"Tax the Rich -- Feed the Poor -- til there are No Rich No More"
That's a line from an old 70's classic:
"I'd Love to Change the World" by 10 Years After.
I used to really like this song --
Until I finally understood the lyrics.
Waverly High School video (10 Years After)
http://www.youtube.com/...
Instead of a call to Action --
it was really a rationalization for just more Inaction.
(Nice guitar playing though.)
The worst part about it, however it subtly reinforces so many right-wing Frames (unless of course, you see some sort of sarcasm in it, as did the creative kids at Waverly High School -- nice video work!)
"Tax the Rich -- Feed the Poor -- til there are No Rich No More"
This is the GOP great battle-cry: "Taxes are Bad"
They equate Social Programs to help People, with Socialism and Anti-Americanism -- Since when did having Compassion and Charity towards others, become an Anti-American Value? Sorry, I think I missed that memo!
There's is nothing wrong with hard work, everyone should do their "fair share" to make the world a better place. Unfortunately in our current system, with its blind chase for ever increasing global profits -- there is often a Fallout Cost somewhere!
As it is often expressed by politicians with a Corporate leaning, our current system of Global Trade "has its Winners, and it has its Losers, too"
How quaint, those who lose their jobs here in America, to some desperate workers overseas, they're called "Losers" -- like that makes everything OK, or something!
And the Corporations that hire those desperate workers, are "the Winners" I suppose -- well that makes everything swell then, long as Someone Wins Something!
If you follow such reasoning to its inevitable logical conclusions, you'll end up with a Nation with all the compassion of T-Rex. Greed and Fear will become the order of the day.
John Edwards is often attacked in the right-wing echo chamber for his "Economic Populism". Some have likened it to Class Warfare! Indeed, on ABC's This Week, George Will chided John Edwards for his "Economic Illiteracy".
The Round Table
Excuse me!
It's like if the Top 1% of Elite America (aka. the "Super Rich"), if they had to pay their "Fair Share" to support this Democracy that they utilize everyday, that the Country would suddenly crawl to a stop! I have a newsflash for those super wealthy CEO wantabees -- What they're doing NOW IS already making America crawl to a stop! The chances of a recession (or even a serious Depression) are now rated at greater than 50/50, thanks to their short-sited shenanigans, to always take more!
Far from being an "Economic Illiterate" as George Will claimed, John Edwards Economic Remedies are very targeted, very specific, and very reasonable too!
Edwards is simply proposing a change back to the Marginal Tax Rates of the Reagan Era. The Country did fine in those years as I recall -- No CEO's were forced into soup lines, back then. In fact even the Middle Class was better off in those good old days.
Additionally, John Edwards would focus on closing Tax loop holes for Corporations and Hedge Funds. It's way past time to get them to "pony up" for their "fair share" to underwrite this Country, they benefit from.
Did you know that "more than half of the Bush tax cuts – $132 billion – will go to the top 1% of taxpayers in 2010"? The Edwards Tax plan would repeal this "giveaway" to the Rich too.
Historically, Marginal Tax Rates have been much higher than we have now: (Even rolling back to the Reagan Tax rates of the 1980's is hardly extreme, given historical Tax rates.)
Even when we had greater levels of Tax Responsibility for the very wealthy in eras past, that did NOT cause the U.S. Economy to nosedive in those years. Just the contrary actually, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) continued to grow in those periods, in large part I suspect, due to the hard working nature of the American People:
Today however, with increasing price of a Barrel of Oil ...
and No National plan for a coherent Energy Policy -- and No plan to curb Hedge Fund speculation either, which is driving those Oil Prices ever higher, all for the sake of a "quick buck" for their upper crust speculators ...
Well, most middle class Americans, who can't afford Hedge Funds, we have to resort to drastic measures to make ends meet! Measures like mortgaging away our future, and relying on debt, just to survive:
John Edwards has smart, targeted plans to stem the financial bleeding and to start to help ordinary people again, to get out from that mountain of debt. It's called "Economic Fairness" -- and it seems to be a very "Literate" approach, to most people, in spite of what the good rightie Pundit George Will will call it:
Restore Tax Fairness: Reward work, not just wealth, and Repeal the Bush tax breaks for the Wealthy
The Goals:
"It's time to stop promoting the wealth of the wealthy and start making sure that everyone has the chance to move up the economic ladder."
The Steps: to Repeal the Bush tax breaks
(A) Restore Fair Taxation of Wealth
(a) Restore the investment income tax rate to 28 percent for Americans making more than $250,000 a year so that wealthy investors don't pay a lower rate on investments than many regular Americans pay on wages.
[ some key details from pdf-2: ]
To ensure that the wealthiest Americans are paying their fair share of taxes and to reduce the economic distortions from tax shelters resulting from large capital gains preferences, Edwards will raise the top tax rate on long-term capital gains to 28 percent for the most fortunate taxpayers, the same rate signed into law by President Reagan. The 28 percent rate will ensure that high-income investors will pay taxes on their investment income at a similar rate to what regular families pay on their earned income.
