Taxes
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)
...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.
Despite Right-Wing Whining, Taxes Are at a Historic Low (5/11/2010)
"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
Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes (8/12/2008)
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)
Tax cuts are expenditures. Got that, reporters?
The simple-minded Republican mantra that lower taxes and smaller government are always better is just silly. It is, however, effective in keeping income disparities at extreme levels, removing the tax burden from the already wealthy, and making government an ATM machine for the well connected.
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 ?
The logical outcome of Republican tax policy: California. (Golden State Fever, Peter Schrag, Harper's Magazine, September 2009)
Where Are the Good Times the Tax Cutters Promised ?
Where your taxes go. See the explanation why percentages vary.
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.
Fundamental fairness would introduce progressivity into the tax code. The progressive income tax lost most of its progressivity under Republicans under Reagan and Bush 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.
Why Are We Afraid To Tax the Super Rich ? (3/12/2010)
Cutting taxes to bankrupt the government empowers the private sector, restores aristocracy, and makes them the rulers.
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.
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 will make an 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 as well.
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
Howard Zinn on Taxes and Class War
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. CEO's, at that time, were happy to work for $1 a year. Broadcasters understood public service obligations.
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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:
Where your taxes go. See the explanation why percentages vary.
Federal Tax
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.
- 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
Links
Citizens for Tax Justice Home Page CTJ
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
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