[519 words]
When the majority party of the current U.S. Congress sites Mr. Reagan as the president who made the most successful tax code revision in modern history, you scare us. We know that his tax change increased the net income for the wealthy more than the take-home pay for to the people. We, your constituents, know that the increased cash to the top incomes did not create more jobs. Those with comfort and money crave money, so they have found ways to increase their share of the money. That small difference has compounded, in the financial sense, over the last thirty years.
Now, there is a large gap between the incomes of your working class people and your well-monied company leaders. That gap has been increased, also, by the freezing of wages for your working people. (Earned income versus unearned income is another issue that deserves serious attention. One produces a product for society, the other is just shuffling paper to get money.)
PLEASE, when considering tax rates, income deductions, and tax credits, you would do good to put the well-being of the people first. (“People” includes everyone — the CEOs and the laborers.)
The working people are not overtaxed. The wealthy are under-taxed.
Your working class of people is not overtaxed. The wealthy in your constituent base is being under-taxed. Therein lays the biggest reason for our increasing national debt. Blaming the overtaxing of the wealthy is backward. Taxation is the only source of income for the government operations and to reduce the debt.
Members with accounting experience from all political persuasions can see it. Yes, those leaders who are honest will admit that those citizens with the greatest ability to pay a larger percentage of their income to support their government have been underpaying.
It currently looks like many financial leaders have forgotten their own theories of capitalism and economic Darwinism. They have gotten blinded by their wealth. Capitalism is built on a healthy consumer class, not a depleted and demoralized workforce. The intelligent wealthy will sacrifice a little this year to taxes so their grandchildren will have a secure income with a healthy and productive workforce.
Economic evolution tries to explain that those who can’t figure out a way to make money, deserve to suffer. Their loss is their fault. The error here is that there are many reasons for their under-performance other than stupidity and bad decisions. The losers may not have access to financing for their entrepreneurship; they may not be able to afford education; they may accrue bills for healthcare and necessities because their wages have not increased in proportion to their productivity; and stupidity is an inherited trait not of their creation.
You don’t want to be guilty of favoring political financiers– less than one percent of the population — rather than the larger number of hard-working voters — more than ninety percent of the population. (“Voters” includes both classes — political financiers and workers. Each one has one vote.) The founders of our republican democracy intended that government serve the mass of the people without a serious penalty on any class.
Thank you for your attention and all the good work you do.
