Friday, April 15, 2011

It’s not fair


It's tax time again, when we must figure out how much we are compelled, as the Bible says, to "give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's."

Our guess is that GE has cut a better deal with Caesar than any individual taxpayer. Reporting profits from its U.S. operations of $5.1 billion, GE has shown how to pay nothing. To make it work, GE hires hundreds, if not thousands, of tax gnomes to scan every word of the tax code and then to use their knowledge and skill to make sure the corporate tax liability is as little as possible.

And while the tax accountants are discovering ways to benefit their client, the best and the brightest of them pass along to the company's lobbyists suggestions for revisions to the code that might save their company more millions in the future.

The final step for the company is to then hire spokesmen who can get access to the financial cable TV shows and to rightwing radio to explain once again how their corporate client's paying nothing is good for the rest of us.

Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, has criticized the U.S. tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary. Our guess is that she doesn't have GE's army of tax accountants, lobbyists and spokesmen to plead her case.

Tax policy as it exists today was designed for corporations and the wealthiest people in the country. This policy, the Bush economic policy, has brought us high unemployment, high debt and little economic growth.

There is always the promise that wealth will trickle down to the rest of us if we just work harder, accept without question whatever wages we are offered, trust big corporations to take care of us, and pay our share—and theirs too. After all, the old saw goes, corporations don't pay taxes, people do.

When these views are challenged, right-wing flacks accuse opponents of engaging in "class warfare."

Buffet says, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and winning."

But where there are winners, there are losers, increasingly the middle class. What is needed now is for Congress to write a tax policy that is fair because it considers not only the needs of the wealthiest, but also the rest of us.

Is it any wonder when you are writing your check to the IRS you find yourself muttering, "It's just not fair"?

You will be right.




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