Our tax system is a mess, no doubt. Increasing taxes is teetering on robbery, and some already call it "legal plunder". I find the following interesting (gathered from many non-profit, non-partisan websites, and their data over the last 10 years):
Almost 1/3 of Americans pay no federal income tax whatsoever (so how can they get a tax rebate?)
Fifty percent of Americans make more than $31,000 per year (and this groups makes 85% of all income), and also pay 96% of the taxes (are they "the rich"?)
The top 5% of Americans (those whose household income is $150K/year) pay 60% of the taxes, while making 30% of the income in the US
The top 1% of Americans (those making more than $380K/year) pay almost 40% of all taxes, while making less than 20% of all income
Is this fair? Is a progressive income tax fair? Maybe (IMHO) unless there is ANY redistribution of income "just because". Doing so makes people wards of the state, and is indeed socialism. But who are the rich? How you define them and how politicians define them are likely very different. Are "the rich" (whoever they are) already paying their disproportionate share, based on the numbers above? When tax breaks are claiming to "help only the rich", who are they talking about? It certainly doesn't and shouldn't help those who pay nothing. "Tax breaks", by definition, only affect those who pay taxes.
Did you know our corporate income tax rate is twice that of our global competitors? Do you understand the implications of that? It means it is less profitable for companies to stay here than to re-locate overseas. We are not talking about cheap labor. My research of many articles indicates our corporations are paying about 40% in income taxes, and their global competition is paying about 20%. Such a tax burden reduces jobs here, and is a disincentive to expand here. Who is to share the blame for jobs going overseas? Congress, who by their taxation of corporations, take almost half of corporate profits for "the government" in their greed.
Our tax situation is a mess, and who has demonstrated any real will to change it?
