News reports are filled with politicians debating whether cuts in tax rates passed in the Bush era should be extended, or whether rates for people making the most money should have their rates increased.  Would you be surprised to hear that the share of the tax burden paid by the highest income earners increased after the Bush tax cuts were fully in effect, according to the data in the Tax Foundation report?  The top 0.1% of earners paid 15.68% of all taxes in 2003 and 18.47% of the total in 2008. The top 1% of earners paid 34.27 % of total taxes in 2003 and 38.02% in 2008.   On the other end of the spectrum, the bottom 50% of earners paid 3.46% of the total tax burden in 2003, and that percentage has dropped every year since to 2.70% in 2008.

What tax rate is fair? The Freeman Online has a quote that, “Under Roosevelt, the top rate was…raised—first to 79 percent and later to 90 percent. In 1941, in fact, Roosevelt proposed a 99.5 percent marginal rate on all incomes over $100,000. ‘Why not?’ he said when an adviser questioned him.”   I would hope most people wouldn’t think that to be either good policy or fair.  I believe we have a powerful economy and country in large part because there are incentives to succeed through energetic efforts and willingness to take risks.  Those who have their risks rewarded gain wealth for themselves and employ others.  Some politicians encourage us to resent those who have succeeded financially, and promise they will take more from the wealthy and dole out services to those deemed worthy by massive, inefficient bureaucracies.  Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money” (The quote is included in Mike Rosen’s column on page 11B of the Denver Post, December 10, 2010.)