Monday, May 30, 2011

Tax cuts for the rich - how ridiculous, and some advice for the President

Anyone concerned with saving, strengthening, preserving out democracy (you pick the word, based on your analysis of how degraded that democracy currently is) will agree that we must stop the persistent, immoral and illegal-if-the-wealthy-did-not-write-the-laws redistribution of wealth from poor and middle classes to the richest tiny percentage.

Looks like President Obama is going to try again to build support to reinstate taxes on the well-to-do. I sure hope he does a better job this time of defining the issue and generating outrage.

The choice should be very starkly presented: "Which is more important to you: that children in this country do not suffer or that millionaires and billionaires sock away another million or billion?"

Unfortunately, from what I've read I think Obama is going to repeat an earlier mistake: he will call for cancellation of tax cuts for Americans earning $250,000 or more.

If he sticks with the $250K boundary, I fear he (and we) will lose the battle once again. The problem is that this number is (or at least sounds) too low; it sounds, in fact, like an amount that lots and lots of people in the middle class used to make or feel they could make at some point. In other words, that number makes too many people feel like it could hurt them just as they start to succeed.

I urge President Obama (and we all know that he listens closely to what I have to say) to push up that number. Say instead:

"Let's reinstate taxes for anyone earning at least $500,000 a year."

I believe this one change could cause a significant shift in the way most Americans perceive this issue, and it will make it much harder for the rich, who are strangling our nation and bringing harm to our children through their disgusting greed, to defend themselves and the laws they bribe our Congresspeople to pass.

2 comments:

Joel Garry said...

Very good observation.

Here's an interesting editorial: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/may/30/e-j-dionne-closing-the-imagination-deficit/

My state breakdown: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/31/2648102/californiataxes.html (I was looking for a more recent article more in line with your suggestion, but couldn't find it right off).

word: arverre

NCSchoon said...

Steve, while your thoughts are always appreciated I thought your article deserved another perspective. I didn't write it but I think it sums up the argument of taxing the rich to fix this nation's money problems...

http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=13618

Enjoy and hope you and your family are well. Have you been to Saugatuck lately?