Taxes

Wealth inequality weakens democracy. When extreme it powers fascism. We’re pretty near there thanks to Republicans.

Stiff progressive taxes such as we had after WWII (the highest marginal tax rate was over 90%) can damp down wealth inequality and also fund solid social programs: health, education, welfare, infrastructure, and more.

When politicians announce their plans for tax cuts people enthusiastically cheer, but usually don’t worry about the down side.

Republican cuts benefit people who don’t really need them like major political donors. It’s probably the most effective part of the Republican scam to extract wealth.

Tax cuts reduce government services, mostly social programs, which Republicans explain will lead to small government. That means reductions will come from Social Security, healthcare, education, poverty programs, and various other care and support programs. The US already has a poor safety net. Tax cuts that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the vulnerable requires a sociopath, pretty much a requirement for republican candidates.l

America has a revenue problem. Blame George W. Bush and Donald Trump. (10/27/2023)

GOP cuts to IRS

Tax the billionaires or their oppressive power will only grow. (8/7/2024)

The IRS is piloting new software that could let you file your taxes for free (1/29/2024)

Why Cutting IRS Funding Is Not a Conservative Move (12/19/2023)

Republicans aren’t going to tell Americans the real cause of our $31.4tn debt (2/1/2023) Robert Reich in the Guardian

Joseph Stiglitz: tax high earners at 70% to tackle widening inequality (1/22/2023)

"In the United States, many working class voters support candidates promising to lower taxes on the wealthy, despite the fact that such tax cuts will arguably deprive them of important government services." Francis Fukuyama in Foreign Affairs 9/2014
The IRS budget has been cut dramatically over the past decade, severely undermining the agency’s ability to perform its fundamental jobs of enforcing the nation’s tax laws and helping taxpayers navigate a tax system that relies on voluntary compliance. The agency’s workforce has been sharply reduced, and audit rates, especially for large corporations and high-income taxpayers, have plummeted. As a result, the tax gap — the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid — is large and growing.
The Need to Rebuild the Depleted IRS
Bernie on the Corporate Tax
"After World War II, the nation's tax bill was roughly split between corporations and individuals. But after years of changes in the federal tax code and international economy, the corporate share of taxes has declined to a fourth the amount individuals pay, according to the US Office of Management and Budget." --Boston Globe series on Corporate Welfare
"The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return." ~ Gore Vidal
Resistance to taxation is the rotten core of the modern Republican Party. Republicans in recent decades have sharply reduced the federal income tax rates imposed on wealthy people and big companies, but their opposition to taxation goes beyond that. They are aiding and abetting tax evasion.
The Rotten Core of the Republican Party (10/24/2021) NYT Binyamin Appelbaum
“They did what their donors wanted,” LaFrenz Falk said. Seeing the same plan enacted on a national scale is “very frightening,” she said. “History is littered with examples of cultures that allowed the wealthy to take over and forgot about the rest. What happens next? It doesn’t end well. How does that look in a country with no gun control?” Kansas's ravaged economy a cautionary tale as Trump plans huge tax cuts for rich

Push for IRS Cuts Confirms Top GOP Priority: 'Enabling Tax Cheating by the Super-Rich' (5/26/2023)

The Price of Zero; The 55 Corporations That Paid Zero in Federal Income Taxes Spent $450 Million on Political Spending

Could you be the victim of those Republican tax cuts ?

Republicans consistently favor tax cuts for their wealthy donors and pay for them with cuts for the vulnerable or increase the deficit. That's the scam.

Funding cuts for the IRS enables tax cheating and increases the deficit.

Republicans promote the flat tax because it is regressive. It hits the poor much harder than the rich.

It takes a sociopath to reward the rich at the expense of the poor and is the very opposite of Christian values.

Republican Scam

Corruption

Economy

Wealth Inequality

Social Contract

Aristocracy

Poverty

Citizens United

Money

Deficits

Agenda

Budget

Corporations

States

Citizens for Tax Justice Home Page CTJ

Repeal the Trump Tax

ITEP (Institute On Taxation and Economic Policy)

Stop Trump Tax Cuts

Americans For Tax Fairness

Robinhood Tax

US Uncut

Taxes Are Good

Joseph Bankman

Taxpayers For Common Sense

Loopholes for All

Tax.com

National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee

Wealth for the Common Good

How Project2025 would rig the economy

When Ike was in office, for people in the highest income brackets, the marginal tax rate was over 90%. Removing tax progressivity did immense damage to the economy. Reagan tax policy, union busting, privatization, deregulation, collapsed the middle class, reduced some of the largest corporations taxes to zero. Demonizing the poor saved on support for the needy.

Like the frog in water coming slowly to a boil, the US working taxpayer slowly assumed the tax burden of the wealthy.

