Mick Rankin for NC House

       Wanting to raise taxes on the rich and corporations brings up three important questions for the average American:

       First is the question of who pays those increased taxes. For corporations two things occur. First is using the tax code to write off taxes. If they show they have paid some tax elsewhere (business, property, inventory, etc.) they write off that tax effectively reducing their income tax burden. Second, the formula for establishing prices for their goods and services includes taxes. If taxes go up, so do their prices. The consumer pays the tax, not the corporation. For the “wealthy” the same applies, and they invest in tax havens, write off losses, and move to low tax rate areas to escape paying more. That leaves the average taxpayer to make up the difference. At some point the middle class will pay more.

       Second is where that money goes and who benefits. The current administration is proposing as much as $6,000,000,000,000.00 in spending by collecting more taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Except for stimulus checks, any money collected in taxes never goes directly back to the people. It goes to special interest projects. It may create some jobs and provide some community benefit but there is no mechanism to show how the tax dollars directly benefits individual citizens. We need to get off the “government money” mindset. It is not the government’s money; it is the people’s money, and the taxpayer shoulders the burden. In other words, it is your money, make the government spend it wisely.

       Finally, there is group of global leaders who are discussing establishing a standard business tax rate. To borrow from someone else; this is exactly what lead to the American Revolution, taxation by a distance King without local representation.  It is also what lead to BREXIT. The British people did not want non-elected officials in another country deciding their economic situation. We cannot allow a small group of global leaders, elected or not, to decide what is right for the American worker and business.

       Leadership is taking care of your people, first and always!