Tax equality for all

Yesterday, the Obama administration unveiled its new plan to extend the Bush tax cuts for one year for everyone except the rich. According to the Obama administration, they are the individuals who don't pay their fair share of taxes.

The administration's view is actually quite naive and out of touch with reality.

The truth is, the top 10 percent of taxpayers pay more than 40 percent of all taxes and 50 percent of people pay 97 percent of all the taxes. So if anyone isn't paying their fair share, it's the other 50 percent of the population that only pays 3 percent of the taxes.

Anyone who is being objective can see this gross unfairness when you expect people to pay much larger percentages of their income on a non-proportional basis simply because they have worked hard and earned a substantial amount of money.

You don't expect those who have not been particularly productive to contribute, yet the government wants to give them a handout. This is not to say that all low-income people are non-productive and lazy; in fact many of them add a great deal to the strength of our society.

I believe many such individuals would welcome an opportunity to contribute financially to the well-being of our nation on a fair and proportional basis. In order for a proportionate and fair tax system to work, however, it is vital that the multiple loopholes be extracted. It is high time for us as a nation to stop singling out various groups for special treatment and begin embracing policies that treat everyone equally.

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