 |
We as a nation must, over the
long term, have a balanced budget and pay our bills. For
the past several years we've done exactly the opposite, and we're
now facing the pain of having to deal with the consequences.
The US Congress must decide how best to dig out of our self-created
hole, and how best to stay out in the future. We as individuals must
tell our priorities and preferences to Congress, and hold our
Senators and Representatives accountable for acting in our best
interests.
I found the chart at left on the
website of the
Center for American Progress and copied it here because it
attempts to illustrate the fundamental choices Congress is making on
our behalf. The
same chart is also
available as a PDF file.
If this chart is factually
incorrect, please email the details to me
at comment@beavercreektax.net.
If it is correct, it does not appear to represent
the best interests of most Americans.
I encourage you to study the issue, form your own
opinion, and write to Congress.
Click here to find and contact your US Senators.
Click here to find and contact your US Representative.
Warren Buffett calls for higher taxes on the wealthy, himself
included
After reviewing the chart at left on August
14th, 2011, I sent the
following email to Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Rob Portman, and
Congressman Steve Austria:
| [Senator Brown] [Senator
Portman] [Congressman Austria], please include an
increase in taxes and a reduction of tax breaks in your
efforts to manage the federal budget deficit. I am
a retired military officer, a conservative by nature,
and an advocate for responsible and balanced leadership.
The current Republican insistence on preservation of any
and all tax breaks for wealthy individuals and
corporations, at the expense of programs designed to
assist a much wider segment of the population, is
inconsistent with responsible and balanced leadership.
I, and the nation in general, need you and all of
Congress to do better than that. Please include an
increase in taxes and a reduction of tax breaks in your
efforts to manage the federal budget deficit. |
On August 15th, 2011, Senator Portman emailed
me a reply,
posted here as a PDF document. His reply only briefly
touched on the issue of taxation, so I again contacted him via his
official website and sent him the following email:
| Senator Portman, I
contacted you via your webpage on August 14th to ask you
to include an increase in taxes and a reduction of tax
breaks in your efforts to manage the federal budget
deficit, because preserving tax breaks for the wealthy
at the expense of programs designed to assist a much
wider segment of the population is inconsistent with
responsible and balanced leadership.
Your August 15th response primarily addresses the debt
limit, and concerning taxes only says “I'll also
continue my fight against higher taxes because
increasing the burden of taxation on the economy will
further slow a weak recovery.”
The
assertion that restoring taxation on the wealthiest 2%
of Americans to year-2000 levels will slow the nation's
economic recovery is without merit, as it rests upon the
time-disproven "trickle-down" economic theory and
ignores the economic impact of de-funding and
under-funding education, training, and health programs
that could have been operated with the lost tax
revenue. Maintaining disproportionately-generous tax
breaks for the wealthy while slashing budgets for
education, training, and health programs will only
ensure that the rich get richer while a far greater
number of Americans are denied access to programs
designed to increase their productivity. Your
endorsement of this tactic, and your use of sound-bite
terminology such as "increasing the burden of taxation
on the economy" to divert attention from the issue of
disproportionately generous tax breaks for the wealthy
at the expense of average American citizens, are
inconsistent with the responsible and balanced
leadership the nation desperately needs. I ask you to
reconsider your position, and to include an increase in
taxes and a reduction of tax breaks in your efforts to
manage the federal budget deficit. |
|