Taxes
"Taxes, after all, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society." – FDR
This Week's George Stephanopoulos did not challenge Sen. John McCain's assertion that "history shows every time you have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have increased -- going back to Jack Kennedy." Stephanopoulos did not note that, notwithstanding a potential short-term revenue increase, many economists have challenged the claim that revenue goes up over the long term as a result of capital gains tax rates being cut. (Full Story)
"The Government Accountability Office in August 2008 reported that behind the corporate cries of pain over the tax burdens they are forced to bear is a startling truth: Between 1998 and 2005, two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no U.S. income taxes - zip." From David Korten's Agenda For a New Economy pg 127
Over time, the United States has expected less and less of its elite, even as society has oriented itself in a way that is most likely to maximize their income. The top income-tax rate was 91 percent in 1960, 70 percent in 1980, 50 percent in 1986, 39.6 percent in 2000, and is now 35 percent. Income from investments is taxed at a rate as low as 15 percent. The mortgage-interest tax deduction is most generous, of course, to the affluent, and while it's small potatoes to anyone who makes a good income, so too, is the savings incentive provided by 401(k) plans. The estate tax, meanwhile, has been gutted. Don Peck's book Pinched.
...American workers are treated daily to a steady diet of the concerns of the very wealthy, with almost never a mention of the concerns of average workers. And at the top of the list of concerns of the very wealthy: taxes. From Thom Hartman's book Threshold pg 135.
...Bloomberg dismissed Warren Buffett's call for tax fairness as "just theatrics", pointing out, "If Warren Buffett made his money from ordinary income rather than capital gains, his tax rate would be a lot higher than his secretary's" That's a good point - which is exactly why Buffett calls for capital gains and ordinary income to be taxed at the same rate. From Extra! the Magazine of Fair, November 2011
GOP Tax Cuts For The Rich Are Up To 270 Times Larger Than Tax Cuts For The Middle Class (1/10/2012)
Things To Tax: Paul Krugman (11/28/2011)
The Average Bush Tax Cut For The 1 Percent This Year Will Be Greater Than The Average Income Of the Other 99 Percent (11/23/2011)
Herman
Cain's Plan To Double Your Taxes (8/13/2011)
Do Tax Cuts Increase Revenue ? No ...(8/24/2011)
Tax Cuts Don't Pay For Themselves: Bruce Bartlett (6/19/2011)
The GOP Will Raise Taxes -- on the Middle Class and the Working Poor (8/23/2011)
The
Biggest Republican Tax Lie (6/20/2011)
Ralph Nader's Letter To President Obama on Extended Tax Cuts (12/15/2010)
If there is anything that Republicans agree on it is that
taxes should be flat, but keep in mind that any is a cut for the already wealthy. They
oppose extending the payroll tax cuts which would help working people,
but favor lowering corporate taxes and capital gains taxes.
Since US media and elected officials are beholden to big money, it is a worthwhile investment for large contributors to invest in the US political process. That is how major corporations have climbed out from under their tax burdens, how extreme wealth gets to keep more and more of their stash, and why most people (you) will have to pay more.
The simple-minded Republican mantra that lower taxes and smaller government are always better
is effective in accelerating income disparities to
extreme levels, removes the tax burden from the already wealthy, and
makes government an ATM machine for the well connected.
Media, reliably representing the corporate interest, does not point out advantages of a progressive tax. The graduated income tax does not burden you when you are out of work. It can roll back obscene bonuses, improve anemic demand, level our increasingly poor wealth disparities, damp speculation, prevent a new aristocracy, help break politicians dependence on oligarchs, and it is in the spirit of true Christianity by burden the already comfortable and relieve the poor. Under Ike the top marginal rate was around 90% and the economy was never better.
Both fundamental fairness and sensible economic policy justify progressivity in the tax code. The progressive income tax lost most of its progressivity under Republicans since Eisenhower (the top marginal rate was round 90%) and the net result has been an increase in the already poor distribution of income in the US. The elimination of the estate tax (shrewdly labeled the 'death tax' by Republicans) will continue our move toward aristocracy. The Walton Family (owners of Wal-Mart) stand to gain $37 billion dollars if and when the estate tax is repealed.
