Archive for the Taxation Category

In a previous post, we questioned whether Obama would really make good on his promise of a middle-class tax cut. After all, during his campaign, Bill Clinton had promised the same thing but quickly reneged once he took office.

A few days ago, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first appointee for his new administration, stated that “at this juncture” the new administration planned “on giving 95 percent of working Americans a tax cut.”
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Taxes are a perennial hot campaign issue. It’s therefore no wonder that both Barack Obama and John McCain are seeking to use it to their own advantage.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center looked at the candidates’ plans, and stated that both may be unworkable since deficits are already astronomical. There’s not much room for a “tax cut” when current rates of taxation are already accompanied by enormous deficits.

McCain’s plan, however, is the more costly. McCain’s ads are deceptive, if not outright fraudulent. In them, he repeatedly invokes time-tested theme of “the-Democrats-are-out-to-raise-your-taxes” and claims that he alone can save working families from a higher tax burden. It’s a lie, pure and simple.

In reality, McCain is taking a page from the familiar George W. Bush playbook: give tiny, token tax relief to the middle class while reserving all the real goodies for the ultra-rich.
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Rich Manhattanite elites wanted to tax the people who work for them for the privilege of commuting to work. Mayor Bloomberg (who’s one of them) was all for it. Fortunately, the proposal was defeated in Albany, New York’s state capital. Chalk one up for the middle class this time.
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Remember the 1992 election? President Bush was sitting in the White House. A well-spoken Democrat—a fresh face on the national scene—came along and promised change from business-as-usual. He avoided the usual partisan rhetoric and said his goal was to bring us all together. He went out of his way to reach out to Middle America and, among other things, promised a middle class tax cut.

Sound familiar?

Once Bill Clinton was elected, he quickly forgot about his promise and abandoned the tax break for the middle class. Will Barack Obama do the same?
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 “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”

—Late billionaire Leona HelmsleyÂ

According to a study of corporate tax returns filed for the years between 1998 and 2005 issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), over 60% of U.S. corporations paid no corporate income tax at all.

For large foreign-owned corporations operating in the U.S., the number is even higher: almost 75%.

All of this is entirely above-board. After all, the government itself provided the statistics and is therefore fully aware of what is going on.
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