Yes, like many Kossacks, I suffer from having parents that wouldn't vote for Momma Grizzly herself if she switched over and had a (D) next to her name on the ballot. (not that that would ever happen, of course - I HOPE)
My parents are fiscally conservative - money and gun rights. Abortion and racism aren't their thing but they vote for their wallet and accept that the social baggage of their voting is collateral damage.
The latest tax crap in the 'email from Dad' that is periodically sent to my siblings and me is below the fold, along with my yet-to-be-sent out rebuttal (I'm hoping for some copy edits from the community)
Email from Dad -
The idea that the rich need to pay more in taxes is popular but doesn't take into account that they already are paying more than their fair share. The top 5% of taxpayers pay 60% of the total federal tax already. Please read the attached article. Dad
You don't need to see the attached article. I don't want to give traffic to it. But all you have to do is watch Faux 'News' for any amount of time to hear the same thing over and over. "The rich are supporting everyone else." "The bottom 20% pay NO income tax." et., etc, ad nauseum.
My response so far - Keeping in mind that our family always has civil dialogue. We disagree but fortunately this does not keep us from being able to
Dad,
While the top 5% do in fact contribute 60% of the federal tax, it's not because they're getting pounded for being rich. They're just making SO MUCH MONEY that even at a discounted rate, they're paying a big dollar amount.
The short response to this is that of course the richest 5% pay 60% of the income tax. They're raking in nearly 70% of the wealth in this country. In fact, the top 20% have accrued 93% of the money in the US. So I don't feel bad asking for them to go back to the taxes that were working to lower the deficit in the 90's
Besides the fact that they pay for a smaller wedge of the pie than that they are enjoying, they have lawyers and lobbyists who work 24/7 to reduce what is supposed to be a 35% rate down to 15%. (http://tinyurl.com/...) That's less than my tax rate, since I don't pay a legal team to reduce my tax percentage. Of course when you make $10 million a year, you can pay $100K to a legal team, save $1M on your tax bill, and probably write off the expenses to boot.
I find it hard to feel bad for the top 2%, many of whom have seen their incomes rise by 30% a year, while the people they employ are told to take a pay cut or a layoff while their job gets shipped overseas. I have not seen a raise in 3 years, and my medical deductibles are going up, so I'm making less money per year. But my marginal tax rate will remain the same. Meanwhile the CEO's at the big banks that took our bailout money have seen their incomes soar. They're getting 7-figure bonuses and I'm supposed to feel sorry for them when they whine about taxes? I'm not falling for that.
Until the tax rates are actually enforced, and the nearly 200X difference between pay for employees vs. CEOs of the businesses that drive this economy are brought to more reasonable levels (like 20:1), I'm not going to buy the "We can't possibly pay any more taxes" whine from the people that are literally living like kings in what is supposed to be a democratic country.