I saw this very well done rebuttal to Ben Stein’s outrageous commentary against the proposed tax increase for rich people:

Television producer Linda McGibney is within America’s highest tax bracket and disagrees with Ben Stein’s claim that he feels it is a punishment for the wealthy to be taxed higher during a recession.

Frankly, I think Ms. McGibney is too easy on Stein. While Ben Stein whines about being punished, people who work full-time for minimum wage are unable to pay their rent or take their kids to the dentist. Ben Stein is a rich, over-privileged, spoiled, whiny bitch. People who make an average income struggle to pay the mortgage, save for retirement, and have anything left over for insurance deductibles or college funds.

In Ben Stein’s commentary, which aired on “CBS News Sunday Morning”, 9/19/2010, he says he doesn’t understand why he should be punished for being rich by having to pay 39% instead of 35% on any income over $250,000. First, I think he is being disingenuous. Stein makes his living doing political commentary, he knows what’s been going on for the past ten years. As middle class workers lost ground, the rich got richer and richer and the Clinton-era surplus became a trillion dollar federal deficit. Secondly, making the rich pay a higher tax on their income above the $250,000 is only fair. Does he really believe he got rich solely on his own merit? That is not the way things work. Rich individuals and big business get all kinds of breaks and corporate welfare from local, state, and federal government.

Also, there is something that Ben Stein conveniently left out of his unseemly screed. Your tax bracket is the rate you pay on the “last dollar” you earn; but as a percentage of your income, your tax rate is generally less than that. Hence under the current taxes, a couple whose taxable income is $300,000 is in the 35% bracket but their actual tax rate would be less than 25.59%. The 35% is only applied to taxable income above $250,000.

Lastly, if you have been following this issue as closely as I have, you may be under the impression that a lot of small businesses will be hurt if they are forced to pay their fair share of taxes and that in turn will hurt the economy and discourage job growth. After all, that’s what John Boehner, Jon Kyl, Sarah Palin, et al. want you to believe. Well guess what? It Is A Big Fat Lie. The “small business” that the republicans tirelessly defend (at least when it comes to this issue) are S-Corporations owned by millionaires and billionaires who bundle their personal income with their corporate income for tax purposes. Those are not the small struggling “Mom and Pop” concerns that hire teenagers part-time to stock shelves or give a full-time gig to a single mother who just graduated from community college.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6902335n&tag=contentMain;contentBody#ixzz10i6o6F9T

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