Tax Credits for Illegals

http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2012/01/30/end-refundable-tax-credits-for-illegals/

Two things jumped out at me in this article.  And yes, I decided to read from RedState, as I was inspired by Beth Lukas to channel my inner conservative.  Let's discuss the tax situation in the United States right now, in light of the fact that Obama talked much about fairness in his State of the Union speech last week.  Two statistics jump out at the very beginning of the article: 51% of tax filers paid NO federal income taxes in 2009. None.  Second, 30% of tax filers had a negative tax liability, in other words, they MADE money off of the system.  As a conservative, if you can't read into the unfairness of these statistics, you need to look again.  How can we say that our system is fair when half of the people who benefit from our government that we are all supposed to support, pay no federal income taxes.  I am sure that they pay taxes in other areas, but federal income tax is the big revenue generator.  I see a problem with this.  In addition, 30% of filers MADE money off of the system because of tax credits.  Beyond the fact that this is largely unfair, it simply is not sustainable, espcially considering the path that we are on now in terms of federal income tax.

Thanks to research by Arthur Brooks, we know that in 1986, the top 10% of income earners paid 55% of the federal income taxes in the United States, while the bottom 90% paid 45%.  By 2006, the top 10% were paying 71% and the bottom 90% were paying 29%.  Clearly, we are heading towards a system where the tax progression is increasing and the top earners are being asked to pay more, while the bottom, 51% of people pay NOTHING into the system.  In fact, 31% are almost making money off of the system.  It's even exacerbated by the fact that those pulling money out of the system aren't even legal citizens of this country.

  I don't want to blame either party for this because we get ourselves into these situations as a whole, but I think something should be said about the "fairness" of the system.  I'm not saying that those less fortunate shouldn't be given their fair shot or perhaps even a hand up in the system.  In fact, conservatives are markedly higher charitable givers, "Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household." (Brooks.)   But let's not lie to ourselves and say that the taxation system and policies of the government are the best route or the most effective either.  Were in a financial mess, and we should be careful how we handle ourselves.

Be sure to get statistics from both sides of the story.  I am always more educated when I hear arguments from multiple news sources with various "biases".  Clearly, RedState has a conservative bias, so I promise to make my next post from a more openly liberal leaning source.  It's good to listen to both sides of the story and then really decide.  Cheers to RedState for providing some good statistics.