Republicans try to keep the IRS under staffed so they can’t audit complex tax returns of the wealthy.

Privatization of social programs shifted expenses to private insurance, resulting in the world’s most expensive healthcare that bankrupts the sick, education that put students in heavy, lifelong debt, poor social programs, and, until recently, infrastructure that went without maintenance.

Republican tax cuts are part of stealth extraction of wealth from most of the people, resulting in record high wealth disparities.

Extreme wealth disparities, a feature of late capitalism, destroys democracy, leaves many in poverty, and can result in fascism, roughly defined as rule by the wealthy. Vote GOP to get us there.

Tax progressivity is a proven tool to combat rising income and wealth inequality at the top. World Inequality Report 2018
"tax systems skillfully so as to tax bad things, like pollution and congestion, rather than good things like work and profit. Not to do so is plain, bad economics." Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF
What caused this progress? Piketty has a straightforward answer: the advent of progressive taxes on income and wealth, and of the comprehensive welfare state. The taxes reduced inequality and paid for the welfare state, which has provided education, health care, old-age pensions and protection against severe deprivation. A BRIEF HISTORY OF EQUALITY By Thomas Piketty
"If you strip away the magical claims of Reaganomics (“cutting tax rates will yield more revenue and balance the budget”), you can see that the real purpose of “supply side” theory was to shift the tax burden down the income ladder—away from the high incomes. This is the operative objective: Tax work instead of wealth. That has been the practical result of favoring capital’s returns on stocks and bonds over wage income. The pivot was a landmark political reversal, and it continues to this day." William Greider

We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes. Leonna Helmsley

"[In Finland] My tax form had been one page long, and came prefilled with my earnings and taxes paid, including the calculations for amounts owed or refunded. My job was simply to check that everything was correct and amend it if needed. During my years as a salaried employee, I mostly just looked it over and did nothing." the Nordic Theory of Everything, In Search of a Better Life: Anu Partanen

Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea (10/20/2020)

The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You By David Leonhardt (NYT)

The IRS Already Has Your Income Tax Data—So Why Do Americans Still Have to File Their Taxes?

No Labels Offered Conservative Democrats Hundreds of Thousands to Spurn Nancy Pelosi Fundraiser (8/26/2021)

Should Only the Little People Pay Taxes? (7/22/2021)

Tax Fraud By The Numbers: The Trump Timeline (7/20/2021)

The most damage done by Republicans to the US, was removing progressivity from taxes. It let wealth inequality soar out of control.

Big money corrupted government, elite gamed the system snubbed their nose at democracy, and put us at the brink of fascism. It's a scam.

Tax cuts are always a leading issue for the GOP, and they mostly benefit their wealthy donors. Republicans claim tax cuts solve many problems. After WWII the top marginal tax rate was over 90%, so it fell heavily on wealthy people. Progressive taxes are a good way to damp down wealth inequality. It's been down hill since Reagan.

GOP propaganda relentlessly asserted that tax cuts would pay for themselves. It was never true, but over decades it removed taxes from the very wealthy, and as Republicans said, it starved the beast. It drained the life-blood from government, but, along with privatization and deregulation, was an important part of the Republican scam to extract wealth from most people.

The US has reached a new gilded age, which is ripe for fascism as it was in the 1930's.

The real cost that we paid over time was so slow that it was hardly noticeable.

Republican tax cuts are a stealth method of extracting wealth from most people, a GOP scam, because it leads to cuts in social supports, puts students in debt, causes healthcare bankruptcy, corrodes infrastructure, increases homelessness, etc. Wealth doesn’t trickle down. The rich inevitably get richer, the poor get poorer, and wealth disparities get extreme. The mob gets volatile and they are armed.

Tax burden shifted downward on to working people, who went into debt. Families needed two incomes, two cars and childcare. Students went into heavy debt for college. The middle class collapsed. Wealth inequality soared. Public services were starved. Infrastructure fell into disrepair. The military budget expanded to build weapons of mass destruction and carry on the forever wars. Wealth inequality became extreme. Democracy is threatened.

To make up for lost revenue, Republicans were tireless in cutting public facilities. The social safety net has big holes like healthcare that left many without or in bankruptcy. Higher education became expensive adding immensely to most people’s debt that was made inescapable.

Infrastructure deteriorated to the point that civil engineers give it a D. Rail networks disappeared. Dreams of high speed rail never materialized. Republicans assigned managers to Cities like Detroit who poisoned drinking water over democratic objections.

With little notice public health protections were cut to the bone. It began with Reagan (See Laurie Garrett’s Pulitzer Prize books), and continued up until Trump cut the pandemic response team from the Security Council. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic was handled badly.

Draconian immigration policy made us all more unsafe. We are paying the price now that there is a pandemic.

