"Barack Obama says he will give 95 percent of all American workers a tax cut but does not mention that his plan would send checks to tens of millions of tax filers who pay no personal income taxes - payments that critics say look 'suspiciously like welfare'...
...there is the question of how millions of Americans can receive an income "tax cut" when they pay no taxes.
"It's got to raise alarm bells when you claim you are going to cut taxes for 95 percent of working families when more than 40 percent of them pay no income taxes," said Phil Kerpen, policy director at Americans for Prosperity, a grass-roots free-market advocacy group.
"What he's really talking about doing is mailing a check, and to me, that looks more like a welfare program than the kind of real tax relief that would encourage work, savings and investments," Mr. Kerpen said."
It's about time someone called it what it is - income redistribution! Just like an IRS program that has long been in place called the earned income credit. There's nothing 'earned' about it. It's a welfare check. And the taxpayers are funding it.
But, wait. There's more!
"To pay for his middle-class tax cuts, Mr. Obama would raise the top marginal tax rate on Americans earning more than $250,000 to 35 percent from 30.6 percent. According to the IRS, the top 5 percent of all income earners in 2004 paid 57.13 percent of all income taxes."
Uh, huh. And to do this during a financial disaster which is sure to lede to a lingering recession is how smart?
Paging Mr. Hoover. Paging Mr. Herbert Hoover...