Disclaimer: This blog was written while my blood sugar had plummeted to historic lows as a result of lacking any significant income as an Americorps VISTA. Bear in mind the following argument pisses me off like there's no tomorrow and I won't drop it until I've offended as many people as possible. That being said, here we go.
Tuesday night I attended the lackluster premiere of the documentary "Undefeated", an unnecessarily 2-hour-long documentary detailing Sarah Palin's political career. The film itself deserves criticism enough, but I'll touch on that a different day.
After the showing, I stopped at Smokey Row to see my fellow co-workers and started making some coffee drinks. I happened to run into a couple that formerly belonged to the congregation of the church I attended growing up. I had been made aware that this particular family had become rather conservative, but I wouldn't have envisioned them falling into the Rush-Beck-Fox News category. In my absolute most diplomatic tone, I told them that I disagree with the Bush Tax Cuts and I don't foresee lower taxes creating jobs. A shitstorm ensued and the following terms were thrown around: "Socialism", "Punishing success", "liberal elitists".
I attempted to reason with them over the payroll tax, which is inherently regressive. I even used the Huckabee/Forbes "flat tax" argument to see how far to the right they had become. By the end of the conversation, they were both arguing in favor of the top tier of society paying "way less than everyone else". I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So today, I suppose I'll outline the basis for my anger against such rhetoric and explain the reasoning behind my disdain for the Bush tax cuts.
The payroll tax
In the current federal tax code, the ceiling on federal payroll taxes is $106,800. To dumb it down, that means a person making $100,000 is paying taxes on every cent they earn. A person that makes $500,000 dollars is only being taxed on the first $106,800 dollars, meaning the other $393,200 is left untaxed in payroll deductions. How does this make sense? Wouldn't it make better sense to have a tax floor? For example, a system that only taxes payroll after the first $30,000 or $40,000?
Furthermore, removing the ceiling on the payroll tax would create an authentic flat tax. As it stands, the payroll tax is the most glaring example of a regressive tax that we have in this country. Of course, in the formerly mentioned discussion, I was thrown under the bus for raising taxes on the wealthy.
"Punishing success"
Nothing pushes my buttons quite like the "punishing success" argument. The irony of the argument is that it is constantly made by those who would be unaffected by the "punishing". Granted, I don't know too many millionaires, but the fact that a blue-collar, middle-class person is arguing for lower taxes for the rich is too much irony. The income inequality in the United States is at an incredible level, with the top 1% of the income earners possessing nearly 40% of the wealth in our country. From my perspective, I believe they deserve to be "punished".
All in all, I don't think I'll ever understand why blue-collar Americans are concerned with keeping low tax rates for the rich. I suppose all I can hope for is for such people to turn off the Fox News and pick up a book.
I would propose the following as a clarification on just why a blue collar worker would argue for the current income tax as it stands
ReplyDelete1. America's current political discourse is no longer based on rational thought and conclusions based upon actual facts. The American people no longer act as a machine for thought process but a machine for thought planting, with there being nothing but input. Thoughts are planted, but never examined and thought through well enough to make a rational conclusion.
2. Both political parties have capitalized on the aforementioned trend. With the specific situation that you encountered, I believe that the conservative movement which is steered by "high rollers" seduced the thought process of common blue collar Americans and declared to them that their money is being seized by "gubment".
The only way that fat cats on Wall Street could accomplish this mind seduction is to sell the idea that some how the lives of blue collar workers would benefit from more money going into large corporations. They send in people proclaiming the "outsider" message. George W. Bush is an outsider, Sarah Palin was a Maverick, Herman Cain is not a politician but a problem solver, Mitt Romney is a Business Man. This list goes on and on. The sad part is that political discourse has been ruined by large corporations feeding on the prospect of a weak mind. God help the middle class, because soon, there won't be one.