When wealth inequality becomes extreme, powerful interests rule , an authoritarian becomes head of state with few checks and a cult-like following. "Results are always the same: corruption, stagnation, dictatorship, repression, violence." (Gary Kasparov) Right wing nationalism is ascendant, experts are replaced with loyalists, religion, military, ideologues rule. It is happening world-wide but notably in Hungary, Poland, Brazil, India, and even in the US. It can happen here.

The Supreme Court favored the wealthy with their Citizens United decision to influence government with lobbyists, candidates were selected for their deep pockets. Government direction is set by campaign finance, not democracy. Propaganda became very profitable, although corrosive for democracy. The system is corrupt.

Gilens and Page pointed out that US government responds to the wealthy, not the people.

It’s going to get worse. Republicans short-term greed generated propaganda that disdained higher education and experts, denied science and the warnings of climate damage. So continuing as usual, future global warming will make increasingly large areas of the planet uninhabitable, melting glaciers will lead to droughts and crop failures, severe storms will devastate, sea levels will rise flooding low-lying heavily populated areas, all leading to mass migration.

Civil disturbance by heavily armed population is almost inevitable. Probably there will be war, possibly nuclear. The forecast does not look good.

Trump Republicans not only cooperated with Russians to win election, they have all the attributes of Fascists.

Republicans are extracting wealth from the public to reward a small number of oligarchs. Their initiative for tax reduction is all part of the scam.

GOP Tax Cuts

Republicans, Not Biden, Are About to Raise Your Taxes (10/31/2020)

The Picture of a Broken Tax System (9/28/2020)

D.A. Accuses Trump of Delay ‘Strategy’ in Fight Over Tax Returns (7/17/2020)

‘Donald Trump is going to get indicted’ when New York gets his tax returns: David Cay Johnston (7/11/2020)

The Tax-Break Bonanza Inside the Economic Rescue Package (4/22/2020)

Covid-19 Brings Out All the Usual Zombies (3/28/2020)

The Liberal Economists Behind the Wealth Tax Debate (2/21/2020)

"Taxes, after all, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society." FDR
Supply-side economics did not work for Reagan and it won’t work for Trump. Joseph E. Stiglitz in his book People, Power and Profits
the effects of the Trump tax cut are already looking like the effects of the Brownback tax cut in Kansas, the Bush tax cut and every other much-hyped tax cut of the past three decades: big talk, big promises, but no results aside from a swollen budget deficit. Paul Krugman: How’s That Tax Cut Working Out? (4/30/2018)
The [Republican] plan not only adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit, but the cuts for rich people are permanent while the ones for the poor, expire. Which we should all do soon and decrease the surplus population. A not unprobable outcome since, oh yeah, this so- called reform also manages to push 13 million Americans out of their insurance. That’s known as adding injury to insult. Robbing Hood (12/31/2017)
Although the tax system is a crucial tool for tackling inequality, it also faces potential obstacles. Tax evasion ranks high among these, as recently illustrated by the Paradise Papers revelations. The wealth held in tax havens has increased considerably since the 1970s and currently represents more than 10% of global GDP. The rise of tax havens makes it difficult to properly measure and tax wealth and capital income in a globalized world. While land and real-estate registries have existed for centuries, they miss a large fraction of the wealth held by households today, as wealth increasingly takes the form of financial securities. Several technical options exist for creating a global financial register, which could be used by national tax authorities to effectively combat fraud. World Inequality Report 2018
on corporate welfare
Piketty’s strong preference is for an annual progressive tax on wealth, worldwide if possible, to exclude flight to phony tax havens. He recognizes that a global tax is a hopeless goal, but he thinks that it is possible to enforce a regional wealth tax in an area the size of Europe or the United States. An example of the sort of rate schedule that he has in mind is 0 percent on fortunes below one million euros, 1 percent on fortunes between one and five million euros, and 2 percent above five million euros. (A euro is currently worth about $1.37.) Remember that this is an annual tax, not a onetime levy. He estimates that such a tax applied in the European Union would generate revenue equal to about 2 percent of GDP, to be used or distributed according to some agreed formula. He seems to prefer, as would I, a slightly more progressive rate schedule. Of course the administration of such a tax would require a high degree of transparency and complete reporting on the part of financial institutions and other corporations. The book [Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty] discusses in some detail how this might work in the European context. As with any tax, there would no doubt be a continuing struggle to close loopholes and prevent evasion, but that is par for the course. Thomas Piketty Is Right, Everything you need to know about 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century' By Robert M. Solow April 22, 2014

How FedEx Cut Its Tax Bill to $0 (11/17/2019)

How to Tax Our Way Back to Justice (10/11/2019)

US billionaires pay lower tax rate than working class for first time in history (10/9/2019)

The Great Tax Break Heist (9/2/2019)

Trump’s Secret Foreign Aid Program (7/25/2019)

