Investing in punishment

The first time I remember hearing Democrats use the term "Investment" to describe increased taxes was during the G. H. W. Bush administration. He promised "No new taxes" but under pressure from a Democratic Congress he broke that promise. The Dems claimed "Investment" was needed to end the tiny recession, but what they meant was..."We need to raise taxes so we can increase government programs". Bush bought it and the rest is history. Since then the Dems pretty much use the term non stop in their push for higher taxes.

Of course the historical Republican response is "We don't want to punish hard work by increasing taxes", and "The people know better how to invest their money than the Congress does", and "It's NOT the congresses money!" We've always known that higher taxes are really a punishment for success. Well finally the Dems have admitted it.

The hard work needed of A.I.G. executives in liquidating their bad assets and closing down unprofitable divisions led the insurance and financial company to offer "Retention bonuses" to executives who stayed on to work themselves out of a job. But because the government bailed the company out with 170 billion dollars congress got mad and demanded that those executives be punished. The governor of New York threatened to publish the names and addresses of the executives, even after death threats were made. Nancy Pelosi pushed through a bill to tax the bonuses of the executives at a 90% rate (does the term "ex post facto" mean anything to any of you self righteous people?) and was backed up by most of the congress, many Republicans included. They made no bones about this tax being a punishment for the hard work and commitment made by these executives.

So, now that it's out in the open that higher taxes are a punishment, I say we go for broke. Let's tax any elected official who earns any money other than his Government paycheck at a 90% rate. Heck, let's go for 95%. By the time the State gets their 10 or 15% they'll owe more than they earn. We all know they are using their powerful positions for profit. How else does Joe Biden become a millionaire? Or Barack Obama for that matter. President Obama got a 500 thousand dollar bonus, just before he took the oath of office, just to let his publisher turn his biography into a children's book (I sure hope they leave out the part of him smoking pot...and inhaling....after all "that's the point"....and snorting cocaine). He made 2.5 million on book sales last year, that's after he began running for President. Who can possibly deny that it's the fact that he is an elected official that is earning him that money? And who can deny that he owes somebody something for that money?

And while we're at it lets tax Hollywood stars who do political ads 1000% on any money they make in any year them make a political advertisement (or talk politics on Oprah for that matter....and let's tax Oprah for endorsing Obama). Heck, let's tax them for 5 years either side of any year they publicly talk politics. That might shut them up.