Why not tax America's rich?
Posted on Monday, April 18, 2011 at 09:52 AM
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I know what you're thinking: the top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes?
Well, the nation's tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level - but the rich have access to vastly more significant tax breaks than people with lower incomes. In America, after all, the amount of taxes you pay is often determined by the kind of accountant you can afford.
Are you aware that the top one percent’s share of our national income has doubled over the past three decades (from 10 percent in 1981 to well over 20 percent now)? It's the best time ever to be a plutocrat. For people at the top America is not broke, America's tax code is.
And the richest one-tenth of one percent’s share of the bonanza has actually tripled. They're doing better than ever, thank you very much. In the midst of the Great Recession they're making money to burn.
None of this will concern you if you think it's reasonable for someone rolling in cash to pay one percent or flat nothing of their annual income in tax. But for for the rest of us who also have Medicare and Social Security to pay into it quickly starts to chafe.
President Obama is correct in discerning that an effective way for America to reduce its the long-term budget deficit, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest in the nations education and infrastructure and not raise taxes on the working middle class - is by raising taxes on the super rich.
It's hard to remember now because the Reagan era did such a good job of turning our society upside down, but from the 1940's until 1980 the top tax income tax rate on the highest earners in America was at least 70 percent.
In the 1950's it was actually 91 percent. Today it’s 35 percent. The rich are paying a much lower share of their incomes in taxes now than at any time since World War II.
A final word. If Americas rich were taxed at the rates they paid half a century ago, they’d be paying in over $350 billion more this year alone. That would very quickly become sufficient to accomplish every major target the nation has set for itself while also reducing future deficits. Imagine what a boon that would be.
Everything connects: the bonanza being enjoyed by America’s super-rich is directly related to the drop in their tax rates - and as they prosper the public purse empties, so the nation faces devastating budget squeezes and the slashing of vital public services for the middle class and the poor.
Of course money doesn't grow on trees, but nor does it trickle down from rich men's pockets. But paying taxes is an obligation of citizenship, or it once was. If the rich want to escape their obligations to this nation or take their money abroad the better to hide it they should also lose their right to call themselves American citizens.
Some of them agree. As many as 743 Americans took just that drastic and irreversible step to surrender their passports last year - that's three times as many as in 2008.
Money meant more to them that their citizenship, apparently. What does that tell you about the patriotism and loyalty of America's superrich?
66 comments
allentown | Apr 21, 2011, 01:37 PM EDT
Maybe it again time to think about a Flat Tax. If the goals are to reduce corporate welfare and to enable household tax returns to fit on a postcard, then a true flat tax best achieves those goals.
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hancock | Apr 21, 2011, 11:07 AM EDT
Sean how much extra will you be paying to the U.S. treasury?
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seanomelbourne | Apr 20, 2011, 07:59 PM EDT
Hancock wishes to stifle debate.
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maloney | Apr 20, 2011, 01:02 PM EDT
Ratboy.. per Dillon Ratigan of MSNBC there are now more people receiving money from the American Govt. than there are people paying into it. His source was the govt. Look it up yourself. Now who's the moron? It is sad for America and everything it stands for. A nanny state was NOT what the founders started but it is what you and obama will have us be if you continue to get your way, but you will not continue to get your way.
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Ratslayer | Apr 20, 2011, 07:23 AM EDT
...PAY NO FEDERAL INCOME TAXES, I can see yer point. But i think yer making a subtle racist cheap shot at blacks and hispanics. It's a sad day indeed for the USA for folks like you to believe that our financial/economic woes are the fault of America's poorest and most disenfranchised citizens.
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Ratslayer | Apr 20, 2011, 07:18 AM EDT
Maloney, what a moronic comment! More people on the dole than pay taxes?? Really? Please explain. Now if yer referring to CORPORATE WELFARE QUEENS WHO
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maloney | Apr 20, 2011, 01:15 AM EDT
There are now for the first time in America's history more people on the dole than pay taxes. Lets teach people how to work instead of how to sponge.
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hancock | Apr 20, 2011, 12:33 AM EDT
Worry about Australia.
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seanomelbourne | Apr 19, 2011, 07:29 PM EDT
The mega rich and corporations do not mind socialism when divvying out the tax dollar as they preach capitalism to the middle classes and the poor.They write off clothing, dinners, cars, boats, and then they want the middle class to except less in benefits,health education etc. to pay for their rich lifestyle wake up for Chr-st sake.
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olovely | Apr 19, 2011, 05:41 PM EDT
He wrote about how the richest people in America pay 1% or nothing whatsoever on taxes. Because they don't it's left to those who can least afford it to pay for the obligations of citizenship (whilst the tycoons jet off on another tony vacation). It's not the poor who have damaged America's social contract: it's the GOP and the rich who pay them.
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kthompson3 | Apr 19, 2011, 05:35 PM EDT
CpCpCp1 is right... the more the government collects, the more it will spend, so it won't matter if more is collected from the rich and corporations. I for one refuse to buy into the class warfare spew that the Democratic Party perpetuates as a diversion to the real issues. The bible says, "Thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife and goods." Being jealous about a person's wealth and then taking it in the name of taxes is like theft. Yes, I do think everyone, including corporations should pay taxes. I do not think that the super wealthy should have to pay exceedingly more for programs that they will never use. It's theirs, they earned it, and they should get to keep as much of it as possible. I feel the same way about my income; I earned it, and I resent the governement spending whatever they want and then taking from me what they need, thus determining how much income I can have and what kind of lifestlye I will have. We need to get a handle on entitlements, foreign aid, and pork projects stuffed into bills as a form of bribery to obtain legislative votes on an issue. We need term limits, and politicians who have worked for a living rather than political science majors or attornies turned politicians. We need less federal government control so that the people have more contol at the local and state levels. One more thing, be wary of politicians pushing an immigration bill through. If they do, we should all scream for it not to take effect until after 2012 so that one party cannot use the ignorance of the illiterate or non-english speaking to win elections.
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michaelidaho | Apr 19, 2011, 05:06 PM EDT
Just another one sided ignorant commentary from Cahir.
How about a follow-up column discussing how federal and state governments gives away money in the form of the earned income credit, food stamps, rental subsidies, free health insurance and free education (Pell Grants) to people who work part-time or not at all? Then write a column on how the people making between $40,000 and $100,000 have to support these people.
Oh by the way, I did not quite understand your comment about the rich getting better refunds because they can afford better accountants. Don't you worry the "poor" or quite clever at what benefits they can get from the government. And if they are not they can always go to a free tax prep clinic for the "poor" people.
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olovely | Apr 19, 2011, 04:13 PM EDT
There are three people in America who blame Obama for Bush's catasthropic economic meltdown: Rush Limbaugh, Orly Tate and Glenn Beck.
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jflanagan | Apr 19, 2011, 03:54 PM EDT
You need to get away from the politicians favorite tactic of divide and conquer. Yes, the Corporations, this year GE seems to be the biggest beneficiary, get tax breaks from their bought and paid for politicians. Yes, the politicians pander to the lower incomes to get their votes and almost 50% of taxpayers pay no income tax whatsoever.
The answer: get rid of deductions, set reasonable rates for every income level and let everyone, by paying reasonable taxes, gets to feel like they are partners in the country. Maybe then we'll see the end of this petty argument that never gets anything accomplished and let's the politicians make you believe that they will balance the budget and get rid of the growing public debt, even though they are spending way over what they will ever take in.
Let's get together as Americans and tell the Republicans and Democrats we won't put up with their divisive tactics, used to gain or keep power over real Americans.
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