Study Finds Trump Tax Cuts Failed to Do Anything But Give Rich People Money (5/29/2019)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren Each Want to Tax Millionaires Differently (2/7/2019)

Elizabeth Warren proposes ‘Ultra-Millionaire Tax’ for anyone with over $50 million in assets (1/25/2019)

The Economics of Soaking the Rich, What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez know about tax policy? A lot. (1/5/2019)

How the IRS Was Gutted (12/11/2018)

Heading into the midterms, there’s still no evidence that the TCJA is working as promised (11/5/2018)

The ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’ and the 2018 midterms: Examining the potential electoral impact (8/31/2018)

The Tax-Cut Con Goes On, Why Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot. (8/23/2018)

Income tax rates were 90 percent under Eisenhower, Sanders says

Where Did Tax Benefits Trump Promised Average Americans Go? Straight to Big Oil, Big Pharma and Their Crappy Insurance (7/5/2018)

The Devil and Tom Donohue (6/20/2018)

Republican Governor's Radical Tax Cut Plan Backfires, Exposes Conservative Economics As a Scam (4/18/2018)

Taxpayers, You´ve Been Scammed: Paul Krugman (3/2/2018)

Tax Bill Rewards Wealthy But Fails to Help Economy (2/9/2018)

After Spending $20 Million to Pass #GOPTaxScam, Koch Bros to Save More Than $1 Billion This Year (1/24/2018)

The US is not ready for the next recession. Here's why (1/18/2018)

Republicans, Trapped by Their Flimflam By Paul Krugman (10/3/2017)

The US Donor Relief Act of 2017 (1/8/2018)

"...one economic matter unites just about every member of the Republican party: support for tax cuts, particularly for those at the top of the income ladder." Paul Krugman

Who Benefits ?

"Data from OECD shows one consistent, general principle. The higher the taxes in a given country, the less inequality." Chris Hayes: Twilight of the Elites, America After Meritocracy

"Inequality is at an all-time high in this country. And the reason for it, as much as anything, is the tax code, because folks at the top have far more money to spend than they ever did. I mean, the tax cuts in the 2000 decade, most of the estimates say $700 billion was—the rich did not have to pay. And that went straight into the deficit. And now people at the top, who fund a lot of these think tanks, they want to cut Social Security, Medicare, other benefits like that, because they say the deficit is out of control. Well, one of the reasons we have the deficit is because of the tax cuts." Democracy Now interview with Barlett and Steele

“It’s not that taxes are far too high for giant corporations, as the lobbyists claim. No, the problem is that the revenue generated from corporate taxes is far too low.” – Senator Elizabeth Warren

When the tax code is redrawn so that hedge fund guys pay less than you do, or corporate bosses pay a lower percentage than their secretaries, that's winner take all. Scott Timberg: Killing the Creative Class

No other industrialised country asks its citizens to jump through as many hoops to calculate their taxes as ours. NY Times (4/15/2015)

...history is not going to deal kindly with a rich nation that will not tax itself to cure its miseries. John W Gardner, No Easy Victories

Robin Hood Tax

Something happened between the 1950s and today which can only be described as a mammoth tax break, giveaway, to the richest Americans. Their top bracket went from 91 percent to 35 percent, and as Mitt Romney's recent tax disclosure reveals, people who earn $45 million a year can get it down to 15 percent, because the system has been revised to serve the rich. So there's no way out of the conclusion that over the last forty to fifty years the greatest beneficiaries of tax cuts in the United States were the richest Americans. Part of the reason the gap between rich and poor has become so extreme in the U.S. is precisely because of the success of the rich in buying the political influence needed to reduce their tax burdens so dramatically. Occupy the Economy, Challenging Capitalism: Richard Wolff pg 108

Low Taxes, light-touch regulation, weak unions, and unlimited campaign donations are certainly in the best interest of the plutocrats, but that doesn't mean they are the right way to maintain the economic system that created today's super elite. Christia Freeland: Plutocrats.

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

April 15, the day when you pay your taxes, gives you a good index of how democracy is functioning. If democracy were functioning effectively, April 15 would be a day of celebration. That's a day on which we get together to contribute to implementing the policies that we've decided on. That's what April 15 ought to be. Here it's a day of mourning. This alien force is coming to steal your hard-earned money from you. That indicates an extreme contempt for democracy. And it's natural that a business-run society and doctrinal system should try to inculcate that belief. Power Systems: Noam Chomsky pg 159

We need revenue to balance the budget. We need sustainable clean-tech jobs. We need less dependence on Mideast oil. And we need to take steps to mitigate climate change ... The easiest way to do all of this at once is with a gasoline tax or price on carbon. Would you rather cut Social Security and Medicare or pay a little more per gallon of gas and make the country stronger, safer and healthier ? It still amazes me that out politicians have the courage to send our citizens to war but not to ask the public that question. Thomas L. Friedman 9/14/2011 NYT

Republicans single-minded goal to cut taxes leaves them unable to solve any other problem.

