Reply #4: We're all supposed to be Boxer the cart-horse and "work harder" [View All]

[bread_and_roses]

for less, and watch that less eaten up by taxes and fees while the Napoleons loll in untaxed luxury.

I have long thought that we progressives miss the point when we campaign on "tax the rich" without including "un-tax" the rest of us. Part of the "Tea-Party" anger arises out of no one acknowledging that workers and even the "poor" are over-taxed - I've referenced this before and can't find it online but a few years ago a comparison was done in NY showing that the rich in NY were paying about 6% of their income in total taxes and fees while the lower tier income are paying 12%.

stolen from Joanne98 above: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x582053

from her cite: http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2011/01/wonk-room-conservative-statehouses-hand-out-corporate-tax-breaks-while-raising-taxes-on-low-income-citizens.html

Conservative Statehouses Hand Out Corporate Tax Breaks While Raising Taxes On Low-Income Citizens

Just days after calling for unity and “shared sacrifice” in their inaugural speeches, conservative governors, joined by legislators across the county, have proposed new tax cuts for business and top-earners alongside cuts to critical expenditures for low-income working families and tax increases on the working poor. As the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy writes, in the face of massive budget shortfalls and declining revenue, many states “are poised to enact harmful cuts in existing state taxes that could weaken states’ ability to provide core public services for years to come.” “The threats to state tax fairness and adequacy are mounting by the day,” ITEP noted.

(there are links embedded in the original)