Will Taxing the Rich Hurt the Rest?

With the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, America is staring down the gun barrel of the largest tax increase ever. While the tax increase would only directly affect the top 2-3% income earners, the negative financial impacts could be much broader. Today, former Clinton advisor Bernard Whitman defended the possibility of a tax increase.

“I think not only is it a political winner, more importantly it’s an economic winner,” Whitman explained. “Keeping [the Bush tax cuts] will cost an additional $700 billion that we don’t have.”

Whitman doesn’t think that raising taxes on the wealthy is an issue of morality, but one of simple economics. “I like the rich as much as the next guy. It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s that they don’t need the tax cut,” said Whitman. “It’s not about morality. It’s about economics. We cannot afford to continue giving tax giveaways to people that don’t need them.”

Whitman argues that this is not only what we need, but also what the American people want. “Let me tell you, the American people agree,” said Whitman. “The Pew Center just released a poll ten days ago that showed by a margin of 46 to 29 people agreed that the Obama policies would fare better than the Bush policies.”

Whitman thinks that this is the economic policy that will get us out of the financial jam that we’re in now. “With 98% of people keeping their tax cuts, we will grow the economy.”