The argument is once again hijacked by the left and the opposition simply lets them frame the argument with the language of the lefts choosing.  This time it is the argument over the debt ceiling and the “need” to raise taxes.  While it is obvious that this manufactured crisis is just the newest tool to use to attack the wealthy and raid their coffers, it is also a rare opportunity to actually educate some people if those with a voice will use it.  The left cries alligator tears claiming it is time for the rich to pay their fair share.  The fair share of the rich has been debated over and over and will be forever if the President has his way.  But in fact, how much any given person pays is meaningless.  What is at issue is raising revenues to the government to the level that will allow us to pay our way out of this ridiculous level of debt while still making possible to grow the future economies.   We are suffering from a manufactured banking and housing crisis because the liberals, Republican and Democrat, of the Congress in 2007 began spending like drunken Kennedy’s and refused the Bush administration’s request to properly regulate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and investment banks.  This was done to create short-term growth at the expense of the future and they went far too far.  Now we sit under crushing debt of our own foolish making and the only answer the left can come up with is that the rich aren’t paying enough taxes?  What is even more ridiculous is that the right counters the argument with statistics showing how much the rich already pay and blah blah blah…  The correct argument starts out with a simple question.  Do we play in a global economy?  If we do the functions of revenue are no different in taxation than in retail. If you tax companies and business owners at a rate that is higher than they would have to pay in another country or state they will go where there are lower costs.  That is not a question of “fair” contributions to the government any more than you can make the case that I should pay a higher price for paper to Staples when Office Depot has a much better deal.  Just because Staples may need more income because they overpay for the cost of goods and services at the wholesale level, I, nor you, are responsible for that mismanagement of resources.  The government needs cash to survive and the means of raising that money is now and always has been to compete with other nations to provide a hospitable environment for employment and investment.  Raising taxes on any group of people is inhospitable but to do so on the income class that actually has a choice as to where they can earn their money is foolish.  I own a small business that is in the business of providing services to much larger companies.  Those companies are in Texas now instead of Ohio because Ohio chased them away with high taxes and over regulation.  That is beginning to change but not nearly fast enough.  And, it is not only the large version of the small business that is leaving or has left.  It is the 5 to 25 employee firms that have no problem picking up and going elsewhere to live and work.  Those are the bulk of the high income earners that actually employ the bulk of people in any community.  Fast food restaurant start-ups slow down because the population wanders off and landscapers and plumbers and car dealers suffer.  And…tax revenues drop.  It does not make any difference what some rich guy pays in taxes if he can’t hire me to work on his small fleet of cars because then I don’t have any income on which to pay taxes  either.  The point being, raising taxes on the “rich” means less revenue for guys like me.  That means if you raise taxes on the “thems” of society who can choose to go away or withhold their investment capital until better opportunities arise it is actually the “me and you’s”  that get hurt.  And, again, tax revenues will drop.  If your political leader is telling you the rich don’t pay their “fare share” he or she is telling you in no uncertain terms that he or she has no idea how to solve our fiscal crisis.