Republicans have not made government smaller, nor have they been fiscally responsible. They did not pay for the wars that they provoked, they borrowed massively from third world countries (passing this debt on to the next generation), and enriched their cronies with much of the proceeds. How is that different than a banana republic ?
Cutting taxes to bankrupt the government empowers the private sector, restores aristocracy, and makes them the rulers.
Why Are We Afraid To Tax the Super Rich ? (3/12/2010)
Soak the Very, Very Rich (8/16/2010)
Tax Cuts for the Rich Are Pure Theft (8/10/2010)
Why Congress Must End Bush Tax Breaks For the Rich (7/28/2010)
Despite Right-Wing Whining, Taxes Are at a Historic Low (5/11/2010)
Study: Bush Tax Cuts Cost More Than Twice As Much As Dems' Health-Care Bill (9/9/2009)
Tax cuts are expenditures. Got that, reporters?
Where Are the Good Times the Tax Cutters Promised ?
Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes (8/12/2008)
Bush tax cuts exacerbate income inequality. (9/13/2004)
Republicans complain about taxes, and vow to make government smaller, but they never acknowledge that most taxes go to the world's largest military.
Your Tax Dollars at War: More than 53% of Your Tax Payment Goes to the Military (4/13/2010)
Where your taxes go. See the explanation why percentages vary.
The logical outcome of Republican tax policy: California. (Golden State Fever, Peter Schrag, Harper's Magazine, September 2009)
They blame the victims...it used to be welfare mothers but currently illegal aliens.
Guess what ? Warren Buffett pays less in taxes that you do. Here is a video of his comments on the estate tax.
See this video: Senator Sanders vs Bush Nominee
Recent and archived news articles by David Cay Johnston of The New York Times.
The Mythology Surrounding the Corporate Tax Rate.
Where your taxes go. See the explanation why percentages vary.
Flat Tax
Republicans often favor a flat sales tax, sometimes called in
an Orwellian sense the 'Fair Tax'..
It is backed by very wealthy and, like all other Republican policy, it is extremely
regressive. Be careful what you wish for. It is an integral part
of the Republican scam. We have a distribution
of income much like that of 1929. Making it worse makes
economic collapse more likely.
Republican candidates often think that the 'fair tax' (their
words to describe a flat sales tax) is a good idea. It isn't.
It is, actually, a trojan
horse for their regressive agenda. It puts tax burden on the
poorest. They would like to 'privatize' Social
Security and shred what's left of the social safety net as well. They ignore the lessons of the great depression.
Property Tax
As inflation proceeds, as it always does, retirees on fixed incomes find that the value of their homes has increased and so have their taxes. It pushes retirees out of their homes especially quickly along the shoreline. Seniors may have few options for paying higher taxes considering that inflation in practically everything else makes the problem worse.
It is no wonder the argument over the town budget looks like a generational war: Retirees vs Students.
The basic problem is the property tax. It is regressive, a force for urban sprawl, a destroyer of undeveloped land, and a patently unfair lever that forces seniors from their homes. Since the State mandates property taxes as the main source of school funding, it makes education dependent on the affluence of each town.
Some Legislators in Florida have proposed doing away with the property tax as a funding source for the schools. They have proposed modest increases in the State's sales tax to provide for school funding. Actually, the sales tax is fairly regressive also. It hits everyone whether they are earning or not, so it can depress consumption. Look at it this way: a relatively poor person will need to spend a large percentage of his income and his consumption taxes will be much higher by percentage than the very wealthy who need to consume only a small part of their income.
The best solution, although at State level, would be to eliminate the property tax as a funding source for the schools by replacing it with the graduated income tax. The income tax hits only people who actually have income...not students or seniors, and when it is graduated it can put the burden on those most able to pay. Considering the obscene CEO salaries that we often hear about, it is only reasonable to tax high earners at high percentage rates. We used to do this, but Republicans changed it.
The Property Tax should be minimal. It is unfair, subject to inflation, contributes to urban sprawl, and it is highly regressive. The graduated income tax falls most on the comfortable and is, overall, fairest and best for the economy.
Graduated Income Tax
The graduated income tax is the fairest and best one to pay for the town's schools or other State expenses. It is also best at national level.
