Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article this morning about a discussion between outgoing Senator Judd Gregg and Andrea Mitchell about paying for tax cuts.  Senator Gregg points out that the concept of ‘paying for tax cuts’ assumes that all money belongs to to government and that there is a cost to letting people keep the money they earn. 

The article references a New York Times article from yesterday:

“What the Times left out was the fact that the top-earning 1% currently pays more than 38% of all income taxes.

“Had the tax cuts expired, the seethingly evil top 1% would’ve pitched in just $0.25 of every new tax dollar (per the Times’ analysis), ratcheting down their 38% share.  While taxes would’ve gone up for everyone, the relative burden on the wealthiest would’ve eased.

“The “savings,” then (a creative choice of words, given that we’re talking about maintaining the status quo), are indeed disproportionately shared by the highest earners.  But not nearly as disproportionately as they share in the existing tax burden.”

Every time a Congressman talks about paying for tax cuts, we need to ask him whose money it is.  It is also important to note that our current tax system taxes income–it does not tax wealth.  I suppose it is just a coincidence that Congress has a higher percentage of millionaires than the general population.  Their wealth is not taxed–only their income.  We need to keep that in mind as they are trying to impose higher taxes on the rest of us.