On the face of it, Senator Harry Reid’s explosive but flimsily sourced claim that Mitt Romney paid no income tax seems preposterous. Mr. Romney has denied it, and without his returns no one can say for sure. But for someone who makes millions of dollars a year, would it even be possible? Evidently it is. It so happens that this summer the Internal Revenue Service released data from the 400 individual income tax returns reporting the highest adjusted gross income. This elite ultrarich group earned on average $202 million in 2009, the latest year available. And buried in the data is the startling disclosure that six of the 400 paid no federal income tax.
You work hard, you pay your taxes, and you hope for better things. Like your parents did before you, you figure that if you work hard, perhaps better things might like ahead for you and your family…and perhaps that might be true. There’s a group of Americans for whom those better things have already happened…AND they’ve figured out how to game the system so that the bulk of the benefits and goodies flow their way. It turns out that working hard is a good thing, but if you REALLY want to reap the benefits in our society, starting out rich certainly doesn’t hurt. The rich really ARE different; they have better tax lawyers and access to tax shelters that most mere mortals don’t. Thus do the rich continue to ensure and increase their personal wealth, often at the expense of the rest of us.
Don’t get me wrong; I value and admire success. Few things are more American than working hard and reaping those rewards, and I recognize that most wealthy Americans worked hard to get where they are. That said, shouldn’t Americans be able to expect that ALL of us pay our fair share? Shouldn’t we be able to expect that ALL Americans understand and recognize their responsibility to pull their weight? We should be able to expect that, but while no one wants to pay more taxes than they absolutely have to, the vast majority of Americans don’t have access to the tax attorneys and shelters that the 1% do. Throw in capital gains taxes, and it’s not difficult to figure out why and how so many of the superrich pay a much lower effect tax rate than the vast majority of Americans.
Over the past few months, I’ve heard Mitt Romney and other wealthy Americans complain about how they’re hated for their success. Frankly, nothing could be further from the truth. Americans admire success. We aspire to achieve that sort of success; we hold that up to our children as a worthy and . That said, we have a right to expect that the superrich pay their fair share in taxes. If they paid the same tax rate the vast majority of Americans do, my guess is the resentment and anger would diminish significantly. When the 1% use their wealth and power to game the system to tilt the playing field in their direction, they can’t claim to be surprised when the rest of us decide to push back in anger.
Do we REALLY want a President who would represent the interests of the 1% (himself included) over all Americans? It’s your call, America.
