http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147496554By Bryan Fischer
A progressive tax structure - in which the rich pay taxes at a higher rate because, well, they’re rich - is fundamentally unfair, unjust and unbiblical.
When God set up a tax structure for ancient Israel, the rate was 10% across the board, rich or poor. If it’s good enough for God and Jesus, it ought to be good enough for us.
Imagine going to buy a car, and asking the salesman how much a particular car cost. He says, “Well, that all depends on how much you make. The sticker price floats based on your income. Cough up your 1040, Buster, and we’ll tell exactly what we’re going to charge you.”
You’d just take your auto-buying business someplace else. Fleecing the rich only works if they’ve got no place else to go.
New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie understands this, which is why he vetoed a millionaire’s tax as fast humanly possible. In fact, he set a land speed record for a veto in the process. He was sitting at his desk just waiting for that bill to be delivered to him. As soon as he got it, he flipped to the page with the signature for his veto and inked it.
Christie explained that it’s counterproductive to raise taxes on the rich if you care about state revenues and about ordinary working men and women. This is because the rich have options to relocate. You drive their taxes too high, they’ll just move someplace else where taxes are lower. They take with them their tax revenue, their creativity, their talent and their investment income.
The result is fewer jobs and lower wages for ordinary folk who are left behind and who don’t have the same relocation options. Tax revenues and the investment dollars that could create jobs and raise wages is gone, baby, gone.
LeBron James is widely suspected of choosing the Miami Heat in part because Florida, unlike Ohio, New Jersey and New York, where other suitors were located, has no income tax. His tax burden in New York, had he signed with the Knicks, would have been around $12.6 million. His income tax burden in Florida: Zero, nada, zip, zilch.
According Michelle Malkin, the UK is having trouble attracting world class athletes to compete there because since April they are now getting nicked with an income tax rate of 50 per cent, a tax charged not only on what they earn while in Britain but on a proportion of their worldwide income.
So athletes just avoid competing in the UK at all. Usain Bolt, one of the world’s top sprinters, is skipping a world-class 100-meter event because of tax implications, and Wimbledon is having trouble attracting top talent to warm-up events for the same reason. Roger Federer, for instance, has never played at Queen’s, the pre-eminent pre-Wimbledon tournament.
The Ryder Cup may be in trouble for the same reason, and - this is really ridiculous - Sergio Garcia of Spain will have to finish in the top three this week to keep from losing money at the British Open.
Bottom line: raising taxes on the rich is counter-productive, self-destructive and hurts ordinary hard-working citizens. Is anybody in Washington listening?