ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara wrote this column appearing August 2, 2010 on Investors.com.

President Obama says his sweeping, across-the-board increases for every major federal tax rate starting next year are necessary for “the rich” to pay their fair share. “The rich” are defined as those making more than $250,000 per year.

Those increases include a close-to-60% increase in the capital gains tax rate, counting the new 3.8% tax on investment income in ObamaCare. The tax rate on dividends would soar by nearly three times.

The top two personal income-tax rates would effectively rise nearly 20%, counting the phase-down of deductions at those income levels.

ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara wrote this column appearing July 29, 2010, on Wall Street Journal Online.

Washington’s traditional approach to balancing the budget is to negotiate an agreement on a package of benefit cuts and tax increases. President Obama’s deficit commission seems likely to recommend just this strategy in December. The problem is that it never works.

What happens is the tax increases get permanently adopted into law. But the spending cuts are almost never fully adopted and, even if they are, they are soon swept away in the next spendthrift budget. Then–because taxes weaken incentives to produce–the tax increases don’t […]