John Bonza’s editorial cartoon from Friday convinces me he has a distorted view of reality. President Bush’s proposed tax cut would not transfer my money to the wealthy. It would return some of my money to me.
Does Bonza understand the tax the government collects is his money, not the government’s? The government doesn’t earn a nickel. Maybe when he assumes the responsibilities of an adult he’ll tire of forfeiting almost one- third of his annual income. Like comedian Chris Rock says, “You don’t pay taxes, they take taxes.”
Bonza, one way to picture it is everything you earn from Jan. 1 until the middle of May is taken for taxes. Bonza, the following statistics are fact. In calendar year 2000, the top 50 percent of wage earners paid 96.09 percent of all income tax. The top 10 percent paid 67.3 percent of all income tax. The top one percent of wage earners paid 10 times the federal income tax than the bottom 50 percent. The bottom 50 percent is paying a tiny bit of the taxes, 3.91 percent, so you can’t give them much of a tax cut by definition.
Yet these are the people to whom the Democrats claim to want to give tax cuts. Remember this the next time you hear the “tax cuts for the rich” business. Understand the so-called rich are about the only ones paying taxes anymore. Furthermore, the Democrats claim that the “rich” don’t need the money, or they won’t spend it the “right way.” Who determines what the “right” way is, or if I “need” it?
Dennis MathiasOSU staff
