Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner.

The bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would  go something like this. The first four men-the poorest - would pay nothing; The fifth  would pay $1; The sixth would pay $3; The seventh $7;  The eighth $12; The  ninth $18; The tenth man-the richest - would pay  $59.

That's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement-until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

 "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."

So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.  So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free.  But what about the other six-the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they  subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being *paid* to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched $2, the seventh, paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free.

But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too.

It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!"

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him.  But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something  important.  They were $52 short!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

There are lots of good restaurants in Europe and the Caribbean.

(I'm sure this has been posted before, but I like it.  It'd get you booted [i]post haste[/i] at DU.)

Damn this is a good story.

But you think the DUers will get pissed? There are a lot of people here who are Forbesites who won't be too happy either.

You forgot the part where if somebody reduces the amout of a tax [i]increase[/i] (say reduce a tax increase from 4% to 3%), thats considered a tax reduction in some circles [whacko]

And Atlas shrugged.

Ehh I don't worry about it... I don't make enough anyways. I just know when it comes tax time, I get back some of that 20% they take out of my check.

Wow, even stupid liberals should be able to understand that.

I love when they f*ck up a budget and plan to collect more than they actually do, then declare an emergency and raise taxes to cover the shortfall.

When I do next years budget, can I estimate next years revenue to be three times my annual gross income? I could declare an emergency when I 'suffer' a budget deficet! Think my employer would mind raising my salary to compensate for my poor planning?

BTT