his class warfare if he were to say, "Yes, I'll raise taxes, but only to reduce the deficit. Read my lips: No new programs!"

(Without of course, the moral defective inaccuracy of the George H.W. Bush version of those three infamous words.)

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One quick fisk:

He also would raise the top tax rate on long-term capital gains to 28 percent — the same rate signed into law by President Reagan. Edwards said the increase would ensure that high-income investors pay taxes on their investment income at a rate similar to what regular families pay on earned income.

Ah yes, the Buffett Lie. Expect to see it more and more as the campaign progresses. In reality, since corporations remit about 35% of their net income in federal taxes on behalf (mostly) of shareholders, the true capital gains tax rate is often as high as 50%, hardly "a rate similar to what regular families pay on earned income."

(Incidentally, what is a "regular family"? Can a "regular family" not have capital gains (e.g., from selling mutual fund shares)? "Traditional marriage should be limited to one paycheck and one bank account..."? Good grief.)