Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2024 2:34:35 GMT
Fixing the budget requires fixing taxes. The wealthy should pay more.
www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columns/2024/03/18/the-middle-class-pays-an-unfair-share-of-us-taxes/73015222007/
Deficits and debt are being covered by those wealthy interests now but instead of being paid as taxes they are paid as loans with interest.
Mitchell Roth Opinion contributor
Cal Thomas' op-ed piece, published in Saturday’s Palm Beach Post, shows how a half-truth can be more destructive than a lie.
www.palmbeachpost.com/
Thomas justifies his point of view by stating that those who earn over $561,351, the top 1% of earners, paid 42.3% of the total tax revenue in the U.S. That is a half-truth, at best. His figures look only at federal income tax. The working poor and the middle class pay nearly all the payroll taxes other than federal income tax.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/11/13/billionaire-bunker-indian-creek-village-florida-miami-facebook-instagram-bezos/70593361007/
During 2022, an estimated 181 million workers had earnings covered by Social Security and paid $1.1 billion in payroll taxes. Their employers paid another $1.1 billion which could have gone to the workers had they not been required to be paid by employers. Payroll taxes for these workers amounted to a tax of 12.4% of earnings. All those taxes came from the labor of those workers earning less than $147,000, which according to the Social Security Administration, represents about 80% of the workforce. The remaining 20% paid progressively lower percentages in these payroll taxes, subsidizing the higher federal income tax due from those earning more than $147,000.
Sales taxes, excise taxes, property taxes and tolls all raise government revenue
President Joe Biden gives a thumbs up after getting a commitment to protect Social Security and Medicare from Republicans attending his 2023 State of the Union Address.
'Taxpayers need a break':But League of Cities argues county is replacing one tax with another
www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2024/03/02/palm-beach-county-to-sunset-1-infrastructure-sales-tax/72782225007/
But this still does not tell the whole story. It fails to account for highly regressive taxes like sales taxes, excise taxes, property taxes, tolls, and a plethora of other ways that our governments raise revenue. Every way imaginable other than a tax on wealth, even though wealth cannot be created or retained except through the social compact supported by government programs and infrastructure.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019, state and local governments in the United States collected $446.4 billion in sales taxes. In addition to state and local sales taxes, the federal government also collects excise taxes on specific goods, such as gasoline, tobacco, and alcohol, which can be considered a type of sales tax. In 2019, the federal government collected a total of $97.8 billion in excise taxes, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Therefore, the total revenue generated by taxes tied to personal consumption in the United States in 2019, including state and local sales taxes and federal excise taxes, was $544.2 billion. High earners and the wealthy pay only a small percentage of this. The balance is taken from the earnings of the working poor and the middle class.
www.census.gov/
Trump wasn't one of the 46 Florida billionaires who made the Forbes 400 list
www.usatoday.com/story/news/state/2023/10/04/forbes-400-here-are-the-top-ten-richest-people-florida-willis-peterffy-tepper-kahn-trump-drops-off/71055008007/
In 2019 state and local governments also collected $37.3 billion in motor vehicle registration fees and taxes which are overwhelmingly paid by the poor and middle class. I could go on, but I think the point is made.
Working poor and middle class shoulder too much of the tax burden
Mr. Thomas conveniently ignores the reality everyone else knows, i.e. that the taxation burden in the United States is inherently unfair to the working poor and the middle class and favors the wealthy interests that own and control the wealth in our country. Everyone knows why this is so. They know that money is used by these interests to benefit themselves. That’s why everyone that I have ever spoken with agrees that we must get money out of politics.
It’s also true that most people who I speak to about this believe nothing will or can change. That is a shame, because if most voters in our democratic republic make this the most important issue to earn their vote, this problem can be solved through taxing wealth and publicly financing elections. The irony is that the deficits and debt are being covered by those wealthy interests now but instead of being paid as taxes they are paid as loans with interest.
Mr. Thomas uses his half-truth to argue that the problem is overspending on government and its programs. Cutting back on this spending would predominantly hurt the working poor and the middle class. Rather, I would argue that the problem is the under-collection of revenue from the wealthiest interests in our society, which does not just include wealthy individuals, but wealthy institutions as well.