(b) Repeal the Bush tax cuts for households earning more than $200,000 a year.
[ some key details from pdf-2: ]
More than half of the Bush tax cuts – $132 billion – will go to the top 1 percent of taxpayers in 2010. Edwards will repeal the Bush tax cuts for the highest-income households. He will also eliminate estate taxes for the middle class, small business owners and family farmers, while keeping these taxes on the few families with large estates above $4 million in value.
(c) Keep the tax on very largest inheritances while protecting family businesses and family farms.
(B) Simplify Taxes
(a) Simplify taxes for up to 50 million families by giving them the option of letting the IRS complete a first draft of their forms for "five-minute filing."
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The Policy Summary Document:
John Edwards: The Plan to Build One America [pdf1]
http://johnedwards.com/...
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The Edwards Issue Page on Tax Reform:
http://www.johnedwards.com/...
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The Policy Details Document:
Building One Economy with Tax Reform to Reward Work [pdf2]
http://johnedwards.com/...
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Isn't it time that the Corporate Citizens in this Country, and those very fortunate enough to invest millions, to make millions on speculating, Isn't it time for them to start paying a larger slice of this Economic Pie, again?
[Note: the data after 2001 in this chart is Projected data only.]
John Edwards thinks the Corporate free-ride must end, too.
Restore Tax Fairness: Shut down special Loopholes for insiders
The Goals:
[ some key details from pdf-2: ]
Declare War on Tax Havens: About $300 billion a year in taxes go unpaid, and about $1.5 trillion in personal assets of U.S. taxpayers are held offshore. These unpaid taxes increase the share of the tax burden shouldered by honest taxpayers. Edwards will end the abuse of foreign tax havens: low-tax countries that facilitate American corporations and wealthy individuals seeking to avoid U.S. taxes.
Close the Hedge Fund and Private Equity Loopholes: Some of the most highly paid people in America are the managers of hedge funds and private equity funds, some of whom make hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions a year. Although most of their income, like other earned income, is nothing more than payment for the work they do, they pay only the 15 percent capital gains rate rather than the ordinary income tax rate. Edwards will close this loophole and also ensure that publicly traded private equity and hedge funds pay corporate taxes.
Cap Executive Pensions: Top executives at large corporations commonly receive deferred compensation packages that allow them to put off indefinitely the payment of taxes on much of their compensation. They have in effect unlimited IRAs or 401(k)s, without the limits that apply to other workers. Edwards will limit the amount of money that can be put into these funds to $1 million a year.
The Steps: to Shut down special Loopholes
(A) Declare War on Offshore Tax Havens
(a) Edwards will fight offshore tax havens by working with other nations to fight tax evasion, crack down on tax shelter promoters and eliminate special tax breaks for corporations' offshore investments.
[ some key details from pdf-2: ]
- Extend the time the I.R.S. has to investigate offshore tax havens
- Crack down on peddlers of tax shelters by increasing penalties, prohibiting contingent fee arrangements for tax advisors, and eliminating the ability to patent tax shelters.
- Fight the tax gap by ... auditing more large corporations and high-income individuals
(B) Close the Tax Gap
(a) Edwards will collect a greater share of the $300 billion in uncollected taxes every year through better IRS service, targeting audits at wealthy individuals and corporations likely to have committed evasion, and requiring more third-party reporting.
(C) Close Hedge Fund and Private Equity Loopholes
(a) Edwards will close the loophole that elite Wall Street traders use to pay only 15 percent in taxes on their huge incomes, while regular families often pay twice that amount.
If we as Americans, fail to collectively Act, to reverse the trends of Corporate Greed to outsource everything, and to speculate on everything, well one of these days we will wake up and find the world looks very, very different. If things continue on their "Business as Usual" course, the USA will end up turning a shade of pale green, while China and India rapidly turn a darker shade of blue:
That sad day of Economic Role-reversals, is much closer than most realize -- Greenspan, and George Will not withstanding.
"Economic Literacy" is really more a matter of Economic Fairness for everyone, and using some Common Sense to clean up a system that just does NOT work for the average American anymore. Economic Literacy starts with telling the American People the Truth, and stopping with all the "rosy scenarios"!
That seventies band, 10 Years After, may have been content to leave it, to somebody else "to Change the World" -- but I'd say that it's long overdue for average Americans to stand up and take control of their own Destiny again! (while we still can)
I'd say it's time to speak back against the "Big Lie".
(that the Media, and the DC Power-brokers, that they know best. Guess what, that is the lie. It's really the People that know best -- it's time we acted like it.)
As John Edwards often says, "It's time for the President of the United States to start to tell the American People the Truth, for a change."
(And it's time for the American People to demand such straight talk again from our Leaders, and from our Media too.)