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This is not just commentary
about taxes, it is about values and priorities, and whether more of us soon
will be asking our own government to walk the talk they preach to others. - KWC Twisted Tax
Logic
By Molly Ivins, Saturday, June
14, 2003; Page A23 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57363-2003Jun13.html?nav=hptoc_eo AUSTIN -- In the
"physician, heal thyself" department, please note the response of
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer to a bulletin from North Korea that said:
"The intention to build up a nuclear deterrent is not aimed to threaten
and blackmail others, but to reduce conventional weapons. North Korea hopes to
channel manpower resources and funds into economic construction and the
betterment of people's living." Fleischer piously
replied: "Perhaps from this glimpse of North Korea acknowledging that its
own people suffer as a result of North Korea's policies, it will help North
Korea to now make the right decisions. And the right decisions are to put their people first, to
feed their people, to get health care to their people." Not only should
feeding the people and getting health care to the people be more important than
a nuclear program, it should even be more important than tax cuts for the
obscenely wealthy. The United States spends $400 billion a year on the military
-- that's 50.1
percent of all discretionary spending (non-discretionary includes Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid). These priorities are not exactly setting a great example for North
Korea. Look at what's
happening here, beloveds. The Houston Chronicle reported on June 11:
"Soccer moms, firefighters and community activists overflowed City Council
chambers Tuesday, pleading that their programs not be eliminated or reduced in
the already squeezed 2004 budget. The crowd of supplicants grew so large at one
point that police had to direct people to the council's annex building. "The list of wants and needs was
long. Competitive sports groups don't want their park leagues dropped.
Firefighters want staffing levels maintained on trucks. And community groups
want a southwest Houston health clinic reopened and free after-school programs
continued." That's what it comes down to, all this big
talk about tax cuts from Washington and about not raising taxes from Austin --
it's taking away after-school programs and health clinics and firefighters. Not to drop a name,
but last week I was on a panel with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, and I quoted the
wonderful B.
Rapoport of Waco, Tex.,
a great and very rich American. B. says: "Look, you make $50,000 a year
and pay $8,000 in income taxes. That won't send you to the poorhouse, but it
will sure as hell put a crimp in your budget. I make a million dollars a year.
I pay $400,000 in income taxes. That leaves me $600,000 a year to live on. You
gonna feel sorry for me? I'm still rich." O'Reilly, perhaps not
realizing I was quoting someone else, jumped in and said: "Yeah, but I
don't want to take your money and give it to someone else. You should keep your
money." My tax
money and Rapoport's tax money are not given to someone else. It goes back into
this country, the one that allowed Rapoport to become rich in the first
place. B. Rapoport knows perfectly well why he's successful. His
dad was an immigrant peddler who never made more than $4,000 a year. B. went to
the public schools of San Antonio back in the '20s and to the University of
Texas in the '30s, where he attended graduate school in economics. He
believes in public education the way some people believe in religion. He supports a charter school and gives
generously to the University of Texas. He's happy his taxes are used for social
improvement -- he cannot stand rich people who dodge their taxes. How can you not be
willing to create opportunities for young people in the country that gave you
so many opportunities, he asks. The preamble to the
Constitution says this country was established "In order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Roads, schools, prisons, courthouses, bridges,
dams and sewage systems are all necessary, as are health and education. That's
why we pay taxes. We pay for after-school programs and sports leagues because
kids need them and get into trouble without them. The reason people hate paying taxes is
because they know the system isn't fair. We don't have a progressive tax system in this country
anymore, and we certainly don't have one in Texas. It is mind-boggling that the
Republicans took away child tax credits for low-income working people. It was
such a gross distortion in favor of the rich and against working people that it
created an immediate backlash and forced the White House to ask Congress to
reverse itself. "Ain't going to
happen," said Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He says the working poor will get their tax cut
only if the rich get another round, as well. That's sick. |
