White House Admits Tax Hikes Slow Economic Growth

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/politics/debt-reckoning.html?hp#sha=9c008db11

but only refers to a study regarding middle class tax rates which are set to increase at the end of this year.  If the Bush tax rates (which liberals have stated for a decade were tax cuts for the rich, despite the fact that they cut taxes for everyone) expire this study shows that Middle class spending will decrease by $200B.

A rational person must wonder then what happens if the people the President insists on raising taxes upon...the so called "rich" who make $250,000 a year.  The top 1% earners in this country earn about 20% of all income and pay 21% of all taxes.  The middle 20% whom the study targets earn about 11% of all income and pay 10% of all taxes.  So, if the middle 20% who earn 11% of all income would have a negative $200B effect on the economy with a tax hike, how is it even possible that the top earners wouldn't have an even larger negative effect on the economy?  The answer of course is that it is not possible.  It is very rational to assume that the top earners would counter a tax hike with diminished spending probably well above $200B.  A loss of $400B in spending would be a drop of 2.7% in GDP...in other words a recession.

This brings me to this.  The White House constant claim is that raising taxes on the "rich" will generate $1.1Trillion in additional revenue over the next decade.  That is just over $100B a year....or roughly enough cash to run the Federal government for about an hour.   The mystery to me is how adding this much revenue is supposed to do anything to an annual debt which is above $1Trillion every year.  $1.1T in additional revenue simply means that the debt will grow 7% slower, it does not shrink it and we are still on the fast track to $20Trillion in debt.   Obama is in effect asking to trade hundreds of billions in dropped domestic spending by the rich in order to raise $100B in taxes per year...while at the same time ignoring the reality of a little thing we like to call math.  This is just more proof, if we didn't already learn it on November 6, 2012.  There are a lot of really really stupid people in this country, and they vote.  We call them Democrats.