Wanda Rohl and her corporate-funded, Cantor backed opponent, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, share diametrically opposing views when it comes to taxes in America. While her opponent sees taxes as an intrusion and an attack on our liberty, Wanda sees taxes for what they are: An Unpopular but Necessary Reality that allows our country to function.
Here is the story of a "day in the life" routine of one campaign volunteer and how taxes help him (and ALL of us)!
This morning I woke up at 4 a.m. to my really annoying alarm clock, used the bathroom, showered, brushed my teeth, and dressed for work.
Next, I checked my work and personal cell phones for messages, checked my email and social networks for messages, emailed some information to a work associate and confirmed that my direct banking deposit had occurred.
Before leaving, I grabbed a glass of ice water and set my home thermostat so that the air would kick on by the time I got home.
Then I hopped in my car, clicked the garage opener, rolled down the alley to the mailbox and grabbed my mail. Drove the 15-odd miles to the interstate (which is under construction, of course) and drove to the western burbs where I work.
I spent the day at work, which basically involves maintaining equipment that scans, digitizes, and transmits bill payments to banks over the Internet for various utilities, retailers, financial institutions and telecommunications companies. The day involved driving to various locations to check on machinery, help other technicians, and field tech support questions on my work cell.
I also called to wish my six-year-old grandson “Happy Birthday!”
My drive home was by interstate, and when I arrived home the air had been on for about 30 minutes so the house was comfortable. Grabbed another ice water, kicked back to check my DVR recordings, then hopped upstairs to answer emails.
I will head to my grandson’s birthday party early this evening, where he will amaze me with how much he’s learned in his six short years. He does quite well in school, as does his eight-year-old brother, and is excited to return. They like their teachers a lot.
This relatively unremarkable day involved a simple set of activities that just about everyone goes through during a typical work day. This day might have been your day. Typical.
Underlying these activities, however, are a number of things most of us rarely think about.
The campaign volunteer awoke with no fear that a foreign enemy would be rolling down his street, because our military protects our national security. The alarm clock that woke him is powered by electricity from a power plant whose operation is safe due to federal regulations and inspections. The water from his faucets is non-toxic due to federal regulators who maintain watch over our water supply. The contents of his lunch were safe due to the USDA inspections.
The car he drives, although operating on fossil fuel, produces relatively low pollutants (when compared with years past) due to federal guidelines and air quality inspections. His mail arrives via the U.S. Postal Service, which uses zero tax dollars to operate but was devised as a federal agency by our founders. The mail arrives via roads funded by the government and by and airways regulated for safety by the federal government.
His cell phones are able to send and receive calls because the FCC sets operating frequencies to keep everyone from randomly using the same frequencies so that communicating is impossible. The satellite systems that make long range cellular communications possible are delivered into orbit either directly by NASA or made possible by work pioneered by NASA, which is funded by the federal government. In fact, the miniaturization that made today’s pocket-size phones owe their size directly to miniaturization pioneered for the U.S. space program.
The Interstate Highway System he used to get to work were built with federal funds and started in the late 1950s. In case you rarely think about it, many of the towns, neighborhoods and businesses that line these highways owe their existence to the presence of those interstates! Think about it; All along any journey to and from work there are countless warehouses owned by companies like Walmart, Target, Nestle etc.
Companies like UPS and FedEx build their processing facilities near interstates and airports. Countless corporate office buildings cluster around the interstates. Interstate and short range trucking is non-stop, as cargo from businesses large and small comes and goes over these roads.
All of these giant corporations and smaller business benefit directly from the presence of infrastructure that was put there by American workers and built with the sweat of American workers. It is difficult to imagine many of the larger businesses even existing without the ability to quickly transport products over these roadways. And it is the mere presence of the interstates that caused many towns to pop up and the need for small businesses to provide goods and services in these new population centers.
Let’s not forget the Internet, another bit of infrastructure developed and implemented with government funding. The internet is a tool that not only allows instant access to information, communications and entertainment, but without it the institutions at which our volunteer works would not be able to almost instantly send funds to banks (which begin earning interest almost instantly). These operations spend billions per year utilizing these assets, and they do it to earn billions MORE in profits. This is certainly an upgrade compared to the old system that required truckloads of paper checks to be shipped cross country to Federal Reserve clearing houses.
To make a really long story short, the inescapable reality is that federal tax dollars reinvested into America’s infrastructure and safety made this growth possible. Had it not been for government investment in infrastructure and safety our lives would be unimaginably different. Without these investments many of America’s largest corporations would never have been possible. Just try to imagine Walmart without the Interstates for their trucks to restock stores.
In a recent WCMY (1430 AM) radio interview in Ottawa, IL, Wanda’s opponent said the following: “when you take money out of the pockets of small business owners and concentrate it in the federal government you’re disempowering the American people and taking away their ability to get this economy back in recovery.” Clearly, Mr. Kinzinger is either oblivious to the reinvestment nature of federal tax dollars or he is simply choosing to disregard the facts.
In that radio interview, Mr. Kinzinger incorrectly stated, whether intentionally or in error, that “The rich pay higher [taxes both in percentage terms and in real terms." Of course the truth is those earning the most pay only about half the percentage that regular working folks pay, and this is due to a tax system designed by wealthy interests to benefit wealthy interests.
Per indisputable historical record, our country has always thrived when taxation on top earners has been at its highest, and our country has always been worse off financially when taxation on the wealthiest was at its lowest.
Historic low federal tax levels on top earners are virtually the same today as they were in the late 1920, rates that led to the Great Depression and recently to the Great Recession. And in both instances, rather than return to more practical tax rates on the wealthy conservative politicians fought to force the poor and working class to shoulder the burden.
The reality is, contrary to Mr. Kinzinger’s flawed perspective on taxation, the wealthiest individuals and corporations in this country benefit far more from the infrastructure built with tax dollars than do average Americans. Indeed, many of those corporations couldn’t exist without that infrastructure and therefore are more responsible, not less so, to bear the responsibility to build and maintain infrastructure through higher tax rates.
Someone should remind Wanda’s opponent that the Interstate Highway System, one of the largest federally funded infrastructure projects in American history, was proposed and implemented by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, while the effective tax rates on top earners stood around 90 percent. Our economy boomed at the time and the interstate system continues to fuel our economy more than half a century later.
Please visit Wanda's campaign web site! Learn more about the issues that concern her, sign up to volunteer, or contribute to this truly grassroots congressional campaign at: Wanda Rohl for Congress
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