Your Opinion: Where is all the money going?

Dear Editor:

I knew it was only a matter of time when one of the progressive ideologues would use the recently released data that shows the income of the wealthy in America increased dramatically, from 1997 to 2007. Mr. Garber, again you have failed to include all the facts. What you said about incomes during that period was correct, but since 2007 it has changed. What has income of the wealthy done since 2007?

IRS figures for 2000 and according to a little story in the Wall Street Journal: "Recession And The Rich," the number of taxpayers reporting annual income over $1 million fell 39 percent between 2007 and 2009, which coincides when Pelosi took over the House and Obama took over the White House. The number of wealthy individuals making over $10 million annually plunged 55 percent. The number of taxpayers earning over $200,000 per year also decreased by 612,000 or 13 percent.

Four in 10 millionaires disappeared in two years. In 2007, those making above $200,000 (but less than $1 million) paid $610 billion in federal income taxes. In 2009, it was only $434 billion. There are fewer millionaires and they are down by a significant number. And yet you, Mr. Garber, are still ranting about all the rich people. So under Obama and Pelosi, the rich are getting poorer, and so are the poor. As the rich get poorer, notice that nobody's celebrating the poor getting rich, are they?

According to Democrats, the only reason that rich people exist is because they steal money from the poor. So you figure if there are significantly fewer millionaires, there would be a lot more rich poor people, right? It's not happening. Who's getting all the money, then?

Government, that's who is getting the money. As an example, we bought 1,000 ships a year during World War II and there were 1,000 people in the Bureau of Ships. In the 1980s, we bought 17.2 ships a year, and there were 4,000 people in the Bureau of Ships. Today, we buy 9.2 ships a year, and we have 25,000 people in the Bureau of Ships.

Before the stimulus package, we had one person at the Department of Transportation making $170,000 or more. Right after the stimulus package was passed; we have 1,149 people in the Department of Transportation getting paid more than $170,000.

Government, is where the money is going.