Treat wealth like wages – USA Gov Policy

This article was provided exclusively to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by the distinguished New York radio personality, Ted Flint.

Congressional Democrats have devised yet another way to separate Americans from their money. They’ve named their proposal, “Treat Wealth Like Wages,” (TWLW) and despite their claim that they want only to “level the playing field” by taxing rich wealth creators, the real victims could be middle income people.

The plan, the brainchild on Oregon’s Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate’s Finance Committee, would tax not only one’s income, but also any accrued wealth. Proponents, including many in the mainstream media, are singing the plan’s praises because it would increase capital gains on millionaires and billionaires and raise two trillion dollars in the process.

The plan is wrong for many reasons, not the least of which is that it would discourage investment. Why penalize those who are savvy enough to invest their savings in order to earn more money? The rich will always find a way to avoid having their wealth stolen by government. The less-well-healed have fewer options.

The proposal is getting plaudits from the usual quarters. From Liberty Planet: “The President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund describes Treat Wealth Like Wages as a “bold solution that would reduce inequality.” Professor Lily Batchelder of the NYU School of Law boasts that the additional money generated by the new taxes on the very rich could “level the playing field.”

TWLW is not about levelling the playing field, but about confiscating wealth in order to grow the state.And the middle class could ultimately be hurt the most. The concern is that government would lower the income threshold to tax, not just upper-come Americans, but upper middle and eventually, middle income earners. And as history has shown us, once a law is in place it is almost impossible to repeal it.

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Some on the right say they’re not concerned with Wyden’s proposal because the Senate and White House are controlled by republicans. But if Democrats maintain control of the House, the Senate flips and Donald Trump fails to get re-elected, there is a very real possibility the idea would eventually become law. Every one of the Democratic presidential contenders supports some form of wealth redistribution, whether it’s boosting taxes on the wealthy, providing government-subsidized healthcare and free college tuition to a segment of the population, or in or Andrew Yang’s case, backing a “universal basic income.” Under his Freedom Dividend, Yang is paying three people $1,000 a month for a year. Those payments end in December. However, at the last Democratic debate, he said he would pay 10 people a thousand dollars a month through the November election, even if he’s not in the race by then. Asked what welfare programs he’d either end or decrease funding to in order to pay for a universal basic income, Yang said “I would not touch any of our existing programs. The freedom dividend is meant as a complement.”

All this comes at a time when millions of Americans are scrambling to beef up their retirement accounts. Some baby boomers are scaling back vacations; others are downsizing their homes and eating out less often. Fox Business News recently reported that a Milwaukee-based financial services company revealed that adults 18 and over expect to work past retirement age.

Newsmax recently reported similar findings from Northwestern Mutual’s 2019 Planning and Progress Study: 46 percent of Americans expect to work past the traditional retirement age of 65. According to Fox Business News, 53 percent of those who expect to work into their retirement years say they will do so by choice, while 47 percent say they will be forced to choose that option out of necessity.Again, from FBN, 18 percent of both Baby Boomers and Generation Xer’s who responded to the survey say they plan on working past age 74.

Americans are already overburdened with taxes and fees and another onerous money grab would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Time to curb Leviathan’s appetite and rein in government’s habit of reaching into the pockets of wealth creators in order to expand the welfare state.

Illustration: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.