You may remember the big push a few years ago to impose an unconstitutional, general state income tax on Tennesseans. The “hook” was the shaky claim that the tax would really affect mainly “other” people – that lots of Tennesseans would actually wind up paying less taxes overall.
It was an ugly appeal to spiteful class envy, and fortunately it failed. The income tax proposal was not enacted.
Now, it appears that the broader American public is also skeptical of President Barack Obama’s appeal to class envy as he tries to raise taxes on supposedly just “the rich.”
The president says taxes should go up on any individual earning at least $200,000 a year, and on any couple earning $250,000 or more. But many Americans have very reasonable doubts about whether that is a wise plan – especially during a time of economic crisis.
A new Associated Press-GfK Poll found that only 39 percent of respondents agree with the president that “the rich” should be singled out for higher taxes. Forty-four percent believe that taxes should not be raised on anyone. Only 15 percent believe that all Bush-era tax relief should end and that taxes should go up across multiple income categories.
Many Americans apparently are coming to understand that lots of the people whom the president criticizes as “the rich” are small-business owners who provide lots of jobs the country desperately needs. Taxing them more would discourage them from investing and creating more jobs.
That is not the direction we should be going if we really want economic growth.