David V. Matthews – 12/9/09

This page was last updated on January 2, 2010.

Use taxes to give peace a chance; David V. Matthews; Beaver County Times; December 9, 2009.

For background, in previous letters Mr. Matthews told us there’s no liberal media bias, President Bush committed treason, he’s positive creation played no role in our evolution, President Bush plans to nuke Iran this year (2006), “Centrism is Bushism,” the Bush administration may be “conducting warrantless surveillance upon” us, the Bush administration is “warlike and imperialist,” and President Bush “finds the war he started amusing.” Mr. Matthews also gave us a lesson in creative reading and refers to employers as “rich overlords.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Friday’s editorial (‘Shared sacrifices’) asserted that the American public’s apathy toward ‘the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq’ showed ‘we have lost the will to make collective sacrifices for the greater good.’ The editorial did not explain how these wars served ‘the greater good.’

“Instead, the editorial implied we should pay ‘a few more cents and dollars in taxes’ to fund them.

“I agree. However, each war should have its own tax, and the tax should apply only to Americans earning at least $100,000 a year. In addition, the tax should double for representatives, senators and government officials. And the tax should triple for the president.”

[RWC] What is it with people who believe all our tax obligations should be dumped on “the rich?” “The rich” already pay a disproportionately high share of taxes while far too many of us pay little or no taxes. As I wrote in 2008, “IRS data shows the top 5% income earners pay 60% of total federal income taxes while the bottom 50% pay only 3% of total federal income taxes. The average rate for the top 1% is about 23% while the average rate for the bottom 50% is only 3%. According to the Tax Foundation, a source used by the Times, “7.8 million low and middle-income families had their entire income tax liabilities erased by the [2001 and 2003 tax rate] cuts.” As a result of the tax rate cuts, in 2004 approximately 44 million filers had no income tax liability, and some actually received “refunds” (the earned income tax “credit” is an example) for taxes they didn’t pay.” When you pay little or no taxes, you don’t care how much we spend or how high taxes are.

While I would be philosophically OK with specific war taxes, tax dollars are fungible and I have little doubt war taxes would be used as a backdoor to increase spending by other programs.

“Under the above conditions, our government would give peace a chance fairly quickly.”

[RWC] Hmm, that’s not what Mr. Matthews thought in 2007. In his letter entitled “What sacrifices?”, Mr. Matthews wrote “These two obvious sacrifices [including tax increases] would probably make the Bush administration even more warlike and imperialist.”

“By the way, the tax should not apply to anyone who has fought in the war it funds or who has a family member who has fought.”