Demons and victims

As this muddled presidential campaign continues to unfold, the Democrats seem to always return to the recurring theme of income inequality and their obsession with wealth redistribution.

All this great nation needs to do -- according to the progressive line -- is to tax the wealthy a little more and move those funds for services to the low and middle income.

Targeting the wealthy as the culprits of our national woes, the Democrats portray society as a collection of victims held down by the wealthy who dodge taxes and leave the oppressed to fend for themselves.

The problem with that talking point is that it just isn't true, nor accurate, nor honest.

I'm not a fan of newspaper columns chock full of statistics, but I have no choice.

The latest tax facts from the Tax Policy Center were released for 2015 just this week. And guess what: The top 20 percent of wage earners in this country now pay 87 percent of all federal income taxes.

Or put another way -- the top nasty, greedy one percenters pay a tax rate seven times higher than half of wage earners.

Almost half -- 45.3 percent of Americans -- pay zero federal income tax. Zero!

These facts would seem to be yet another inconvenient truth the Dems skip when playing to their audience.

So what is the Dems' plan? Would they tax the top 20 percent of wage earners at a level that would provide 100 percent of all federal income-tax collections?

They remain strangely silent on their final objective other than to repeat the tired mantra that we need to tax the rich.

If we had a national economy that put a premium on job creation instead of tax redistribution, we would not be having this discussion.

The Hillary/Bernie model stems from the belief that the government is the solution on issues large and small. And to solve these issues, that very same government needs even more of your tax dollars.

The obvious problem, which seems to escape the less-than-capable hands of the Democrats, is that higher taxes create much less incentives to expand job opportunities.

In what parallel universe are we to believe that throwing money at a problem is the sole solution? With an estimated $21 trillion devoted to the War on Poverty and with not one single sign of success, you would assume that our lesson would have been learned.

Sure, it's fair game to discuss the manner of taxation for hedge fund managers. But that issue is no more than a symbol parlayed by the Democrats to provide a grossly inaccurate portrayal of the tax problem.

Those who through their sacrifice and hard work reach the higher levels of income should be held as role models instead of being demonized.

But every election must have a demon. And the Democrats have found their demons and their victims.

For goodness sakes, don't let facts get in the way of your message.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.