Republicans made it increasingly difficult to tax the rich (remember that's where the money is.) Under Ike, the top marginal rate was over 90% and the economy did very well.

Republicans never liked the New Deal and for decades claimed that reducing taxes would lead to prosperity. It actually increased income inequality to extremes, starved government services including infrastructure and social programs, increased taxpayer debt, polarized our politics, and made economic volatility much more likely.

When Republicans are not a majority, austerity is their priority. But their hypocrisy is on full display as they deliver big tax cuts for themselves paid for from huge taxpayer debt. By running up excessive debt they, in effect, cripple government, render it too poor to deal with other major problems such as crumbling infrastructure, and they exacerbate income inequality which I think is the measure of good government.

It is not a trickle down economy, it is Niagra up. The latest Republican tax bill is a massive gift to the wealthy from $1.5 trillion in taxpayer debt. (As only one example of their hypocrisy, when Republicans are in control, deficits don't matter.) There will also be additional extraction from most people: millions may no longer have health insurance, predictably insurance premiums will rise as Republicans undermine health care. The fiduciary rule is no longer in place to protect retirement accounts and the CFPB has been rendered toothless. Other consumer protections have been removed as cabinet level appointments, foxes in the henhouse, assure the dismantling of vital regulations. Say goodbye to net neutrality, environmental protection, or even financial regulations. Income inequality will be on steroids. This is how the economy spins out of control

Republicans in Congress, like Paul Ryan are now ready to propose an austerity budget, that will block grant programs like Medicaid to the States. That’s the Republican health care plan: pay up or die. States will need to either take up some of the burden...or remove services from the most vulnerable.

Hurricane devastated Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Puerto Rico needed urgent assistance, western states fires wiped out unprecedented areas, infrastructure continued to decay, and other problems were unaddressed, Republicans rewarded themselves with tax cuts and deny climate science.

Of course, country club Republicans are always engaged in their favorite sport: avoiding taxes and they have many professionals, lawyers, accountants, and other consultants to help them. Although Republicans claimed that tax preparation would be simpler, their latest bill is, in all its complexity, a gift to tax preparers.

Corporations like Pfizer would migrate overseas and take their earnings with them to avoid taxes. GE, world-class polluter, gets subsidies from the government that give it an effective tax rate of -9%. If I remember my high school civics, the reason the Articles of Confederation was a failure, was that it did not provide adequate taxes. It was replaced with the Constitution that we have today. Over reaching for empire could do us in.

The problem remains. Tax cheating is a problem and Republicans are leaders in exacerbating it. Republicans have cut funding for the IRS, while the tax 'reform' will increase their workload. They are still claiming that tax cuts improve revenue, while the lessons of the past are to the contrary. Are Republicans destroying this Republic also ? There are stern warnings that we are losing our democracy... if we ever had it.

States, like Connecticut, are already under some stress, so very lean budgets will be even more starved.

Finally it will trickle down to the localities and fall on the property tax.

Services will deteriorate at all levels, there will not be much revenue for decaying infrastructure.

Planning for retirement, your hard-earned nest egg must last for the rest of your life, but your financial professional doesn’t have to work on your behalf because the Republican Congress decided that the fiduciary rule is unnecessary.

Ignoring public opinion, Republicans would remove millions from health insurance so they could save money for what they really want: tax cuts for the wealthy.

This brings up the question: Does the Republican Congress work on behalf of the people ? Serious academic studies found that it does not: Gilens and Page of Princeton, Lawrence Lessig’s book “Republic Lost” and others* argue that Congress responds to funders, not the people.

Republicans, counter to public opinion, tried many times to repeal the Affordable Care Act removing millions from health insurance. Without a replacement, they would save money for what they really want: tax cuts for the wealthy.

History shows tax cuts do not pay for themselves, but resulting financial strain could impact Social Security, Education, welfare, etc.

Undaunted, Republicans successfully cut taxes for the wealthy, now paid directly from deficit spending. Elimination of the inheritance tax alone would benefit, in billions, Trump $4, Koch $38.6, Waltons $51.6, Adelson 12.2 ... As Dick Cheney said: “ deficits don’t matter”. The GOP tax plan would also increase income inequality, yet another attack on democracy.

Turns out that tax cuts also included reductions in the payroll tax for Social Security, so it is in trouble now also. Republicans have always wanted to roll back Social Security. They never liked the New Deal.

They did find $700 billion to kill people.

Change tax policy:

  • Why is it that unearned income is taxed at a much lower rate than wage income from hard work ? Tax unearned income instead of payroll taxes. Eliminate Payroll taxes to put more money into the hands of lower income people and improve demand. Without sufficient demand, the number of jobs will not increase.

