In the area of Defense
The two wars started in 2001 and 2003 by President George W. Bush will end up costing U.S. taxpayers an estimated $1.3 trillion dollars through FY 2011, as estimated by Congressional Research Service in September of 2010.
This is the first time in the history of the United States that we have gone to war without increasing taxes to provide funding to cover the war costs. Instead of increasing taxes to fund not one, but two separate wars, we lowered base tax rates, increased exemption amounts, increased deduction amounts and added one loophole after another.
The first time taxes were raised to cover expenses due to a war was in 1917 when the War Revenue Act of 1917 raised the top tax rate from 15% to 67%. One year later, the top tax was raised again from 67% to 77%. Whenever this country had additional costs from any war and/or any type of unusual expenses, taxes were raised to cover the extraordinary expenses. In instances where tax rates were not raised to cover the additional costs of war, a surcharge was put in place. During 1944 and 1945 the top tax was raised to a record 94% to cover the costs of World War II.
Raising taxes for high income earners, isn't some sort of punishment for the wealthy due to accomplishments they have achieved in life, it's the right thing to do. It's the way this country has been run since inception. The first tax rate ever imposed on U.S. taxpayers was a low rate of 1% and a high rate of 7%. Using that same logic, our current tax rate for the wealthiest of wealthy should be at 70%, and we are currently taxing the rich at - that rate.
Cutting our budget to the bone isn't going to change the fact that the primary reason our country is teetering on the edge of collapse is greed. The next time you hear one of our politicians telling you tax cuts create jobs, encourage investment and are the answer to all our fiscal prayers, check their net worth on www.opensecrets.org
John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan besides being legislators that are proponents of tax cuts all have something else in common. They are exceptionally wealthy.
Government spending, financed by a tax increase on the rich, gets "more bang for the buck" because it uses money that was not being efficiently and effectively used, while costing the government little or nothing. The cost of borrowing when the spending is deficit financed must be added to the national debt as well as the amount borrowed.
- Patricia L Johnson and Richard E Walrath
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