Earlier this week, about 50 people appeared outside US Rep. Kevin Yoder‘s office in downtown Overland Park, Kan., in a bid to sway the Kansas Republican’s view regarding the debt ceiling issue.
Many emphasized that they want higher taxes on the “rich.” One, Mike Miller of Roeland Park, Kan., wanted to get rid of the tax cuts for the “super rich.”
Miller wanted Yoder to take a “balanced approach,” which he explained meant to “raise taxes on those with the ability to pay,” coupled with sensible cuts on military spending and sensible changes to Medicare, according to a report by Earl Glynn of Kansas Watchdog.
“We want him to respond to his constituents,” said Miller and “it’s not in the best interest of his constituents to keep the taxes low on the super-rich. We intend to make an issue out of that in the next campaign.”
Steve Sommers of Prairie Village, Kan., asked Yoder to “represent the middle class and not just the wealthiest.”
Janie Epstein, Prairie Village, said she “had seen no sign in the last couple of years that giving tax breaks and support to the banks and wealthy will produce jobs. I haven’t seen it.”
Epstein was photographed with a sign that stated, “Read my lips! Raise my taxes.”
Perhaps someone should have pointed out to Epstein and the other four dozen or so in attendance – along with folks of a similar ilk who insist that taxes need to be raised, particularly on the “rich” – that there’s nothing keeping them from sending in more of their own money to the Internal Revenue Service for the government to do with as it sees fit.
Somehow, though, one imagines that most of what really motivates individuals who hold up signs like “Read my lips! Raise my taxes” is little more than political posturing, guaranteed to grab the attention of the media.
Undoubtedly, when it comes tax time, they, or their accountants, are actively seeking every legitimate tax loophole they can find.
Hollering for higher taxes on the rich, who already pay the lion’s share of personal income taxes in this nation (the top 5 percent of individuals paid nearly 60 percent as of 2008), is nothing more than sheer demagoguery.
The Cotton Boll Conspiracy 