  • New financial transactions taxes on high-speed trading, a Tobin Tax, and others to reduce speculation and its associated volatility.

  • Raise the inheritance tax so that we don't get an aristocracy. The Walton Family (owners of Wal-Mart) are lobbying mightily to eliminate the estate tax. They stand to gain $37 billion dollars if and when it is repealed. Many of their employees are on food stamps.

  • A stiff graduated income tax would damp down income inequality, take back bank bonuses from taxpayer bailouts, trim exorbitant CEO pay, take back Social Security from people who don't really need it, and unburden people who are out of work. We had a marginal tax rate of over 90% under Ike, and the economy did well.

  • Stop corporate welfare. The fossil fuel industry should not be subsidized.

  • Considering the dire warnings of climate scientists, we need to rapidly reduce use of fossil fuels. Impose a carbon tax. Invest in renewables and energy efficiency.

Even though the deficit is one of their main complaints, country club Republicans favorite sport is evading taxes. Their accountants and lawyers rely on that to make their living, but as in other corrupt countries, tax avoidance is a large part of the problem with deficits. A stiff graduated tax would solve many problems: It would take care of the obscene bonuses that bankers gave themselves after the taxpayer bailouts, it would damp down hedge fund speculation, and it would make means-testing Social Security unnecessary. When Ike was President the top marginal tax rate was around 90%, highly respected executives worked for a dollar a year. But things have changed since Republicans took the Grover Norquist pledge. US leadership has failed.

The simple-minded Republican mantra that lower taxes and smaller government are always better disguises the reality. It is effective in accelerating income disparities to extreme levels, removes the tax burden from the already wealthy, makes government an ATM machine for the well connected, and is an excuse for cutting social supports.

Here's the important thing to notice: earnings from hard work are taxed much more heavily than financial windfalls. That's why Mitt Romney and Warren Buffett pay a much lower percentage tax rate than do the vast majority of workers. It's also one of the reasons that income inequality has grown so rapidly in the U.S. Almost all of the productivity gains of the last few decades (actually since Reagan) have gone to a small fraction of the 1%. Most people would agree that unearned income should be taxed much more heavily than wages from hard work.

That many forms of unearned income should be more lightly taxed than earned income may appear incongruous in a country that, according to the President, sanctifies the work ethic, but the explanation is not hard to fathom: wealth owners have more political power in America than nonowners of wealth. The list of tax privileges that wealth owners enjoy runs the gamut from the petty to the grandiose. The initial advantage is that taxes on unearned income are not withheld automatically, as are taxes on wages and salaries. Unearned income is also exempt from social security and other payroll taxes, which are the fastest growing federal taxes. Peter Barnes (1972)

For example, high-speed trading is a parasitic activity on the market. A tax on high-speed trading could damp down some of the economic volatility we experience, It could raise considerable revenue also.

Students borrowing to pay for higher education should not pay higher interest rates than banks or taxes on their wages. In countries with more successful outcomes, education is free.

A carbon tax should replace payroll taxes for everyone making less than, say, $100,000.

Robin Hood TaxRobin Hood Tax

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, why most people (you) will have to pay more, why the middle class is sinking, and why our government is for the corporations, not the people.

Media, reliably representing the corporate interest, never mentions 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 burdening the already comfortable and relieving the poor. Under Ike the top marginal rate was around 90% and the economy was much 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 labelled the 'death tax' by Republicans) is yet another tax break for unearned wealth that will continue our move toward extreme income inequality and aristocracy. This Republican initiative has the potential to bring back the kind of feudal aristocracy that this country's founders abhorred.

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. They are ready to incur a $1,5 trillion deficit to pay for another tax cut for their wealthy donors. 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. The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision seals the deal.

Graduated Income Tax

Many States have an income tax that is a percentage of Federal. The graduated income tax is the fairest and best one to pay for the town's schools or other State expenses. It is an economic stabilizer, so 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.

Flat Tax

If there is anything that Republicans agree on it is that taxes should be flat, but keep in mind that any flattening is a cut for the already wealthy. It is regressive and it exacerbates our already extreme unfairness in income distribution. Republicans opposed extending the payroll tax cuts which would help working people, but favor lowering corporate taxes and capital gains taxes. They are actually tax dodgers in the pocket of oligarchs.

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 worse than that of 1929. Making it worse makes economic collapse more likely and pushes many into debt servitude.

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. They basically want to roll back the New Deal.

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.

A financial transaction tax is more fair, stabilizing, and much better for the economy. More than 40 countries have one. European finance ministers implemented one on January 1, 2014.

