"The Miami-Dade recall bid, spearheaded by a billionaire anti-tax crusader, is the latest in a growing number of similar such attempts across the country to remove officials from office by voters angered by everything from taxes to the salaries of elected officials and union rights." (Explanation of the 88% vote to get rid of Carlos Alvarez, Mayor of Miami, Florida).
Norman Braman, an auto dealer mogul listed by Forbes magazine among the 400 wealthiest Americans, bankrolled the petition drive that led to Tuesday's vote. Local media reports say he has spent about $1 million on the effort, which he orchestrated through two political action committees.
Braman is known in Miami for leading a campaign to halt a 1-cent sales tax increase for mass transit improvements in the late 1990s
"We've been hit hard," he told Reuters in an interview in January. (Reuters, March 16, 2011)
It's easy to be a billionaire anti-tax crusader when opposing a penny tax for mass transit and more so when foaming at the mouth about salaries of elected (!) officials and the rights of union members. "They" really have their heads in the trough, but "we" have been hit hard, according to Braman. Let's shed a tear for poor old Norman.
Warren Buffett stated that he paid about 17.7% on his taxable income of over $40,000,000 while his secretary paid 30% on her taxable income. He's not alone. The prevailing taxable rate for the super-rich in the United States is about 16%. How about yours? I wonder about Mr. Braman's tax rate.
The defenders of the rich, generally on the Right, claim their buddies pay an inordinate amount of total taxes. Maybe they're right, but it's because they rake in an inordinate amount of the total income. Since 1980 (surprise!!!), the taxes on the richest Americans and biggest corporations have gone down while the load on the middle class has gone up. How about that, Mr. Braman?
Whenever someone prints anything like this, the Right sets up the howl of "Class Warfare!" or something similar. Maybe that's the kind of revolution Thomas Jefferson talked about when he said a little revolution can be a good thing. If taxing the rich is, as many Republicans claim, a way of killing jobs, then I claim the current battle against the needy is a way of killing people. If watching all the safeguards for the poor disappear, who's going to come out best if the middle class is next?
People like Mr. Braman.