Will Democrats tax your retirement?

Cal Thomas

The late bank robber Willie “The Actor” Sutton is said to have been asked by a reporter why he robbed banks. He supposedly replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”

In his autobiography, Sutton denied the quote, but it serves as a warning to those who fear Democrats will come after their retirement savings because that’s where the money is.


The Wall Street Journal reports on what may be coming should a Democrat win the White House in next year’s election: “For the richest Americans, Democrats want to shift toward taxing their wealth, instead of just their salaries and the income their assets generate. The personal income tax indirectly touches wealth, but only when assets are sold and become income.”

Cal Thomas


If raiding retirement funds occurs, it will start at the extremes, as most outrages do. The strategy will be to again beat up on the successful and wealthy as part of the left’s envy, greed and entitlement scenario.

We regularly hear from Democrats how rich people aren’t paying their “fair share,” though they never tell us what they consider fair and how much of that share they think government should seize.



Politicians seem incapable of saying “no,” chiefly because it isn’t their money they are spending and because they use it to buy votes, addicting more people to government and thus, to them.

It’s an old, but relevant quote: “We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.” Add $21 trillion to Ronald Reagan’s remark, to reflect the current debt.


It can start with next year’s election.

Email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.