H.R. 1579 proposes a small tax on Wall Street transactions that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually from banks and investment firms that recovered thanks to our tax dollars. The tax would help limit reckless short-term speculation that threatens financial stability, calm the deficit hawks, and slow the Republican war on 'entitlements'.

A former Goldman Sachs investment banker pointed out "High-frequency trades are carried out at 'blinding speeds to the point where 50, 60 or 70 percent are done by 'robo-traders.' This does not give value to the economy, it damages it."

H.R. 1579 revenue could create jobs, maintain failing infrastructure, reduce poverty, and even address climate change. We need a different Congress to pass H.R. 1579.

Property Tax

As inflation proceeds, as it always does, retirees on fixed incomes find that the value of their homes increase along with their taxes and pushes them 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.

The property tax 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.

It is no wonder the argument over the town budget looks like a generational war: Retirees vs Students.

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 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.

Corporations are people...but they don't pay taxesRomney Rain

(6/2015) Ct Governor Malloy's determination to repair infrastructure resulted in spending cuts, and raised corporate taxes, but large corporations, members of the CBIA, screamed in pain and threatened to leave the State.

General Electric cried loudest. From 2008 to 2013, GE profits were over $33.9 billion in United States, it received a total tax refund of more than $2.9 billion, for an effective tax rate of -9 percent.. In 2012, GE stashed $108 billion in offshore tax havens. If this practice were outlawed, GE would have paid $37.8 billion in federal income taxes that year. GE has been a leader in outsourcing decent paying jobs to China, Mexico and other low-wage countries. It is also a leading polluter.

CEO Immelt has a retirement account at General Electric worth an estimated $59 million and made $19 million in total compensation last year.

He is a member of the Business Roundtable, a group that wants to raise the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security to 70, cut Social Security and veterans’ benefits, increase taxes on working families, and cut corporate taxes even further.

As Leonna Helmsley said “Only little people pay taxes” and these Corporations are not little. The lesson we can learn from this: Not only can you not tax multinationals, they will threaten to leave if taxpayers don't bribe them to stay. They can open bidding among States and localities to see who will make them the best offer.

Republicans work hard to keep wages down, oppose minimum wage hikes, and bust unions because they think it is 'business friendly'. In fact it causes demand to drop.

Get real.

Climate change is most likely the most serious threat to life on the planet. Very likely we are beyond the point of no return, yet Republicans deny the science and want to cut spending for the National Science Foundation. That is consistent with their short-sighted closure of the Office of Technology Assessment some years ago. They blocked the CIA's study of climate as a security threat.

Since we are also facing a climate crisis, the best way to deal with these issues would be a stiff carbon tax. That would be a robust revenue source, and an effective way to reduce CO2 emissions.

The kids are doomed, but Republicans don't care.

Electing Republicans assures that the future will include endless war, a hostile climate, and unresponsive government of plutocrats. We should remove them from office.

Go Bernie.

Wouldn't infrastructure be better funded with a higher gasoline tax ? Wouldn't carbon taxes make sense ?

Robbing Hood (12/31/2017)

The Big Lie that is Behind the Trump/GOP Tax Bill (12/19/2017)

A Tax Plan to Turbocharge Inequality, in 3 Charts (10/17/2017)

Deficit Hawk Myth Dead as GOP Unite Over Morally and Economically 'Obscene' Tax Bill

Don't Be Fooled, Warn Critics, Trump's GOP Tax Effort Nothing Short of "Corporate Coup" (11/30/2017)

Paul Krugman: The Biggest Tax Scam in History (11/27/2017)

The Tax Bill Will be an Albatross for House Republicans (11/15/2017)

GOP’s new tax bill is so unpopular even they hate it (11/3/2017)

A Tax Plan for a New Gilded Age (11/2/2017)

Trump’s $700 Billion Gift to Wealthy Foreigners (10/26/2017)

Paul Krugman: Trump Is Lying Through His Teeth About Your Taxes (10/16/2017)

Warren Buffett condemns Donald Trump tax plan that would make the rich even richer (10/4/2017)

[Paul Krugman] Republicans, Trapped by Their Flimflam (10/3/2017)

The GOP Tax Plan is What We Knew it Would Be — Tax Cuts for the Rich (9/28/2017)

How Corporate Capitalism Looted Democracy (9/18/2017)

GOP plan would help only the rich. Catherine Rampell (9/5/2017)

Did Trump Get a Big Tax Refund After 2005? (6/16/2017)

Trump’s tax cuts are trickle down economics all over again — except this time it’s even worse (6/6/2017)

Trump's Tax Cuts May Be More Damaging Than Reagan's (5/1/2017)

Zombies of Voodoo Economics (4/24/2017)

No Trump taxes, no tax reform (4/18/2017)

Filing your income taxes is a pain, and that is not an accident

The 35 Percent Corporate Tax Myth (3/9/2017)

