Steny Hoyer doesn’t like Paul Ryan’s proposed new budget. (Surprise, surprise.) In fact, he didn’t like it even before Representative Ryan proposed it, since this article was published in Politico the day before Representative Ryan released his proposal.
According to Representative Hoyer, House Republicans are “[s]eeking budget savings without asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute [i.e., pay] their fair share.” But then, earlier in the article, Representative Hoyer said that the fiscal cliff deal “allowed tax rates on the very highest incomes to revert to their Clinton-era levels”. (Actually, because of the increase in the Medicare part of FICA, they are higher, but I will skip that point for now.)
In other words, even though, as Representative Hoyer says, tax rates on the highest incomes are now back to Clintonian levels, which is what President Obama has been campaigning for for five years (or more), Representative Hoyer still thinks “the wealthiest” are not paying “their fair share”.
So, here is my question: What is the “fair share” that the rich are supposed to be paying? Apparently, it’s above the Bill Clinton-era rates, since they are back there, but Representative Hoyer is still saying the rich are not paying their fair share. So how much does Representative Hoyer want the rich to pay?
I am beginning to think that maybe the Democrats’ view on the “fair share” that the rich should be paying in taxes is the same as what Samuel Gompers said that American labor wanted: “More.”
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