Since the 1970’s presidential candidates have been releasing tax return information. Gov. Romney did it. We the people have come to expect it. Oh wait that was the other Gov. Romney. Therefor when someone refuses more info, when that person falls in the earnings category of one capable of dodging all federal income taxes, then the people have all the more reason to demand to see the only proof there is, the tax returns of Mitt Romney. It is a big poker game and Mitt Romney you are being called. You can’t ask people to support your tax policies without them knowing if your tax policies give you a free pass.
Now here comes running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, darling of the Tea-Party movement. In that moment Romney has hitched his political wagon to not just bring back the failed economic policies that led to this most recent and most severe recession but to bring them back on steroids. They want more regulations rolled back. They want more tax breaks for the upper income earners. They want more suspect financial instruments like derivatives and junk bonds. Given a chance I’m quite sure they would repeal some if not all of our anti-trust legislation bringing back the era of monopolies.
Baby-boomers who think the one with the most toys at the end wins favor these policies. It was their consumerism that led them to believe that their children have to have everything. Here is how it went under Reaganomics. The top end of the middle-class did just that, they bought walk-man, IPods, computers, cars and college educations and most important, they remained in the black. The rest of the middle-class lived like this. They charged walk-men, IPods and computers. They told their children if they wanted a car to get a job and buy one.
Then there were parents like me that told their children do good in school, get really good grades and you’ll get a scholarship for college. My daughter graduated in the top 10% of the nation in high school, cum laude from the top community college in the nation, and just missed honors when she graduated an honors college with a Bachelor’s Degree. In the time it took her to graduate she got less than a thousand dollars in scholarship, total.
Off the subject for a second, you know how the upper-part of the middle-class likes to squawk about kids getting trophies for just showing up. Yea, they started that. It wasn’t the kids playing baseball where they had to scour the field for broken glass before each game that started that. They played the game despite the glass because they love the game. It was parents who spent a lot of money on grooming nice fields, and each kid got a real baseball uniform complete with the weird baseball stockings. It was those parents that couldn’t deal with Johnnies crying over going 0-46 for the season, or led the league in errors. They couldn’t deal with his crying over not getting a trophy. He surely should get some recognition that they got him there for every damn practice and those damn things they called games.
Back to the topic at hand, Romney/Ryan surely does not want to take us back to doing big things like in the 50’s. You never hear the modern Republican applaud President Eisenhower for building the inter-state highway system because they don’t like paying for its upkeep. It was Eisenhower that led the way on desegregation of the Army. Again not a favorite subject of Republican’s because they are afraid that people might come to the conclusion that Pres. Eisenhower might have opposed “don’t ask, don’t tell.” He might have even supported the rights of gay military personnel to serve openly. And they most certainly do not want to take us back to the tax brackets of the 1950’s.
I mean after all people in 1950 making between $200,000 - $273,438 paid 80.99%; so we know we’re not going back there! Even under the great Richard Nixon taxes for those over $200K/yr. was 71.75%. Oh my God and those generations, built schools, built highways, built businesses, put a man on the moon, and oh yea paid for WWII, the Korean War, and were paying as they go in Viet Nam, or at least it was in the fucking budget.
What we’re asking for now, since the Republicans have taxed and spent us into this mess, is similar tax rates adjusted for inflation. For instance using the Nixon era tax rate of 71.75% we’re not suggesting that this apply to those making $200K/yr. but rather a tax rate at least approaching that on those making $1,187,520/yr. That’s what I think would start to approach fair.
However, our situation is not that dire. We don’t need to double the highest tax rate which is what would happen if we went to the Nixon era tax rate. We do however need to raise the upper income tax rates. We don’t need to, as Pres. Clinton recently said “double down on trickle down.” We do need to pay for these latest wars and recoup some of the taxes from the upper income earners that they were allowed to skate on thanks to the Bush tax cuts.
We have operated under trickle-down Reaganomics in some form or other for the last 32 years, or basically two generations. The question is not are you better than you were four years ago? It is, are you better off than two generations ago? Are you better off than your parents were at your age now? Hmm, my parents bought a new car every few years, now that don’t even sell us cars they rent them to us. I’d have to say no to that one. When my mother passed she lived a few houses off the beach, had a great job, and an investment property. I am in my late fifties and we just managed to swing buying our first home and it’s an apartment. So no I am not better off under trickle-down economics.
I do have to say, nice try Gov. Romney & Rep. Ryan, you tried to distract us. But all the congressman swimming naked in the Sea of Galilee and all the stupid congressman spouting ignorant statements about rape will not change the subject. The people you are asking to support you have the right to know if you are squirrelling millions of dollars off shore to avoid paying taxes to your government. We have a right to know if while all of the middle-class, all of the small business owners, and all of the working poor are paying taxes you get to skate.
Now this election despite what Republican surrogates might say on camera is not just about the economic policies of Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan. How can it be? Their polices are like Nixon’s plan to get us out of Viet Nam in 1968, secret. It’s however about the fairness of our of our entire tax code, thanks to Gov. Romney’s refusal to release more tax returns. The Tea Party says no new taxes, Grover Norquist says no new taxes, and one Republican after another running for election says no new taxes. I say we don’t want new taxes. We want to bring back the old taxes.
Liberals like to talk about how it is the big money people with connections to the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) that take us to war. It benefits their bottom lines. This is true. However what has changed it used to be that before, during and after the war, they paid for the war in the form of higher taxes. Along comes George W. Bush who gets the brilliant idea, hey lets wage two wars and not include either in the budget, deficit spend to pay for both and oh yea give the MIC and its supporters a big tax break. We want to go back to the old way.
The strongest opposition I hear on the subject of taxes comes from people making near or just above the magic $250,000/year. I understand their frustration but we’re not talking about their taxes. I'm talking about increasing the taxes on those making over a million dollars a year more. If you’re a professional athlete making $28 million a year or movie star making that per picture, your taxes are going up. And many of those in those occupations are okay with that. It is the big money makers who make their money by moving it around who are bitching.
“To whom much is given much is expected.” This is the fundamental idea behind graduated income taxes. The problem is under trickle-down we have fed into peoples fundamental greed. The idea that those who are already making the most money deserve the biggest tax break feeds it. Those who make the most money are driving it. If it is through sports, entertainment, even journalism your motivation is one thing. However, if you make your money through business your main motivation is making money, greed. Not necessarily in the “one of the seven deadly sins” way but greed nonetheless.
I am not alone in my suspicion that Gov. Romney is refusing to release more tax returns because they would show that under Pres. Bush probably during the years 2005 thru 2008, he didn’t pay federal income taxes because of loopholes. This is how he can make the statement that he has paid all the taxes he legally owed. And that is the point to this whole discussion. We’re not claiming that the Governor cheated on his taxes. We’re challenging whether or not he is among that 47% that didn’t pay federal income taxes, only not because he is old, or disabled or poor but because he and his party have rigged the system so the rich pay a small percentage of income in taxes while the middle class pays a higher percentage.
As we close in on October, and both campaigns worry about what the October Surprise will be the time has come for Gov. Romney to do what he would make any company he was taking over would have to do – open the books. Yes it is probably going to be a historic October Surprise if this happens. However, as voter I don’t care. I care about fairness in our tax code. I care that a candidate for president would require more tax returns from his vice-presidential running mate than he himself is willing to reveal to his potential employers – the American people. Well Gov. we the people call. You tried running this bluff but we’re not buying. It is time to show your cards.