Mitchell Roth
Mitchell Roth is a resident of Boynton Beach.
www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columns/2024/03/18/the-middle-class-pays-an-unfair-share-of-us-taxes/73015222007/
Deficits and debt are being covered by those wealthy interests now but instead of being paid as taxes they are paid as loans with interest.
Mitchell Roth Opinion contributor
Cal Thomas' op-ed piece, published in Saturday’s Palm Beach Post, shows how a half-truth can be more destructive than a lie.
www.palmbeachpost.com/
Thomas justifies his point of view by stating that those who earn over $561,351, the top 1% of earners, paid 42.3% of the total tax revenue in the U.S. That is a half-truth, at best. His figures look only at federal income tax. The working poor and the middle class pay nearly all the payroll taxes other than federal income tax.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/11/13/billionaire-bunker-indian-creek-village-florida-miami-facebook-instagram-bezos/70593361007/
During 2022, an estimated 181 million workers had earnings covered by Social Security and paid $1.1 billion in payroll taxes. Their employers paid another $1.1 billion which could have gone to the workers had they not been required to be paid by employers. Payroll taxes for these workers amounted to a tax of 12.4% of earnings. All those taxes came from the labor of those workers earning less than $147,000, which according to the Social Security Administration, represents about 80% of the workforce. The remaining 20% paid progressively lower percentages in these payroll taxes, subsidizing the higher federal income tax due from those earning more than $147,000.
Sales taxes, excise taxes, property taxes and tolls all raise government revenue
President Joe Biden gives a thumbs up after getting a commitment to protect Social Security and Medicare from Republicans attending his 2023 State of the Union Address.
'Taxpayers need a break':But League of Cities argues county is replacing one tax with another
www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2024/03/02/palm-beach-county-to-sunset-1-infrastructure-sales-tax/72782225007/
But this still does not tell the whole story. It fails to account for highly regressive taxes like sales taxes, excise taxes, property taxes, tolls, and a plethora of other ways that our governments raise revenue. Every way imaginable other than a tax on wealth, even though wealth cannot be created or retained except through the social compact supported by government programs and infrastructure.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019, state and local governments in the United States collected $446.4 billion in sales taxes. In addition to state and local sales taxes, the federal government also collects excise taxes on specific goods, such as gasoline, tobacco, and alcohol, which can be considered a type of sales tax. In 2019, the federal government collected a total of $97.8 billion in excise taxes, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Therefore, the total revenue generated by taxes tied to personal consumption in the United States in 2019, including state and local sales taxes and federal excise taxes, was $544.2 billion. High earners and the wealthy pay only a small percentage of this. The balance is taken from the earnings of the working poor and the middle class.
www.census.gov/
Trump wasn't one of the 46 Florida billionaires who made the Forbes 400 list
www.usatoday.com/story/news/state/2023/10/04/forbes-400-here-are-the-top-ten-richest-people-florida-willis-peterffy-tepper-kahn-trump-drops-off/71055008007/
In 2019 state and local governments also collected $37.3 billion in motor vehicle registration fees and taxes which are overwhelmingly paid by the poor and middle class. I could go on, but I think the point is made.
Working poor and middle class shoulder too much of the tax burden
Mr. Thomas conveniently ignores the reality everyone else knows, i.e. that the taxation burden in the United States is inherently unfair to the working poor and the middle class and favors the wealthy interests that own and control the wealth in our country. Everyone knows why this is so. They know that money is used by these interests to benefit themselves. That’s why everyone that I have ever spoken with agrees that we must get money out of politics.
It’s also true that most people who I speak to about this believe nothing will or can change. That is a shame, because if most voters in our democratic republic make this the most important issue to earn their vote, this problem can be solved through taxing wealth and publicly financing elections. The irony is that the deficits and debt are being covered by those wealthy interests now but instead of being paid as taxes they are paid as loans with interest.
Mr. Thomas uses his half-truth to argue that the problem is overspending on government and its programs. Cutting back on this spending would predominantly hurt the working poor and the middle class. Rather, I would argue that the problem is the under-collection of revenue from the wealthiest interests in our society, which does not just include wealthy individuals, but wealthy institutions as well.
Mitchell Roth
Mitchell Roth is a resident of Boynton Beach.