Patriotism through taxes

October 16, 1:47 PMCongress ExaminerIgor Derysh

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Why is it patriotic to give up ones life for their country but not patriotic to pay more in taxes when your country is in economic hardship?

 TIME magazine recently published a study that 28% of Americans vote against their personal interests. Well, is it the "wrong choice" if a voter votes against his or her own self interests and in the interests of the country instead?

It is ironic that for all of the hateful Republican rhetoric about the Democrats and the liberal "elites" being anti-American and un-patriotic it would seem that those "elitists" are the most patriotic out of everyone. Those are the people who make millions of dollars and fall into the top one- and five-percent who will have a pretty large tax increase if Senator Obama is elected and yet continue to greatly support the Democratic candidate because they understand that they should pay back the country and the struggling middle-class a percentage of the money that the United States system allowed them to earn.

 It is the Steven Spielberg "Hollywood Elitists" who make hundreds of millions of dollars per year, the Nancy Pelosi "Wealth Re-Distributors" who are worth nearly $100 million that support Obama knowing that they will have to pay even more millions of dollars in taxes should he take power.

After all, wasn't it Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world, who cried foul upon learning that his tax rate was half that of his secretary's? Aren't these the real patriots, who on election day will vote "against their personal, economic interests" and in favor of those of the country and the rest of its citizens?

 Can we call "mavericks" John McCain and Sarah Palin patriots when they fall into the top tax bracket and yet preach to their middle-class supporters who would get a much larger tax cut under an Obama administration that raising taxes is un-American?

After all conservatives claim, as Wall Street Journal contributor Steve Moore did on a recent edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, that America was founded on events like the Boston Tea Party which was a revolt against British taxes. Well here is a history lesson. American settlers had always had to pay higher taxes and mostly had little complaints. Their problem with the British policies was not with taxes but because they had no voice in the British Parliament. Have we forgotten the famous quote that summed up the events of the times: No taxation without represenation?

America was founded not by those decrying taxes but by those attacking the fact that taxes were imposed on Americans not to benefit their people but to benefit their government.

With the American economy in shambles, any tax increase would absolutely benefit all people. Not to mention that most people who will vote against Obama will still certainly enjoy that extra money in their pocket that they would have had to give up had they voted for McCain. That money that they get to keep because the Steven Spielbergs and the Warren Buffetts offered the help of their much deeper pockets when their country was in need.