WHAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING TO THIS GREAT COUNTRY
Gary Ater
July 28, 2008
>>> 15.0% of the tax cuts went to the top 1/10th of 1% of Americas income bracket.
(The top 5% means those making more than $1.5 Million dollars per annum)
This means that those already wealthy individuals that didn't need a tax cut were the direct beneficiaries of Bush's proposals, and yes, the "rich are getting richer". (Please note, the top 5% also did NOT invest the majority of their vast tax savings in new jobs or new business expansion.)
As the second wealthiest man in America, Warren Buffett, stated a couple of years ago; "If there's class warfare going on in America, then my class is winning."
And how today is the US, as the major country of a global economy continuing to get away with all of this? Well, let's look at it from the point-of-view of America's largest international marketplace "competitor and benefactor"; Mainland China.
Years ago, China decided, "Why should we ever consider going to war to beat the US? With all the spending that the Bush administration is doing today, all we have to do is allow them to build up a mountain of debt and then loan them a mountain of money."
While China has been very successful in implementing this strategy, they have also increased America's trade deficit by increasing the sale of their products into the US. At the same time, they are putting prohibitively high duties on any and all US manufactured goods being shipped into China.
From America's large purchases of Chinese goods, China is now receiving back even more money than they have been lending to the US, plus they are receiving interest on their loans to the US.
As we all know, at some point, America's credit card will eventually be full and the Chinese and other lending countries could stop their loans to the US. In fact, if just the Chinese alone were to call in their loans today, they would virtually own all of America. Therefore, they could do all of this damage to the US and basically win the "war of the economy's" without firing a single shot.
However, China will probably not seriously consider doing that as long as the US continues to be their largest trading partner for purchasing all of those China manufactured consumer products and pharmaceuticals. Therefore, the Republican's spending with America's credit card has continued to march on while our children's-children will eventually have the responsibility for paying off George W. Bush's credit card debt.
Now, when we look at those wealthiest Americans with Bush's tax cuts, not all of them support what the Republicans are doing. As the second richest American, Mr. Warren Buffett is actually an American anomaly. Instead of owning and displaying all of the normal extravagant trappings of the super wealthy, Mr. Buffett is a kind of rough cut "diamond" among the other shiny gems. Mr. Buffett lives a very austere life when compared to most other billionaires. He personally says that "that attitude comes from being a "self-made" man that became successful by taking advantage of the American dream". He was not born into wealth. He instead, attended public schools and feels that he was fortunate to have been born into a society that allowed him to take advantage of all the things that this country offered.
Buffett today just shakes his head and says that he really doesn't understand why Washington politicians keep cutting taxes for those people that are in his income bracket, and they keep doing the cutting while the country continues to go broke...?
Senator Barack Obama told a story in his book "The Audacity of Hope" about a discussion he had with Warren Buffett when they were discussing tax policies. Mr Buffett told Barack that he had done a quick calculation that showed that his personal assistant will pay a larger tax rate than all of the people in his tax bracket. He said he just didn't understand why the country continues to allow the wealthiest Americans, (those that get the majority of their income from dividends and capital gains), to only pay a maximum tax rate of 15%, while his personal assistant will pay in the 25% tax bracket...? He went on to say that based on Bush's tax cuts, he will personally pay taxes at a rate far less than most all Americans and he added that, "If Bush gets his way, I'll be paying even less."
This was Warren Buffet's way of confirming that Bush's tax policies do just what the conservatives continue to sell to their constituents. The rich continue to get richer and those in the middle, like his assistant, will be the ones to pay for it.
Mr. Buffett also said that he didn't understand the thinking of how so many US company directors and stock holders continue to approve their executives huge increases in compensations with such a worsening trade deficit and the increasing national debt. And he was totally exasperated over Bush's proposal to eliminate the estate tax. He said that, "When you get rid of the estate tax, you are basically handing over the command of the country's companies and resources to people who didn't earn it. It's like choosing the 2020 Olympic teams by picking the children of all the winners of the 2000 Olympics."
When asked how many of his fellow billionaires shared his views on taxes and the economy, Mr. Buffett just laughed and said "not very many". He went on to say, "They have this idea that it's their money and they deserve to keep every penny of it. What they don't factor in is all the public investment that lets us live [with all the wealth] the way we do. Take me as an example. I happen to have a talent for allocating capital and I have used that talent for becoming very successful. Back in the old days, if I had been born into a tribe of hunters, my talents of today would have been totally worthless. I can't run very fast and I'm not particularly very strong. I would probably have ended up as some wild animal's dinner entrée."
As I have always said, and Mr. Buffett has also made it clear, that cutting taxes is a good idea, but our politicians need to put the people's common interests as the priority for deciding which taxes to cut. Cutting taxes for certain corporations that create jobs or by ending useless subsidies that today serve no benefit to the public is very appropriate. Stopping the support of medical benefits for poor children and increasing taxes on families that are just barely able to survive is something else. Today, the president, the Washington lobbyists, conservative Republican politicians and right-wing media commentators have successfully promoted the Republican's current tax-cut programs. This has all been done while conveniently ignoring the effect of their efforts on those in the middle class that have been absorbing the bulk of the costs and the negative results of their policies.
And just what have been the results of the past 30 years of management of our tax policies by these so-called "conservative Republicans"?
Well, as a case in point, between 1971 and 2006, the median wage and salary of the average worker has shown virtually no gain after calculating the annual cost-of-living increases. On the other end of the scale, the wealthiest 5% of American's income earners during this period increased from 100% to 500%.
The distribution of wealth today between the "haves" and the "have nots" is even worse. The discrepancy of wealth between the rich and the poor today is approaching the same levels as it was just prior to that between the wealthy and the working class of the late 1800's. These were the days of the "entrepreneurs of the time" known then as the "robber barons". This was the time when vast wealth had come from the sometimes unscrupulous efforts of; Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Flagler and J.P. Morgan. Today, America's "class warfare" is very similar to that of the time of the "barons", with the current, extravagant displays today of wealth and excess by America's new upper-class.
I do not begrudge anyone that has worked hard to become successful or has been in the "right place at the right time" to realize an opportunity for becoming wealthy and successful. Instead, as an example, I look to my own father who, in his time, was a very fortunate American. He was one of the few young men, born in the early 1900's and coming from a mid-western farm, that was able to finish his high school education. He was then able to survive the "Great Depression" and to get married just before he had to go to war and fight and stay alive in both WW II and the Korean War.
After Korea, he was able to find a job that he was good at, he joined a union, bought his own home, raised a family, started a small construction company and finally retired. And he did all of this on one, single family income.
According to today's economy, with the middle class tax burdens and the status of job growth and opportunities in America, based on statistics, less than 20% of all Americans today can be expected to do what my father was successful in doing on one, single family income.
This is a very sad, potential epitaph for this great country.
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