Let's face it, there isn't a soul on the planet who likes taxes. However, A: they're necessary to funding a government, and B: we like our government services when it comes down to it. We like police, firefighters, the military, Medicare, Social Security, we like these things. A lot. If we didn't, they wouldn't always be left untouched when it comes down to the budget every year.
So, here's a few facts about how unserious the budget talks have been and will continue to be for years as long as both sides continue to ignore revenue.
A: The "tax cuts" over the past decade or so have done little for the vast majority of the nation.
B: The share of the nation's wealth held by the top one percent is 34%, while the half of America above the median (not the mean or average, but median) holds 97.5%! (http://www.businessinsider.com/...)
C: The gap between rich and poor has not been this disparate since the Roaring Twenties and subsequent Great Depression. Considering this has been called our worst economy since the Depression, this shouldn't be surprising.
D: While the markets, CEO pay, and corporate profits have been on a huge increase since 1996, the pay of workers has been stagnant. (http://www.businessinsider.com/...)
E: The average hourly pay of a worker is only 98 CENTS higher than it was in 1964, but the cost of living means that the $33,678 that worker made in 1964 is the 2011 equivalent of $239,790!
F: Finally, the average tax rate for the middle class, give or take a couple of percentage points, has been stagnant, while the rich (and remember, the rich hold a much larger share of the wealth pot) have seen their rates go down. (http://www.businessinsider.com/...)
Conclusions after the jump.
So, in short, while the rich get richer, they pay a much smaller share of a rapidly growing share of our revenue. The whole idea of trickle-down economics is a FRAUD, because the rich don't pay their workers more, despite two rounds of trickle-down based tax cuts (1983 and 2001). The average hourly pay has changed minimally despite massive inflation over the past 45 years, but CEO pay has massively risen in the same time period, from 24 times their average worker in 1965 to 262 times the average worker in 2005!
In short, Republicans (with the help of too many compromising Democrats) have passed two rounds of tax cuts that have NOT brought prosperity to the average American. The years of the most even distribution of wealth, and also our greatest years of economic prosperity, was between 1944-1964, when the top one percent paid an immensely high tax rate (http://www.businessinsider.com/...) Now, to be fair, I think 91% is a ridiculously high tax rate. But it is now down to 35%, and after deductions and such, they only pay 23%.
Let's review here. They own 34% of the nation's wealth, but only pay 3% higher tax rates than the average American after their deductions. The bottom 50% of the nation, which only holds 2.5% of the nation's wealth, has an effective 20% rate, and the top one percent, which holds over a THIRD of that pie, pays 23%.
We have a deficit because more money has gone to less people, who have succesfully bought and paid for enough politicians that they give less of it back in taxes. Because these people hold more of the money, and pay less to the government, we steadily face reduced revenues, which leads to greater deficits. Remember, at the end of the Clinton years, we ran three straight surpluses. Bush came in, gave it all away in tax breaks to that top tier, and deficits returned. Yet the Republican plan is to cut the living hell out of the things that keep that bottom 50%, which holds a miniscule share of our nation's wealth, out of abject poverty and early death. They are unserious about fixing this deficit, and every Democrat that joins with them in this is just as unserious.
You wanna fix the deficit? Stop treating the rich as if they were poor. Bring their tax rate up another five-ten points, and you'll close the deficit (and that's being generous, because they pay twelve percent less than their actual rate in any case with deductions and the like).
I made an error in the poll. It was supposed to say one percent. My apologies
Updated by wolverinethad at Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 12:50 AM EDT
This helps prove my point, I think: http://www.commondreams.org/...