Even though, as many of you know from reading my other posts, I am a huge Santorum fan and I believe that he was the clear winner in the debate tonight, he did slip up on one big issue.

More After the Break

It was when he was asked about Capital Gains and the Capital Gains Tax. His response was, "I think having a lower number is better than zero, for then people like Romney are going to be paying no taxes at all." A response that left me saying, WHAT!?!

Here is my objection. Romney, while it is true that he is a millionaire, perhaps even a billionaire, has already payed income tax on all that money that he has earned to pay for the investments that he now lives off of. In other words, he already paid 35% of his income in taxes, and now you want to charge the man another 15%, or let’s say it’s 5% under Santorum, because he invested his money wisely and so he is now making money off his investments. It is like the estate tax, only the man is alive. Why should anyone have to pay tax on their income twice? The first time because they earned it and the second time because they used it. It just makes no sense for a Conservative like Rick Santorum to argue for this line of reasoning.

Since it is this same reasoning that leads President Obama to state, as he did on Tuesday in the State of the Union Address, that it is not fair that Warren Buffet should pay less taxes than his secretary. He didn’t, nor does he. Buffet already paid 35% on his income and now is also paying another 15% tax on top of that, because he invests and makes money because he is a good investor. Which by the way is roughly the same as his secretary, unless his secretary is making over 35,350 dollars, which would be one expensive secretary. Yet, even if this is the case and the secretary is making between 35,351-85,650 and was being taxed at 25%, the tax breaks for her/him at that tax bracket, most likely makes their tax rate lower than Buffet’s, and thus there is no possible way that they, at anytime, are paying higher taxes than Buffet.

Lastly, it should be noted, that of course Buffet’s tax rates on investments are going to be lower than his secretaries income tax rate (before tax breaks), for if they weren’t, a whole lot of retired folks wouldn’t be able to afford investing and living off the returns from those investments as a viable retirement strategy. So not only does the Capital Gains Tax being any higher than zero make no moral sense to a Conservative, which Santorum clearly is on every other issue except this one, unless he misspoke (which personally I hope he did,but it isn’t likely), but it hurts those, including us young people, who are retired or are trying to plan for retirement.

- Corey S.
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