WASHINGTON, DC, Oct 7 — Socialists had big grins on their faces when the Democrats took control of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives last year. They saw it as the beginning of the end for capitalist America, which they aimed to replace with a 21st-century version of a “people’s republic.” So, to get the ball rolling, they put together a multi-trillion-dollar spending plan the likes of which has never been seen before.
Not to worry, they said when asked how can we afford to pay for all the socialist goodies in their grab bag. We’ll raise taxes on big businesses and wealthy individuals; they told the proletariat. Their smiles got bigger as they assured the public that they won’t increase taxes on the little guys and that, in fact, there are all kinds of freebies for workers and their families that they can’t wait to dole out. That’s when their smiles turned into full-fledged liars’ grins, thinking that they had put one over on us.
But Americans are not so dumb as our would-be socialist overseers might have you think. We all know that the very wealthy and corporations don’t necessarily worry about taxes; they have the means to avoid them.
The richest individuals can simply give up their citizenship and move to the nearest tax haven. According to the Wall Street Journal, “In the past decade, nearly 37,000 Americans expatriated, according to the Federal Register, the official journal of the federal government, which publishes the list of names quarterly … But this year promises to set a record.”
As for corporations, the Tax Foundation says, “before deciding that the corporate income tax is a good way for the government to raise revenue, we should consider who bears the burden of the corporate tax. This is a difficult question on which economists disagree, but one thing is certain: People pay all taxes. When the government levies a tax on a corporation, the corporation is more like a tax collector than a taxpayer. The burden of the tax ultimately falls on people—the owners, customers, or workers of the corporation.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the leaders of the socialist movement in Congress, and since the Democrats came to power, she’s been encouraging millennials to join her ranks, promising them free health care, free housing, tuition-free college, etc.
Laughably AOC, as she is called, is also promising them “the same thing Hugo Chavez promised now starving Venezuelans,” says The Federalist. That publication notes that Chavez became president of Venezuela “on promises that could have come from Ocasio-Cortez.”
Bear in mind that, prior to Chavez, Venezuela was arguably the richest country in Latin America. But, under socialist control, its economy unraveled.
In a recent article published on the Townhall Website, senior editor Matt Vespa recently posted an article describing the current fate of that once prospering nation. In his article, he graphically described the socialist poverty in which Venezuelans now live:
“There are rolling blackouts. Zoos are being raided by the people for food. Trash cans are being sifted for food. Venezuelans have eaten their pets. Teachers and members of the nation’s educated class have been relegated to prostitution to get food. It’s a total mess. Chavez is long dead, but his successor, Nicolas Maduro, still peddles the failed policies of the past. So, after over a decade of 21st-century socialism, what are the results? How about extreme poverty?” So, where did all of Venezuela’s oil wealth go? Author and commentator Dinesh D’Souza says in a New York Post Opinion article that the elites who foisted socialism on the nation continue to make big bucks. While the country’s people live in life-threatening destitution, socialist leaders are “living high on the hog … the current ruler Maduro goes on European soirees with his socialist top guard, and Hugo Chavez’s daughter is the richest woman in Venezuela with a net worth exceeding $1 billion.”