**

*Talking About Taxes*

By Fred Rotondaro, Chairman, Catholics in Alliance for the
Common Good

There are very silly things, and a few smart things, being said
about taxes these days.

Take Grover Norquist for instance. Mr Norquist has been chair of
Americans for Tax Reform since 1986 and has generally operated
in semi-obscurity. He's been all over the airwaves recently and
even penned an op-ed for the New York Times. Norquist's topic?
Taxes and why he's against them. He has a pledge signed by 276
of 289 Republicans members of Congress saying they will never
vote for a tax increase. Mr. Norquist interprets the pledge as
including the preservation of billions of dollars in tax
subsidies to corporations. Taking the subsidies away, he says,
counts as a tax increase and he won't let any Republican do
that. If they do, they may well find themselves facing a well
financed primary opponent.

Where does Norquist's power - and his funding - come from? He
won't say. Anybody want to take my bet that it comes from large
corporations who use Norquist as an enforcer to keep their taxes
low and their subsidies high? Al Capone take notice.

Now Republican spokesmen, whether it's John Boehner or the
twenty-something attractive blonde billed as a Republican
strategist, don't really want to get into the role played by
Norquist and his corporate sponsors. So they've developed other
language about taxes. "You can't tax the job creators during a
recession," they robotically repeat. They say this time and time
again despite the simple fact that after George Bush's three tax
cuts, there was no upsurge in employment, the country had the
greatest recession since 1929, and we still have 15 million
unemployed. And the Republicans in Congress never seem to
explain though why it's ok to take trillions away from the poor
and middle class during a recession.

Those job creators really better shape up. They have most of
the wealth in the country: the top 1 percent of America's
wealthiest citizens has more assets than the bottom 90 percent.
And a mere 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all
Americans. So, where are the jobs? In other countries, that's
where. But they're not here. In fact, the super job creator,
George W. Bush, created fewer jobs per years in office than any
other president since Herbert Hoover.

Think Progress, a unit of the liberal Center for American
Progress--disclosure, I am a senior fellow at CAP-- recently
had some things to say about taxes. They did some comparative
studies. A few of their conclusions: The tax burden on the
American upper class is lower than most other countries. Ditto
for American corporations. The top tax rate is nominally 35
percent but the majority of billionaires don't pay anywhere near
that amount because much of their money is invested and they pay
only a capital gains rate of 15 percent.

Warren Buffet, a few years ago, in arguing for tax reform,
pointed out that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary.
And if you're a hedge fund manager, all of your income is
classified as capital gains, even though you do not have to
invest any capital to make a bonus and the bonus is simply a
reward for work, that is, it is a wage. By the way, the top 25
hedge managers averaged $1 billion in income each in 2008.

Robert Shiller, the legendary Yale professor of economics, also
had some recent comments on taxes. He believes we "need tax
increases matched by higher expenditures on public goods." The
government should act as "a type of banker," he says, using
public monies for projects for the public good. Higher taxes
could provide monies for projects that make a stronger America.
What a novel idea. Don't you wish FDR had thought of it? Oops.
FDR did think of it, and got America out of the Great
Depression.

Shiller reminds me of my favorite commentator on taxes --
Thomas Paine. Writing in 1782 as the Revolutionary War was
coming to an end, Paine wrote about the necessity of taxes.
"When America resolved on independence, and determined to be
free, she naturally included within that resolution all the
means, whether of men or money, to affect it." Put simply, the
great Revolutionary was saying: All right men, you wanted
freedom. Now pay up.

To the Tea Party and to the Republican Leadership, I echo Paine.
Together, we share America. We want her to be, as always, the
greatest nation in world history. We cannot do that with your
foolish and shallow notions about taxation. We cannot do that if
you attempt to destroy the economic security guaranteed to all
Americans. We cannot do that if you compromise our future
because of your subservience to special interests instead of
loyalty to the nation. When America is in stress, Paine wrote,
"I shall treat taxation as a popular good. I hold taxation,
which is to be applied to her own defense and her own good, one
of the lightest of her difficulties, when considered with this
which were occasioned by the want of it."

Mr. Paine, may I introduce Mr. Boehner.

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Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is a lay Catholic
organization that promotes public policies and effective
programs that enhance the inherent dignity of all, especially
the poor and most vulnerable. Our work is inspired by Gospel
values and the rich history of Catholic social teaching as they
inform pressing moral issues of our time. We accomplish these
goals through public policy analysis and advocacy, strategic
media outreach, and engaging citizens in the service of the
common good.

http://www.catholicsinalliance.org


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... True Christianity-If anyone anywhere is hungry, it's your fault.
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