Mitt Romney and many of his supporters seem outraged that 47% of Americans pay no federal income taxes. He says that these people are worthless freeloaders, riding the federal dole. I thought that the Bush Tax Cuts were a good thing. The party of low taxes drops the tax rate to the point that 47% of Americans pay no federal income taxes and then bitches about it. Low taxes are only a good thing for high income earners seems to be the message. Romney would have paid 9% if he hadn't jerry-rigged his 2011 return to make it come out at the announced 13%. 9 fricking percent on $20,000,000 income. Am I the only person paying four times the Romney rate annoyed about that? We're really soaking the rich here in 2012. They're not even damp. If you consider the fact that everybody making under $110,000 a year pays 15% of their income in payroll taxes, while Mitt and his fellow fat cats pay a relative pittance as a percentage of their income, the progressive tax system is really a flat tax system, if not actually for most taxpayers an upside down, regressive system where most Americans pay up to 35% on their labor, while people like Mitt who live off their investments pay (in theory at least) 15% in capital gains taxes. Labor is taxed at 35%. Capital is taxed at 15%.
The Republicans' message is inconsistent with itself. They promise low taxes to spark the economy and increase job growth and then complain that half of the people end up paying no federal income taxes due to their low rates. And then they complain that the big problem causing the deficit is that 47% of Americans pay no federal income taxes. If Romney were to be elected and managed to lower the federal tax rate another 20%, as he said he would do on 60 Minutes last night, then presumably more than 47% of Americans will be paying no federal income taxes while the Mitts will be paying--what--7%? This is insanity. Taxes as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product are right now at the lowest they have been since WWII. No wonder we are drowning in red ink.
We need to go back to the Clinton-era tax rates. We need to cut "defense" spending. We need to ignore the voices of the Republican war mongers telling us that we must intervene militarily in Syria, in Iran, and whatever other countries halfway around the globe have internal problems. We need to let Israel worry about the security of Israel. Israel's security is not our problem. We need to get out of Afghanistan post haste and let that country take on whatever form it will take of its own accord, because that is what is going to happen whenever we do finally get out of there. We are just plain kidding ourselves if we think otherwise. We need to cut down our ridiculously bloated military/industrial/Congressional machine to a point that makes some sense in light of the dangers actually presented by the current world situation. Not the world situation presented in 1941, 1967, 1990, or any other time. We currently have over 900 military installations ringing the globe. Do we really need military bases in Japan, Germany, South Korea, Greenland? What is it, 1952? Do we really need to garrison the entire world? Do we really need to keep spouting on about "American Exceptionism" or "American Centuries?"
We need to work with other countries and world organizations to insure as much peace and tranquility in the world as possible, which means giving up our image as "World Policeman" and our cowboy foreign policy of trying to bully the rest of the world into doing our bidding. We have the right, the duty, and the pocketbook, to carry our fair share of the load of international peacekeeping, no more no less. We need to be a good neighbor. We need to rethink our announced national policy of "Full Spectrum Dominance" as announced by the Bush Administration in 2003. (Go look that up if you don't recognize the phrase).
If we go back to the tax rates that produced a budget surplus in the Clinton years, get out of the current war, and avoid any new wars of choice, then we can get our deficit problem under control in short order without the necessity of destroying the social safety net. And as a bonus, maybe a large portion of the world won't hate us so much and will stop attacking us at every opportunity.
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