- It doesn't hit you when you're not working.
- It is heaviest for the people who are most comfortable.
- It is a solution for those obscene CEO salaries, and outsized bonuses. Don't conflate greed with incentive. In the Eisenhower years marginal tax rates could exceed 90 percent. Our finest CEO's, at that time, were happy to work for $1 a year. Broadcasters then understood public service obligations.
- It leads to more robust demand. The wealthy don't have to spend as much, by percentage, as the rest of the people do. The Republican story that they are the 'job creators' ignores the facts that more jobs have been exported than created by corporate america.
- It puts a damper on the natural tendency to oligarchy and aristocracy.
Tobin Tax
Excessive speculation creates volatility in the economy and is one of the causes of cycles of boom and bust. In the 1930's there were steps taken to damp it down. The Glass-Steagle Act protected taxpayers from excessive banking risk, but that was rejected in the zeal to deregulate.The Tobin Tax is a tax on speculator's currency transactions. It is a good idea. Republicans won't hear of it.
Howard Zinn on Taxes and Class War
 |
America's
Invisible Rich |
War
Republicans are always ready to go to war, but not to pay for them. They claim to be fiscally responsible, but cutting taxes and putting the cost of the war on the tab, financed by third world countries, puts an unconscionable burden on the next generation. The War in Iraq was financed by supplementals. Joe Stiglitz has excellent suggestions for reform in his book The Three Trillion Dollar War:
Your Tax Dollars at War: More than 53% of Your Tax Payment Goes to the Military (4/13/2010)
Where your taxes go. See the explanation why percentages vary.
War is profitable. It is also regressive since many people suffer for the benefit of a very small group. (See Empire.)
The US has the world's largest military. It is bankrupting us, it is motivating a new arms race, it is terrorizing many countries of the world, and it is clearly a making us less safe. We have, in our boastful, arrogant claim to be the world's superpower, created determined enemies and no one will be surprised if we are ourselves subject to attack from outside. Most US tax dollars go to pay for empire.
It appears that the US military is actually a security force
for multi-national corporations. These corporations are, by Supreme
Court ruling, dedicated to making money. They are not particularly
patriotic, so will offshore jobs to the lowest wage, least regulated,
lowest tax, lax environmental countries (or states if they absolutely
must be in this country) or a combination of countries that maximizes
their profits. That is how the market propels us to the bottom. That is
the Republican agenda.
Federal Budget Priorities
The Federal budget is probably the strongest statement of US priorities that we have. In a democracy, It should reflect the wishes of the people, but, according to polls, it doesn't. Much better results would result from the People's Budget, which has been endorsed by Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, Jeffrey Sachs and even Forbes magazine.Here's what we have:
- Percentage of US discretionary budget spent for military: 57% (since the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan are funded in supplementary budget requests, they must be added to that!)
- US Military Budget as a percent of World total military expenditures: 49%
- Percentage of US discretionary budget spent on education and other social services: 8%
- Number of Americans classified as "food insecure" in 2004: 38 million
- Number of Americans without health insurance: 45 million
- Total direct aid to Israel 1948-2006: $255 billion
- Total Cost of US Support for Israel: $1.688 trillion (not counting money and lives lost in Israel propelled wars like Iraq, not counting loss of $trillions in business with the rest of the world because of US support for Israel etc)
- Federal aid for each resident in Louisiana in 2002 (from their taxes): $1,500
- Direct U.S. aid for each Israeli citizen in 2003 (per capita income in Israel-$16,710; they do not pay taxes to the US): $581
- Direct U.S. aid for each Ethiopian citizen in 2004 (per capita income in Ethiopia - $110): $2.50
- Percentage of U.S. foreign aid that goes to Israel: 27%
- Population of Israel as percentage of total world population: 0.1%
- Number of Palestinian minors killed by Israeli security forces (2000-2007): 814
- Total number of Palestinians injured or killed (September 2000-April 2007): 31,296
- Number of bullets fired by Israeli security forces in the first week of the second Intifada: 1,300,000
- Number of unexploded Israeli bombs strewn across South Lebanon after the 2006 war: 1,000,000 or 1.4 per resident
Bibliography
The Secret History of the American Empire, John Perkins
Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else: David Cay Johnston