Just what is a 'Fair Share'?

Over the weekend, Mr. Obama, like presidents before him, took to the radio for a weekly address.  Unlike other presidents before him, he also posted a youtube video.  This isn't unusual for him, I guess he posts a video each week along with the radio address.  Say what you want about him, but the man is media savvy(or the media let's him be savvy, one or the other.)

The focus this week was on getting 'our fiscal house in order', and mostly revolved around what it was going to take for both parties to strike a deal over budget issues.  I watched the video just a bit ago, and I have to say, I agree with a lot of his goals, we just have different way's of getting there.  They might come and repossess my wookie-suit, but I am okay with taxes going up(or 'closing loop holes and breaks, depending on your point of view).  It doesn't make me happy, but I feel that the deficit situation is SOOOOOOO bad, that it can't be fixed just by cutting spending.

One of the things that always sticks in my craw whenever people talk about having to raise taxes is 'asking the wealthiest American's to pay Their Fair Share.' 

Just what is a 'Fair Share'?  And what makes you one of the 'Wealthiest American's?'  I hate nebulous terms. 

Most of the proposals I see talk about increasing the tax burden(closing loopholes) for people making over $250,000.  Why that number?  Is a family that brought in $238,000 'upper-middle class' but a family that made $252,000 rich? 

As for a 'fair share'...assuming an equal tax rate, is a person earnings $250K a year using 5
times the governments resources as someone making $50K a year?  Or 7.5 times as much as someone scraping along at $35K a year?  More than likely not...which means you just don't want him to pay his 'fair share'....you want him to pay some of someone else's share also! 

What keeps tripping everyone up is our tax code, and the fact that the 'Wealthiest American's' have hoards of attorney's and accountants to minimize their tax burden.  The 'Not Wealthiest American's' see this, and assume that the rich are bilking the system...and they are, because the system let's them.

It's why I keep coming back to a 'flat tax' system.  No deductions, no credits, no nothing...you just get 15%(or whatever number the big heads decide) taken off each weeks paycheck.  If you want to really stick it to the rich, make a bracket, and say they pay an extra .5% for every 50K they make over say...100K.  Have that max out at around 20%, and put all those accountants and tax lawyers out of work. 

That lack of deductions and credits would also apply to everyone.  Why do we even have a 'Child Tax Credit'?  We all know kids are expensive...a 'Child Tax Credit' doesn't make them THAT much more affordable. 

Sigh.

The other thing Obama wants to go after are big, evil corporations which often have whole DEPARTMENTS of lawyers and accountants.  He points out that HUGE EVIL OIL COMPANIES OMG! don't need tax breaks when they are making BILLIONS of dollars each year. He's right, but they have gotten used to their tax breaks, and anything you do to remove those tax breaks is going to just get passed along to their customer.  Exxon will not settle for making less money...they will just charge you more to cover their increased tax burden. 

The funny part about the video is The President never once addressed that the reason there was all this attention on 'getting our fiscal house in order.'  He talked about trying to strike a to lower the deficit, but not that that deal was still going to result in the deficit increasing through at least 2012. 

I'm sure by that time there will be some other shiny object to distract voters from the reality of the situation.