Of course, if any of these anti-tax fanatics ever bothered to check the IRS tax tables, they would discover that the wealthiest members of our country, currently paying a 35% rate, are taxed at the lowest rates since the 1920s.
In fact, from the 1950s through the 1970s, the members of the highest income bracket were taxed at 70-91%. Seems incredible now, but those were the rates. So the idea that taxing the affluent at a higher rate is some kind of radical idea or socialist slight of hand is nonsense.
But back to my proposal at the meeting. When the shock and awe of what I said subsided, Steinberg mentioned that even if the Democrats were to propose such legislation, the Republicans would never go for it. Clever trick by the Democrats--always blame the Republicans for their own cowardice and lack of vision.
But what if Democrats stood up to the Republicans for once? What if Jerry Brown called a press conference and offered Californians a choice: Either I make draconian cuts in all your favorite programs, like education and health care, and lay off thousands of government workers, or I tax 80 of the richest people in the state an extra 10%. Which do you think they would choose?
And would the Republicans be able to justify cutting the budget to the bone when the other option exists? If they did, it would be political suicide. Once the momentum shifted, the Republicans would have to capitulate to save their own political skins.
Unfortunately, that's the other tragedy. Democrats would never even consider asking the wealthiest members of the state, many of whom are their financial contributors, to help out during a fiscal crisis.
The same mentality exists at the national level. For example, why didn't President Obama fight to let the tax cuts for the wealthy expire? Why didn't he fight for the public option in his health care bill? And why hasn't he pushed for indictments or tried to recover any of the money from the Wall Street banksters who blew up the housing market and walked off with hundreds of billions in taxpayer money? Is that the Republicans' fault, too?
The bitter truth is, Obama and the Congressional Democrats are just as much in the pockets of the very rich as the Republicans, and they have perpetuated the propaganda of free market think over the last three decades with nearly the same verve and commitment.
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