**

 *Talking About Taxes*

 By Fred Rotondaro, Chairman, Catholics in Alliance for the
 Common Good

 There are very silly things, and a few smart things, being said
 about taxes these days.

 Take Grover Norquist for instance. Mr Norquist has been chair of
 Americans for Tax Reform since 1986 and has generally operated
 in semi-obscurity. He's been all over the airwaves recently and
 even penned an op-ed for the New York Times. Norquist's topic?
 Taxes and why he's against them. He has a pledge signed by 276
 of 289 Republicans members of Congress saying they will never
 vote for a tax increase. Mr. Norquist interprets the pledge as
 including the preservation of billions of dollars in tax
 subsidies to corporations. Taking the subsidies away, he says,
 counts as a tax increase and he won't let any Republican do
 that. If they do, they may well find themselves facing a well
 financed primary opponent.

 Where does Norquist's power - and his funding - come from? He
 won't say. Anybody want to take my bet that it comes from large
 corporations who use Norquist as an enforcer to keep their taxes
 low and their subsidies high? Al Capone take notice.

 Now Republican spokesmen, whether it's John Boehner or the
 twenty-something attractive blonde billed as a Republican
 strategist, don't really want to get into the role played by
 Norquist and his corporate sponsors. So they've developed other
 language about taxes. "You can't tax the job creators during a
 recession," they robotically repeat. They say this time and time
 again despite the simple fact that after George Bush's three tax
 cuts, there was no upsurge in employment, the country had the
 greatest recession since 1929, and we still have 15 million
 unemployed. And the Republicans in Congress never seem to
 explain though why it's ok to take trillions away from the poor
 and middle class during a recession.

 Those job creators really better shape up. They have most of
 the wealth in the country: the top 1 percent of America's
 wealthiest citizens has more assets than the bottom 90 percent.
 And a mere 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all
 Americans. So, where are the jobs? In other countries, that's
 where. But they're not here. In fact, the super job creator,
 George W. Bush, created fewer jobs per years in office than any
 other president since Herbert Hoover.

 Think Progress, a unit of the liberal Center for American
 Progress--disclosure, I am a senior fellow at CAP-- recently
 had some things to say about taxes. They did some comparative
 studies.  A few of their conclusions: The tax burden on the
 American upper class is lower than most other countries. Ditto
 for American corporations. The top tax rate is nominally 35
 percent but the majority of billionaires don't pay anywhere near
 that amount because much of their money is invested and they pay
 only a capital gains rate of 15 percent.

 Warren Buffet, a few years ago, in arguing for tax reform,
 pointed out that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary.
 And if you're a hedge fund manager, all of your income is
 classified as capital gains, even though you do not have to
 invest any capital to make a bonus and the bonus is simply a
 reward for work, that is, it is a wage. By the way, the top 25
 hedge managers averaged $1 billion in income each in 2008.

 Robert Shiller, the legendary Yale professor of economics, also
 had some recent comments on taxes.  He believes we "need tax
 increases matched by higher expenditures on public goods." The
 government should act as "a type of banker," he says, using
 public monies for projects for the public good.  Higher taxes
 could provide monies for projects that make a stronger America.
 What a novel idea. Don't you wish FDR had thought of it? Oops.
 FDR did think of it, and got America out of the Great
 Depression.

 Shiller reminds me of my favorite commentator on taxes --
 Thomas Paine. Writing in 1782 as the Revolutionary War was
 coming to an end, Paine wrote about the necessity of taxes.
 "When America resolved on independence, and determined to be
 free, she naturally included within that resolution all the
 means, whether of men or money, to affect it." Put simply, the
 great Revolutionary was saying: All right men, you wanted
 freedom. Now pay up.

 To the Tea Party and to the Republican Leadership, I echo Paine.
 Together, we share America. We want her to be, as always, the
 greatest nation in world history. We cannot do that with your
 foolish and shallow notions about taxation. We cannot do that if
 you attempt to destroy the economic security guaranteed to all
 Americans. We cannot do that if you compromise our future
 because of your subservience to special interests instead of
 loyalty to the nation. When America is in stress, Paine wrote,
 "I shall treat taxation as a popular good. I hold taxation,
 which is to be applied to her own defense and her own good, one
 of the lightest of her difficulties, when considered with this
 which were occasioned by the want of it."

 Mr. Paine, may I introduce Mr. Boehner.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is a lay Catholic
 organization that promotes public policies and effective
 programs that enhance the inherent dignity of all, especially
 the poor and most vulnerable. Our work is inspired by Gospel
 values and the rich history of Catholic social teaching as they
 inform pressing moral issues of our time. We accomplish these
 goals through public policy analysis and advocacy, strategic
 media outreach, and engaging citizens in the service of the
 common good.

 http://www.catholicsinalliance.org


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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