bob, I really appreciate your tone. It’s great. It’s old-school, respectful and substantive. I’ll try to do same. Here’s my answer to your point about the composition of the tax base:
The amount of wealth in our country, the portion of the economy, percentage of GDP, etc., controlled and owned by large corporations and wealthy individuals increased significantly during the last two decades of the 20th century, and rose even more dramatically during Bush Junior’s two terms in office.
The reason the rich are paying a greater share of taxes is because they own A MUCH GREATER SHARE of our country’s collective resources. The real question is what happened to their tax rate, relatively speaking. This is where the games and obfuscation usually begin, because as every sophisticated individual or manager knows, there are all kinds of strategies and mechanisms to shift accounts around and adjust taxable income. Average people don’t do this. They just pay their taxes.
The fact of the matter is, the public tax burden as a percentage of wealth, or more accurately as a percentage of the annual change in wealth (not accounting for shelters, exclusions and loopholes) has become MORE regressive and unfair to the middle class. Wealthy individuals and large corporations have a much lower tax rate as a percentage of real wealth gains (which rarely equals taxable income).
Tax policy has absolutely accounted for _some_ of the wealth redistribution that has occurred in this country. Average people have been getting shafted for many years now. This is the reality. Both democans and republicrats are to blame. But only the GOP blathers on about how unfair taxes are to the wealthy when the reverse is true. It’s deceptive. Enough already.
