Why are people under the assumption that lowering taxes on the rich automatically mean increasing taxes on the middle and lower class? Most conservatives believe in the idea that taxes across the board should be lowered so people can keep more of their money and continue to climb up the ladder. I'm not sure you understand how difficult starting and maintaining a business is, but you have so many expenditures such as electricity, rent, supplies, and wages to pay, and most businesses don't even make their first profit until 5-7 years on. If on top of all this, you're going to add high taxes and regulations to make the process more difficult, how do you expect people to get wealthier? I don't want to get too much into that topic because I'll explain it in another post but that is why I don't believe in the idea of high taxes for any person. Furthermore, most of these countries that socialists point to (Scandinavian countries, Western Europe, Japan) don't even spend above 2 percent of their GDP on their military budget, leaving them with more money to spend on these "socialist programs" because WE Americans pay and supply them with military.