I had a discussion with a friend at the Temple the other day about Obama, taxes and helping the poor.  Both Obama and my friend want to increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for more help for the poor.  I disagreed not because I don’t want to help the poor but because I do want to help the poor.  I contend that history has shown that the best way to help the poor has always been to grow the economy.  I want to low tax pro growth policies that will stimulate growth.  Growth is the magic bullet that helps the poor the most.

There is a great line from the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” Christ addressing his disciples sings: “There will be poor always pathetically struggling.  Look at the good things you’ve got.”  There are going to be some poor people.  How can we manage the number to minimize it without destroying the growth machine that has gone so far to end poverty for so many?  England experimented with high tax socialism from the 1950’s to the 70’s and it didn’t work.  The US in the same period stayed with relatively low tax free market capitalism and our poverty rate dropped dramatically.

The question is no longer simply “should the government help the poor?”  We all agree it should.  The questions now are: How should we help?  How much can we afford?  And what level should the help come from?  These are political questions that are affected by peoples world views, self interest and experience.

Ramesh Ponnura the National Review columnist asked his uncle from India why he wanted to live in America.  The Uncle answered: “I want to live live in a country where even the poor people are fat.”

Redistribution doesn’t work.  It causes cheating. It saps the will to work and the will to take risk.  It causes capital and human flight. Any short term gains from redistribution will be lost by stunted future growth that starves the economy of capital and resources to feed the poor.

I’ll end with a quote from Winston Churchill:

“For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”