Republicans and Millionaires - Class Warfare and Greed

On the Sean Sean Hannity show tonight their Fox News poll results showed 80% didn't think we should tax the rich. But on the Fox Business website they also report that a CBS poll says only "half of Americans support raising taxes on the wealthy" - - - but then lists an unsubstantiated litany of other taxes they say we'll all have to pay if Obama's "Buffett Rule" is passed (using all the usual conservative scare tactics).

On the Ed Schultz show on MSNBC the poll results showed 90% thought we should tax the rich - so it makes sense that it just depends on the audience and who's voting.

But more than 20 polls consulted by Bruce Bartlett reveal support for higher taxes in a deficit reduction deal, and the public prefers those higher taxes to disproportionately affect the rich.

The Atlantic describes the Buffett Rule as a rule that would require millionaires to pay "a greater share" of their income than the middle class. (not a "fair share", or the "same share" as a percentage as the rest of us, but just "a greater share"). And only touched on the fact that the wealthy earn a greater share of their income through capital gains, not in a regular paycheck like we get, and the rich are taxed at a much lower rate. Wealthy people keep their excess cash in investments (stocks, bonds, annuities, real estate, etc) and generally pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do middle-income workers, because investment gains are taxed at a lower rate than wages.

There are 23 polls that say THE PEOPLE support higher taxes. According to a CNN/ORC poll released last month, by a 2-1 margin, 62% of Americans want the bipartisan joint deficit reduction committee to raise taxes on the wealthy while avoiding major entitlement changes.

It's clear that after the latest CBS poll that Americans want to tax the rich "their fair share", or at the same exact tax rate as we pay, and they want Social Security and Medicare left alone. Like I say, tax millionaires just like us. But the wealthy and Republicans call this "class warfare".

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When Reagan and Clinton raised taxes, 40 million jobs were created.

Since George W. Bush and the tax cuts for the rich, 45,000 factories closed and we had millions of jobs outsourced overseas. We lost 10 million jobs just during the recession alone, and we still have 9 million people collecting UI benefits out of 21 million unemployed (14 million reported by the Labor Department + 7 million 99ers and UI "exhaustees".)

50 million Americans now have no healthcare (because of lost jobs that once provided employer-paid group insurance plans) and 45 million Americans now rely on food stamps after losing jobs too. The poverty rate is over 15% (a record since 1964), with 1 out of 5 children living in poverty because mommy and daddy no longer have jobs.

The wealthy have been paying the lowest tax rates than they have in years, while large corporations have been making record profits, as are the bankers, CEOs, and hedge fund managers who are earning record salaries and bonuses.

We have some of the highest budget deficits and local budget shortfalls on record, and the infrastructure of the country has been steadily in decline, while states are laying off police, firefighter, and teachers.

Wages stayed flat for the last 10 years (barely rising all in the last 40 years) while their bosses' pay increase by 400%.

Yet they (the Republican pimps and those like the Koch brothers) are saying raising taxes on the top 3% of the uber-rich (just a little bit more) to save the nation from utter ruin is "class warfare" and "unpatriotic".

I say it is THEY who are unpatriotic, and we should freeze all their assets and evict those scumbags from our country immediately. They've done enough harm to us and this nation already. They're not "job creators", they're financial oppressors.

We didn't wage class warfare, they did.