Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 09:17:01 -0600 (CST)
Subject: FW: Bob Dole's Plan??? (fwd)



Marc, "the Chegitz," Luzietti
personal homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett
political homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett/chegitz.html

"Susan, when a man's wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he's in 
no position to run." -- Cary Grant in  "Bringing Up Baby."

>
>
>		Bob Dole, the Flat Tax, and Taxpaying Suckers
>			By Charles J. Reid
> 
>	Bob Dole has a reputation for having exhibited courage on the
>battlefield. Placing one's physical being sacrificially in harms way is
>often an easier act than risking one's political existence, especially
>when the risk is good for the country. What was it? Republicans poll 
>focus groups first?
>
>	Since there has been an outbreak of deadly irrationality in the 
>Republican Party, engendered mainly by the code words 'responsibility,' 
>'family values,' and the 'flat tax,' it is easy to expect Bob Dole to be 
>overwhelmed by the tsunami of stupidity that threatens the destruction 
>of the taxpaying, sucker body politic, who have allowed themselves to be 
>scammed by corporate and investor interests for a generation.
>
>	More and more Republicans are being won over by the idea of a
>flat tax. As ready as they are to argue that an "honest day's work" need
>not be recompensed by a "livable wage," they will look for any mechanism
>to destroy the achievements of Liberalism and its role in raising the
>level of civilization in America after the debacle of the Hoover
>Administration that led to the Great Depression in the 1930s.
>
>	What position will the Republican-nominee-apparent take on fiscal 
>policy and the flat tax? On the assumption that voters will be looking 
>more closely at proposals and promises during this election cycle, Bob 
>Dole may find himself between a rock and a hard place on this issue. 
>Economic reality does not favor Republican positions.
>
>	According to data published by the Congressional Budget Office, 
>it is clear that a growing problem in the country is the increased 
>concentration of wealth. A recent report finds that:
> 
>*  The income of the top one percent of families rose 91 percent from 
>1977 to 1992
>
>*  The income of the poorest fifth of American families during the same 
>period fell by 17 percent
>
>*  The richest 2.5 million Americans have nearly as much income as the 
>100 million Americans with the lowest incomes, which is close to twice 
>the concentration of a decade earlier.
> 
>	Aggravating the picture are the tax breaks corporations have been 
>getting by lobbying Congress, not to mention corporate welfare 
>subsidies. Barlett and Steele, in their book, "America: Who Really Pays 
>the Taxes," show that corporations now pay a much smaller share of 
>overall taxes, while the tax burden for individuals has increased.
> 
>	During the 1940s, corporate taxes accounted for 33 percent of the 
>federal government's general fund tax collections. This proportion has 
>dropped to 15 percent in the 1990s. 
>
>	In the 1940s, individual income taxes accounted for 44 percent of 
>the government's general fund tax collections. This figure has risen to 
>73 percent in the 1990s.
>
>	Recent legislation hidden in Omnibus bills have given many 
>corporations codified tax breaks equivalent to an amount that would 
>eliminate the deficit if paid according to rates levied in the 1950s -- 
>that Golden Age conservatives want to return to. Some companies pay no 
>taxes, even though their employees pay income tax. And limited 
>partnerships are havens for tax dodgers.
>
>	According to Barlett and Steele, banks and companies managing 
>natural resources are beneficiaries of tax-break legislation. For the 
>years 1991 and 1992, Chase Manhattan Corporation paid $25 million on a 
>reported income of $1.5 billion, for a tax rate of 1.7 percent. Texaco 
>paid $237 million on income of $2.7 billion for a tax rate of 8.8 
>percent. One American-based Caribbean cruise line pays 0 tax. And many 
>foreign companies pay no taxes.
>
>	Meanwhile, small business owners paying at individual rates of up 
>to 40% now bear a larger tax burden. The top 1000 corporations accounting 
>for 60% of the GNP are supposed to pay up to 35 percent on income. 
>Various loop holes bring this down to less than 20 percent.  Eleven 
>million small-business entrepreneurs accounting for the remaining 40% of 
>the GNP will pay federal income tax at a rate up to 40%. 
>
>	Taxpayer disenchantment is understandable.
>
>	The Republican solution to this inequity in the tax system has 
>been a bevy of flat tax proposals. All of these proposals have one 
>characteristic in common: rich families get large tax breaks and the very 
>poor get none. For example, former presidential candidate Steve Forbes 
>advocated a 17% flat tax with a home mortgage deduction. A family with an 
>income of $15,000 would get no tax relief, while a family with a $2 
>million income would get a $500,000 tax break. 
>
>	Perhaps these proposals are designed to cut spending, since all 
>the plans would lead to roughly $40 billion in annual revenue losses to 
>the U.S. Treasury.
>
>	What will the Republican candidate do? The 1980s proved that 
>trickle-down didn't work. The rich took their money and invested it 
>overseas, where many American factories moved. Real income for most 
>Americans is falling. Corporate investors are reaping profits. 
>
>	Republicans don't want to redistribute wealth. But what do you do 
>when the wealthiest 400 Americans have more assets than one billion 
>people on earth? And how did they get it? By influencing tax legislation in 
>Washington, D.C. 
> 
>	Where's Bob Dole's plan to deal with this problem?
>
>	On the campaign trail, Bob Dole has mainly talked in terms of 
>platitudes: "leadership," "experience," "family values," and general 
>vacuous rhetoric. But where's his analysis of the problems? And how will 
>he restructure the system of taxation? Nobody knows yet. But, among us 
>ordinary folk, only a sucker would vote for a Republican flat-tax plan, 
>or any plan that does not end the con game corporate lobbyists have 
>perpetrated on the people.
>
>
>			-- 30 --
>
>-- Charlie Reid
>cjreid-AT-netcom.com
>"Salus populi suprema est lex" (Cicero)
>The welfare of the people is the highest law.
>
>
>
>
>stoke the bonfires....
>
>Leftist Leon
>http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/PEPP/leonleft.htm
>
>04/01/96             00:13:22
>
>
>




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