A report that came out last week from the Institute for Policy Studies provides more evidence of how the wealthiest Americans have rigged our tax structure for their benefit. Corporate tax loopholes actually make it so that regular, middle-class Americans are subsidizing overpayment of our CEOs.
http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/were_all_subsidizing_free_lunches_for_americas_ceos
http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/were_all_subsidizing_free_lunches_for_americas_ceos
As Americans, we need to understand that we are being played by our wealthiest people, who can afford to purchase representatives in Congress to do their bidding.
My wife has been taking continuing education courses in financial planning, and it has been an eye-opening experience. The entire field is based on helping rich people avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Wealthy people get breaks that nobody else does. For example, they can afford to offshore their money; most of us can't.
Yet the wealthy want more. For instance, they want to repeal the estate tax. You know, the "death tax" that so many conservatives rail against as being an attack on small farmers -- it only applies to estates worth more than $1.5 million, effecting about 1 percent of estates. And noted conservative Winston Churchill was for it.
Social Security provides another example. Because of its wage-base threshold of $106,800, above which earnings are not taxable, a billionaire pays the same amount of Social Security tax as somebody who earns $106,800. Simply removing that threshold would solve the lion's share of the solvency question.
As someone nearing age 50, I am naturally concerned that my family won't receive Social Security benefits, even though my wife and I have paid into the system over much of our lives, because of plans such as that espoused by Paul Ryan. However, he and Romney soothingly tell me that I shouldn't be concerned because people over 55 won't be affected. Well, that makes me feel so much better.
The fact is that their idea to pass on the costs of retirement care to our children -- merely to give the wealthiest Americans another tax cut -- is just plain immoral.
My wife has been taking continuing education courses in financial planning, and it has been an eye-opening experience. The entire field is based on helping rich people avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Wealthy people get breaks that nobody else does. For example, they can afford to offshore their money; most of us can't.
Yet the wealthy want more. For instance, they want to repeal the estate tax. You know, the "death tax" that so many conservatives rail against as being an attack on small farmers -- it only applies to estates worth more than $1.5 million, effecting about 1 percent of estates. And noted conservative Winston Churchill was for it.
Social Security provides another example. Because of its wage-base threshold of $106,800, above which earnings are not taxable, a billionaire pays the same amount of Social Security tax as somebody who earns $106,800. Simply removing that threshold would solve the lion's share of the solvency question.
As someone nearing age 50, I am naturally concerned that my family won't receive Social Security benefits, even though my wife and I have paid into the system over much of our lives, because of plans such as that espoused by Paul Ryan. However, he and Romney soothingly tell me that I shouldn't be concerned because people over 55 won't be affected. Well, that makes me feel so much better.
The fact is that their idea to pass on the costs of retirement care to our children -- merely to give the wealthiest Americans another tax cut -- is just plain immoral.
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