Starting the New Year Off Right!

On Monday, January 5th, when the halls of Congress are once again busy with the men and women who we have elected to represent us in Washington, D.C., both houses, the Senate AND the House Of Representatives will be led by the majority members of the Republican Party for the years 2015 and 2016. It is now time to begin to seperate fact from fiction as we get ready to elect a new President of the United States in 2016. Many people are positioning themselves to throw their hat into the ring for this election. It is time to disseminate the truth in all the rhetoric we will soon be bombarded with so that voters are informed and therefor, the votes cast will truly reflect our priorities and ideals as citizens of the United States.

The conservative Republicans have largely made scapegoats of the poor and impoverished. They speak LOUD AND LONG about how the poor and impoverished are so because they chose to live the poor and impoverished life. These Republicans speak LOUD AND LONG about how the poor and impoverished, who have chosen to be poor and impoverished, have their hands in 'you', the taxpayer's pocket. The inference being, if 'you', the taxpayer, are feeling financially and economically 'squeezed', it's because the poor and the impoverished, who decided to be poor and impoverished, have their greedy hands in YOUR pocket.

If the average citizen were to just read and/or think, they would realize that the true problem is that while they, the average citizen has 25-35% of their gross pay going to pay taxes, the average wealthy person only pays 10-15% of their gross pay, if that. That means if you, the average citizen, earned $50,000/yr., your tax bill is $12,500 to $17,500. The average upper manager who makes $1,000,000/yr. will pay $100,000-$150,000 in taxes. Now, if he/she were paying the exact same percentage as you, he/she should pay $250,000-$350,000. THAT is a difference of $150,000-$200,000 that is NOT going into the government to provide citizens with safe roads, safe food, police and legal protection, education, etc. I will agree that $250,000-$350,000 seems like a HUGE amount of money to pay in taxes but, let's look at it this way, that average, run of the mill, upper manager still has $650,000-$750,000 to live on while you, the average citizen has to make do with $32,500-$37,500. That $650,000-$750,000 is NOT an insignificant dollar amount to 'make do' with. Furthermore, if you take someone like any member of the Walton family who were each paid $500,000,000 last year. That means they may have paid $50,000,000-$75,000,000 however, if all things were fair, each Walton family member should have paid, $125,000,000-$175,000,000. That means that each member of the Walton family shorts the government, your government, $75,000,000-$100,000,000! now dont go feeling sorry for the poor Walton family members because, if they did pay their fair share, the same 25%-35% that you do, the would still have $325,000,000-$375,000,000 to live on PER YEAR.

Do you know that the TOTAL dollar amount spent on the SNAP (food stamps) Program in 2013 was $74,600,000,000? That amount would be a paid for several times over if the top 5% paid their FAIR share! If just 1,000 'Walton family' level earners paid the percentage of their income to taxes that YOU do, that would fund the entire SNAP Program.

This brings me back to the conservative Republicans who speak LOUD AND LONG about the poor and impoverished, who have chosen to be poor and impoverished, who have their greedy little hands in YOUR pocket. What is truly needed is someone, anyone, who will stand up and say, "You are feeling squeezed, not because the poor and impoverished have their greedy little hands in your pockets but because the very wealthy have their well-manicured, lily-white bejeweled hands in your pockets."

In future posts I will be discussing the large corporations who post record earnings yet, not only pay $0 in taxes, but many of them are subsidized by YOU, the taxpayer. I will also speak on the problem with the wealthy who inheret their wealth, tax-free. The problematic 'inheretance tax' situation in our country is something we seriously need to address and SOON!

#income #tax #fair