Treasury Nominee Vows No Tax Cut for Rich. Math Says the Opposite. (2/9/2017)

Trump Tax Plan Would Give Wealthiest Americans $2.1 Trillion in Tax Cuts

Analysis: 60% of House GOP's Proposed Tax Cut Would Go to the Top 1%

Trump and Congress Both Want Tax Cuts. The Question Is Which Ones. (11/12/2016)

American elites don't have to go to Panama to hide their money — they can go to Delaware. (5/4/2016)

Here’s a Way to Shut Down Panama Papers-Style Tax Havens — If We Wanted To (4/17/2016)

Forget Panama: it's easier to hide your money in the US than almost anywhere (4/6/2016)

Not Just Trump: Every GOP Candidate Is an Extremist (3/1/2016)

Donald Trump: I Fight Like Hell Not To Pay (2/10/2016)

seven Ways to end the Deficit Without throwing Grandma Under the Bus

Top Corporate Tax Dodgers

Work and Taxes

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.

National Priorities Project

The Estate Tax Scam

Where your taxes go. See the explanation why percentages vary.

About Oreo Cookies


Howard Zinn on Taxes and Class War


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 were 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
Slightly modified from the 1040 ez tax form available at http://www.archive.org/details/1040WAR. See this piechart also.

Video

We're Not Broke (1 hour and 20 minutes) Watch it free on-line. America is in the grip of a societal economic panic. Lawmakers cry “We’re Broke!” as they slash budgets, lay off schoolteachers, police, and firefighters, crumbling our country’s social fabric and leaving many Americans scrambling to survive. Meanwhile, multibillion-dollar American corporations like Exxon, Google and Bank of America are making record profits. And while the deficit climbs and the cuts go deeper, these corporations—with intimate ties to our political leaders—are concealing colossal profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. income tax.

WE’RE NOT BROKE is the story of how U.S. corporations have been able to hide over a trillion dollars from Uncle Sam, and how seven fed-up Americans from across the country, take their frustration to the streets . . . and vow to make the corporations pay their fair share.

5 Tax Myths You'll Hear During Republican Presidential Debate (8/5/2015)

The Walmart Web: How the World’s Biggest Corporation Secretly Uses Tax Havens to Dodge Taxes (6/17/2015)

GOP Governors State Tax Proposals Hit Poor Harder (5/6/2015)

Republican Presidential Candidates Rally Around Flat Tax (5/15/2015)

Taxes Take, and Give Back, Mostly to the Very Rich (3/2015)

The Gap Between Statutory and Real Corporate Tax Rates (3/2015)

Paul Ryan's triple scam on tax reform (11/23/2014)

The Tax Code Is Rigged (8/22/2014)

Stop Subsidizing Tax Dodgers, Stiglitz (5/31/2014)

If the IRS Was Targeting Karl Rove's Shadowy Group, It Was Doing Its Job (4/11/2014)

More Proof Corporate Tax Cuts Have Done More Harm Than Good (3/27/2014)

5 Reasons It's Just Absurd That America Doesn't Tax Wall St's Transactions (7/22/2013)

Meet The Top Wall Street and Corporate Tax Dodgers (7/4/2013) PDF

A Tax System Stacked Against The 99%: Joe Stiglitz(4/16/2013)

Happy Birthday, Dear Income Tax (2/25/2013)

US Firms Stash Tens of Billions In Tax Havens, Govt Says (1/30/2013)

The Truth Behind Grover Norquist's Pledge (12/11/12)

Eliot Spitzer's Excellent Idea (12/4/2012)

Tax Cuts Don't Lead to Economic Growth, a New 65-Year Study Finds (9/16/2012)

15 Things the GOP Doesn't Want You To Know about Taxes And The Debt (9/2/2012)

A Tax Plan That Defies the Rules of Math (8/11/2012)

Republicans Will Raise Taxes, just Not on the Wealthy (7/24/2012)

Corporation that paid nothing in taxes for four years Tells Congress it Paid too much in taxes (7/21/2012)

Senate Republicans Block Debate On Buffett Rule (3/17/2012)

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)

The Problem With Flat Tax Fever (11/5/2011)

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)

Harvard and Northwestern Economists: GOP tax cuts and resulting emergence of the elite class caused the financial crisis (2/20/2009)

Bibliography

The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions - and What You Can Do About It: Charles Lewis And Bill Allison and the Center for Public Integrity

Perfectly Legal: David Kay Johnson

The Hidden Wealth of Nations, The Scourge of Tax Havens, Gabriel Zucman (UC Berkeley)

The Fine Print: David Cay Johnston

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else: David Cay Johnston

The great American tax dodge : how spiraling fraud and avoidance are killing fairness, destroying the income tax, and costing you: Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele

America: Who Really Pays the Taxes ? Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele