How the Ultra-Rich Are Trying to Kill Health Reform By David Sirota, Creators Syndicate. Posted July 25, 2009. The wealthiest 1-percent have deployed an army to destroy an initiative that would tax the super rich to help pay for health care. Tools According to government figures, 1-percenters' share of America's total income is the highest it's been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they've faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms. And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations. But what really makes the ultra-wealthy so fortunate, what truly separates this moment from a run-of-the-mill Gilded Age, is the unprecedented protection the 1-percenters have bought for themselves on the most pressing issues. To review: With 22,000 Americans dying each year because they lack health insurance, Congress is considering universal health care legislation financed by a surcharge on income above $280,000 -- that is, a levy almost exclusively on 1-percenters. This surtax would graze just 5 percent of small businesses and would recoup only part of the $700 billion the 1-percenters received from the Bush tax cuts. In fact, it is so miniscule, those making $1 million annually would pay just $9,000 more in taxes every year -- or nine-tenths of 1 percent of their 12-month haul. Nonetheless, the 1-percenters have deployed an army to destroy the initiative before it makes progress. The foot soldiers are the Land Rover Liberals. These Democratic lawmakers secure their lefty labels by wearing pink-ribbon lapel pins and supporting good causes like abortion rights. However, being affluent and/or from affluent districts, they routinely drive their luxury cars over middle-class economic interests. Hence, this week's letter from Boulder, Colorado's dot-com tycoon Rep. Jared Polis, D, and other Land Rover Liberals calling for the surtax's death. Echoing that demand are the Corrupt Cowboys -- those like Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., who come from the heartland's culturally conservative and economically impoverished locales. These cavalrymen in both parties quietly build insurmountable campaign war chests as the biggest corporate fundraisers in Congress. At the same time, they publicly preen as jes' folks, make twangy references to "voters back home," and now promise to kill the health care surtax because they say that's what their communities want. Cash payoffs made, re-elections purchased, the absurd story somehow goes that because blue-collar constituents in Flyover America like guns and love Jesus, they must also reflexively adore politicians who defend 1-percenters' bounty. That fantastical fairly tale, of course, couldn't exist without the Millionaire Media -- the elite journalists and opinionmongers who represent corporate media conglomerates and/or are themselves extremely wealthy. Ignoring all the data about inequality, they legitimize the assertions of the 1-percenters' first two battalions, while actually claiming America's fat cats are unfairly persecuted. For example, Washington Post editors deride surtax proponents for allegedly believing "the rich alone can fund government." Likewise, Wall Street Journal correspondent Jonathan Weisman wonders why the surtax "soak(s) the rich" by unduly "lumping all of the problems of the finances of the United States on 1 percent of (its) households?" And most brazenly, NBC's Meredith Vieira asks President Obama why the surtax is intent on "punishing the rich?" For his part, Obama has responded with characteristic coolness -- and a powerful counter-strike. "No, it's not punishing the rich," he said. "If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of families out there have a little more security, when I already have security, that's part of being a community." If any volley can thwart this latest attack of the 1-percenters, it is that simple idea. http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141520/how_the_ultra-rich_are_trying_to_kill_health_reform/
The top 1% pay 40% of all federal income taxes, so apparently their army of saboteurs isn't that powerful.
That is an if FAIL. Nothing will thwart the attack of the 1-percenters until or unless things get much, much worse (see 1930).
What % of the national wealthy does top 1% have? Lets say top 1% control 70% of the national wealth, then paying 40% of the tax is hardly much.
I fixed that up for ya, as per Major's post. It has long burned me up that I'm in the 20-30th percentile, paying effectively 30% (hefty!), and people that make 10 times what my wife and I make are paying the same. Meanwhile, if we increase our income from here, we will be paying more, percentage-wise, than the uber-wealthy. Makes no sense.
Some relevant data on wealth distribution...gini coefficients are not a perfect measure, but they're the most commonly used for such applications. They are not the end-all of everything, but they're an important tool in measuring income distribution. The closer the coefficient is to 1, the closer the country in question is nearing perfect inequality (one person owns everything). The closer the coefficient is to zero, the closer the country is to perfect equality (everyone owns the same amount) Gini indices for the United States at various times, according to the US Census Bureau: * 1929: 45.0 (estimated) * 1947: 37.6 (estimated) * 1967: 39.7 (first year reported) * 1968: 38.6 (lowest index reported) * 1970: 39.4 * 1980: 40.3 * 1990: 42.8 * 2000: 46.2 * 2005: 46.9 * 2006: 47.0 (highest index reported) * 2007: 46.3 Basically, America has historically been more equal in income then the imperial nations of Europe, but now that many developed countries have trended towards a more just gouvernment system (moving away from flat tax, implementing more social safety nets like socialized medicine), America suddenly finds itself as the land of the unjust as the country moves in the opposite direction with tax breaks for the rich and etc.. America is now in line with envious company like the PRC and Mexico. Of course the wealthy will have a say about all this and they are justified in some of their positions, but my personal opinion is that America should rectify the situation before it goes out of hand. A nation with an uneven spread of income tends to have tension leaking at the surface and America, with her "melting pot" of ethnic and cultural conflicts, could benefit from assuaging that pressure.
You've obviously missed the point. If it was an attempt at humor, missed again. Other than some of these folks getting their everlasting reward of "goin' up t' heb'n" where the angels fly, the point is that they are dieing without health care. Not that health care would prevent their death.
How so? It was in response to your notion that the wealthiest haven't been able to craft the system to their own benefit. If the wealthiest 1% have been able to affect the tax system such that they pay a lower effective tax rate that people poorer than them, then maybe (or maybe no) their "saboteurs" are that powerful.
Supposedly, it takes into account all taxes we pay - federal, state, local, sales, property, income, etc: http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/04/why_are_state_taxes_less_progressive.php
That explains the high lower rates and how the top 1% would get a lower effective rate. Scary rates, though I think most of my high dollar clients pay an effective rate higher than that in income taxes alone. And I would say my effective rate would be around 10% for last year. I'd assume I would fall in the bottom 20%.
...because heaven forbid that the people actually paying for this Frankenstein of a bill actually have a voice!
How convenient to answer a income tax number with a graph that includes all forms of tax. Regardless, I find the chart's number a little odd considering the top 1%'s average federal income tax rate is already about 23%, add FICA, state, sales, property, how are they getting the number of only 30.9 is pretty interesting.
Where is the representation here? These "fat cats" are going to foot the bill so shouldn't they have voice on the matter? Man what has this country come to, a demogogue president playing class warfare in order to get his agenda passed? This is the start of the crucifiction of the wealthy. Marxist statment of the month: "No, it's not punishing the rich," he said. "If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of families out there have a little more security, when I already have security, that's part of being a community." Great quote, Jesus would agree on this but he said to do this through volunteering and giving charity by your own choice. This here is involuntary confiscation no matter the size of the loot $9000 or $900,000,000. In marxist regimes it all begins with "benefit of the people", take from the few to make better for the many. See how the marxist continues to change the language first the rich were those making over $250K now its top 1%.
