Taxing the Rich

Dennis Gartman today in the last paragraph of his excellent daily letter:

Finally, regarding who it is amongst the nation's taxpayers (ex-corporate taaxes paid) we note the following: back in '79, the top 20% of all wage earners paid 64.9% of all income taxes. In '04, the last year for which hard data is available, that same group paid in 85.3% of the total! If we want to take this one step further, in "04 the top 1% of those filing forms, paid in 36.9% of all taxes paid to the federal government. The top 5% paid in 57.1%! In other words, the top 5% paid in more taxes than in total than the other 95%. It is worth keeping this in mind as the Left takes dead aim upon the upper income levels in the impending Presidential race.

The politicians will of course ignore these facts and curry favor with the masses of voters by promising to soak the rich. I am reminded of a quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw; "anyone who will rob Peter to pay Paul can count on the vote of Paul." Of course Peter may just decide ot outsource his business to some locale where he will be treated less rudely.