I really can’t say for certain whether our nation’s current tax policy is merely ironic or a flagrant bitch-slap to the face of the middle class. I’m not even gonna get into the lower class because, as the GOP’s frontrunner so eloquently put it, I’m not really concerned about the very poor either. Food Stamp Nation can fend for itself.
But for all the cries of ‘class warfare’, socialism’ ‘the 99 %’ and whatever other colorful terms have been slung from either side of the aisle, there is a serious issue of income inequality facing our economy, aided and abetted by a tax code that is in dire need of a make-over.
And what is the GOP proposing to do about it?
Absolutely nothing.
I find that to be astounding. Am I alone on that?
Even in the face of the Occupy Movement and irrefutable evidence of an unparalleled concentration of wealth, the Republican position on the matter continues to be ‘cut taxes for the wealthy.’ In an upcoming presidential election that is rife for a Republican reclamation of the White House, they do not have anything even remotely representing a solution to this issue. I have not heard John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney or any other prominent member of the GOP propose an overhaul of the tax code that levels the playing field.
The Buffet rule was proposed by our nation’s second richest American and incidentally, it was supported by Mr. Gates, who currently holds the #1 ranking. Yet all those other millionaires and billionaires who so impotently lie on the outskirts of the Forbes 400 seem to be in dire need of Republican support. And they continue to get it.
And it is both apropos and for all Republican’s hoping to take back the White House, unfortunate, that in this era of income inequality, they are pinning their hopes on the posterchild for the 1%.
Even though Mittens likes to joke that he is unemployed, most unemployed don’t rake in $60,000 a day. (Try not to vomit but yes, that is an accurate approximation) And most Americans are not fortunate enough to pay 13.9% of their taxes on income, regardless of where that income came from.
Blogger’s sidenote: Hey did you ever notice that when anagrammed, Romney encapsulates the word ‘money’ with an extra ‘r’ for ‘rich’?
In case you haven’t noticed, our economy isn’t doing very well. In spite of the fact that unemployment rates have reached the same rate that they were when Obama took office, 8.3%, the general outlook is still south of optimistic. I hate to speak in bumper stickers…but the 99% still isn’t exactly flourishing.
And what does Romney, who sadly enough, is looking like the Republican nominee, propose? Brace yourselves. Seriously, this should be a ‘what the fuck’ moment in your lives. If it isn’t, defibrillate yourself.
According to the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan institute, Romney’s tax plan would raise, that’s right folks, RAISE, taxes on households making less than $20,000 a year. Not individuals, HOUSEHOLDS with numerous people living within them. People…homo sapiens. And it would not only raise them, it would raise them by…wait for it…60%!
I just shat myself. Did you? If not…again…the defibrillator.
But Romney’s tax plan is not all gloom and rain clouds, it would cut taxes for households making between 50 and 75K a year…by a whopping 2%! That equals about $250 dollars by the way…which those households could use to treat themselves to a new space heater or splurge on a luxury item like a year’s worth of indoor plumbing.
But the best part about R-money’s tax plan is what it does to bridge this income inequality gap. (Incidentally, I’ve already trademarked the term R-money so don’t use it without my express written consent which you will never get)
R-money’s tax plan would cut taxes for millionaires (yes, people making at least a million dollars a year) by 15%, resulting in an additional $146,000 a year that would land in the pockets of said millionaires…as opposed to the $250 dollars that would land in the pockets of the ‘mildly poor’, who are apparently just as little of a concern to Mitt as the ‘very poor.’
So what would equate to an $180 billion reduction in tax revenues per year would accomplish one goal, to…wait for it…that’s right, make rich people like Mitt Romney even richer. No wonder Donald Trump has recently latched onto Romney’s coattails.
So yet again, the GOP is held hostage by it’s own venom. With a message cloaked in racism and an unhealthy infusion of religion into politics, roughly fifty million republicans will vote AGAINST their own economic interests. They will vote AGAINST their financial future.
This has been and remains to be, the biggest and admittedly impressive coup d’etat of the Republican party…their ability to convince its caucus to cast their votes in favor of their own peril.
Goddamn that’s impressive!
How do you do that? How do you convince people to vote for a person that will make their lives harder?
Well, sadly enough, it’s actually not that difficult. You tell an uber-christian, homophobic, slightly more racist cross-section (a very large cross-section actually, most of the country) of the American populous that their president is a Muslim socialist and they will be considerably open to the idea. Tell those same voters that our president wants to kill God’s embryonic children, marry queers and give all your hard-earned money to pay for food stamps and welfare for minority crackheads and you will succeed in chalking up one more vote for the GOP…a party whose current presidential frontrunner’s plan for improving income inequality is to raise taxes on the poor and cut them for the rich.
What the fuck are you thinking Republican America?
Do you hate black people and homosexuals? If so, fine, hate them. But don’t let your hatred for them raise taxes on the poor and drastically minimize our social safety net while broadening income inequality for years to come.
Do you want to preserve the life of countless fetal souls? Then rear your children properly and keep them from getting impregnated. But don’t elect a political fuckdoll who has less of a soul than any embryo to begin with.
Obama wants to level the playing field and create a tax code that closes the inequality gap that has been growing for far too long. Voters of the United States of America, I implore, you…let him.
