Is There a Republican Leader Who Will Say Taxes are About Freedom?

President Obama has been saying the same thing he said in his July 9 tax “fairness” speech for going on four years now.  

Yet the number of Republican leaders, particularly on Capitol Hill, who came forth to rebut Obama’s socialist tax manifesto was about the same as the number of jobs raising taxes will create – zero.

It seems that every time Obama raises the issue of “tax fairness” Republicans run for cover, instead of actually getting tough and punching back on the issues of how much of our money the government actually needs and why we collect taxes in the first place.

Back on April 16, 2008 when Obama and Hillary Clinton were participating in a pre-Pennsylvania Primary debate sponsored by ABC News and the National Constitutional Center.

When the topic turned to the deficit, taxes and federal revenues ABC News anchor Charles Gibson raised the point that when the capital gains tax rate was dropped revenues from the capital gains tax increased, and when the capital gains rate was increased revenues fell.

Then-Senator Obama didn’t dispute Gibson’s analysis that raising capital gains taxes will result in lower revenues, and his answer to the larger question about taxes was telling – and in fact will have a very familiar ring to anyone who has been listening to the President recently.

Obama said, “Well Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.”

Obama continued, “We saw an article today which showed that the top 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year [2007] -- $29 billion for 50 individuals.  And part of what has happened is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries.”

Sound familiar? It should, Obama and Warren Buffet used the same line back in September 2011 to pitch Obama’s economic plan and the President used similar language in April of this year to urge passage of the capital gains tax increase he has disguised as “the Buffet Rule.”

Under Obama federal taxes are now to be collected because “fairness” dictates that they must be collected from one group of Americans and redistributed to another.

Obama’s embrace of the tax code as a tool for confiscating wealth in the name of unconstitutional social leveling should come as no surprise – he ran on it in 2008 and has been talking about it ever since.

However, the lack of fire in the GOP response leaves conservatives wondering if the establishment Republican Party is actually admitting that Obama and the Democrats are right – the federal government does exist to create “fairness” through the tax code.

Are there any Republicans who will have the courage to step up and say this is not just a fight against higher taxes; it is a fight for freedom?

If Governor Romney and the Republican leaders on Capitol Hill do not begin to attack the entire premise of the entitlement state Obama is intent on building, they are in danger of losing this election, and what’s fair in the eyes of Obama and a few Democratic politicians will soon overwhelm the economic freedom our Constitution was intended to protect.