When it comes to paying taxes, if any class are the patriots, it is the down trodden, the homeless, the lowest class, even welfare mothers who actually pay more taxes than the rich ever thought of paying. Not only are they supplying the soldiers for the needless war in Iraq and dying in Afghanistan, they are also carrying the heaviest burden of paying the most in taxes. I am not making this up!
A while back I took the tax fairness workshopput on by my church council's tax fairness coalition in my state. To be honest with you, while my church council is hip to much of the truth about poverty and its institutionalization in order to create more virtual slave labor I was expecting basically some semi-Libertarian pap; we shouldn't pay ANY taxes, blah de blah ..."
Sorry Libs, even though I am 300% below the poverty level at this time, I believe it is patriotic to pay taxes and when I worked my 35 years of McJobs, even though they took quite a chunk out of my pay check as head of household for three kids, I heartily supported it. That paid for the roads I took to work; the sidewalks my children walked upon, the schooling they got, the police and fire protection we depended upon, the courts, and so many other services. I really really could not get behind those idiots who didn't want to pay taxes.
As I listened to the people teaching the fairness class, I got angrier and angrier as I saw in the graphs and statistics in reality what is happening. The poor and the middle class are the ones taking the brunt of our tax burdens, with the poorest paying the most (especially in my state of Washington where we are the worst because we depend mostly on regressive taxes).
I learned that in my state, while the poor pay over 19% of their meager incomes in taxes, the rich pay less than 5% of their income in taxes ~ and the amount the rich pay is about the same nationwide. The middle class pay on the average of about 7%-9% in taxes nationwide, about the same in my state. Washington State has a $9.2 billion deficit at this time. Two of the richest men in the world live and run their business in our state, Bill Gates and Paul Allen ~ along with a slew of other rich entitles such as the Weyerhausers, the Casey family who are the owners of UPS, and several more billionaires as well as a couple hundred multi-millionaires. If Bill Gates alone paid the 19% in taxes that a poor person paid, our state's deficit would not only go away, we would have a surplus.
I am not trying to slight the middle class, they pay their share, but the poorest of poor have been burdened with paying more taxes for several decades, far more than the middle class. Welfare Reform has exacerbated the problem because it is a disaster, it is sending millions of women into permanent poverty with no safety net due to its arbitrary time limits and its only criteria being how many have left the rolls with no concern for whether or not these women are making a livable wage. There is little or no data as to where these families went or how they are faring ...to tell you the truth from what I have seen as an advocate, nobody wants to know where these women and children went and how they are because they are terrified of the truth they will see if they do take a good look. Welfare mothers most who live far below the poverty level (average of about 300%) are the heaviest tax payers of the bunch! However the middle class is also burdened, far more than the wealthy.
One of the links the class gave to us was the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy They have been studying and taking data for the tax patterns of all the states in the U.S. for quite awhile and they have some damning evidence about the middle class, poverty, and the taxes we pay. It is so damning, it should make every citizen who is told, "We can't afford health care (or any safety net funding)," damn mad!
I spoke with Robert McIntyre on the phone today who is one of the named researchers on Who Pays? from the afore mentioned institute. The information there is about 4 years old and I wanted to know if there was newer data. He told me that they are putting out new data this month and it should be up on the website within a few weeks that I gave with the home page link above. Something tells me it will make you even madder when you see the more recent data.
You might wonder how it is that the poor pay this much in taxes. Well, it is in mostly regressive taxes such as the taxes on household supplies, clothing, sales tax, and the like. If their state depends on property taxes, it is reflected in the rents they pay, if in wages, the taxes there, as well as the gas or transportation they use to get to work, (with federal as well as state taxes attached). These are a few of the ways that the poor support our tax structure at a greater percentage and thus a harder burden to bear as they are left unable to pay for the necessities unlike a billionaire who if they paid the same percentage, just can't buy that bigger yacht ...
It goes beyond all we've paid in bailouts and wars, though that is billions of wasted money enough out of our pockets, all right. Just don't let them tell you we don't have enough money when you ask for a pledge for health care or for other community services we desperately need for a safety net, as our economy tanks, families face housing crises and the cost of health care spirals out of the solar system. Corporations are also not paying their fair share according to this study,
Again if the rich and corporations paid what a low income person pays thanks in part to these taxes we would not have a deficit, these disgusting entitled CEOs might even get a little bit of their (unearned) bonuses. And if they paid what a poor person paid, these entitles would have a hell of a lot more left over for luxuries than someone living 300% below the poverty line who cannot afford the necessities, we could more than afford health care and the safety net we desperately need, AND our deficit would disappear.
DON'T let the Suits kid you any longer. Paying taxes as we do is the most patriotic thing anyone could do for America, including the rich and corporations. If they acted as true Americans and paid their fair share in taxes as well as paid no cap for their Social Security, we would be able to fund a health care initiative and we would no longer have a deficit.
Get mad and then don't take no for an answer!