American Values

In spite of the fact that Americans, as a people, are no more united than the states in which they live, we all have some concept of the meaning of the term “American values.” We may share some ideals, but it is not true we live according to the same moral standard. Nor do we agree on much of anything at all. People living in the northeast have almost nothing in common with folks living along the gulf coast, but this is nothing new. Regionalization existed in the Thirteen Colonies, it is what led us to the American Civil War, and it may be leading us in that direction once more.

According to the Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution, 45% of all households had no federal income tax liability for the 2009 tax year. The figure takes into account increases in unemployment, and decreases of wages. Before the recession, 41% of all US households had no federal income tax liability. Moreover, the Tax Policy Center tells us that for 2009, 90% of households with an annual income below $20,000 paid no federal income tax, and among households earning between $20,000 and $50,000, 48% paid no federal income tax. Nearly 13% of households earning between $50,000 and $100,000 paid no income tax.

A 2006 Tax Foundation analysis of Internal Revenue Service data found strong correlation between a state's average family income and its percentage of households with no federal tax liability. The analysis found that the five states with the highest percentage of households paying no federal income tax for 2005 were Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Alabama. According to 2005 data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, those states' ranks in per-capita income were, respectively, 49th, 50th, 48th, 46th and 40th. That same year, the five states with the lowest percentage of households paying no federal income tax were Alaska, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Minnesota. In per-capita income, those states ranked, respectively, 16th, second, first, sixth and ninth.

If as many as 41% of the American people are paying no federal income tax, then who is paying their fair share of taxes? The answer is simple: the remaining 59% of the population pay higher tax rates in order to pay for those who pay nothing. So when Mitt Romney suggested 47% of the American people are living off the government, which is to say that they directly benefit from government programs without even making a one-cent contribution in revenues, he was speaking honestly. He told us the truth.

But the progressive left doesn't want the truth. After the press gleefully announced that Romney doesn't care about half of the American population, President Obama said, “I don’t think we can get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims who never take responsibility for their own lives.” And then the leftists rolled out Suzanne Mettler, an egghead at Cornell University who suggested that if anyone drives on a federal highway, they are benefiting from federal spending.

Good grief.

And this brings us back to the subject of this post: do the American people value honesty, or would they prefer to hear a constant stream of bull from politicians like Barack Obama? Romney suggested the following: if you expect to ride, expect to pay the ticket. Romney suggests that everyone should pay something toward our common good. In my mind, asking a family who earns $20,000 a year to pay 5% in federal income tax is both fair and necessary.

How is it necessary? The issue is inclusion: people who pay income taxes, even a small amount, become part of us. When they pay a fair share, they share our burden. “Kicking in” decreases the number of individuals who think of themselves as entitled to something for nothing, not unlike the woman who has her “Obama phone” and wants everyone to know what a low-life she really is. From a practical standpoint, when the federal government excuses half of the working population from paying any taxes at all, it concomitantly imposes an unfair burden on the remaining half. People do not create class warfare: the government does that through absurd policy.

So the question is this: do Americans value honesty in government, or do they instead value smooth-talking snake oil salesmen like Barack Obama? Have we allowed these snake oil salesmen to transform us into a society of bums, or do we still believe in standing on our own two feet?

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