I am absolutely sick and tired of the argument by conservative Republicans that half of this country pays no taxes. The middle class and the poor pay taxes every day and when you include sales taxes, government fees, taxes on utilities and other forms of regressive taxation the actual tax rate that the bottom 50 percent of the population is paying is far more than the big fat zero touted by people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
In 2007, two Boston University economists, Laurence J. Kotlikoff and David Rapson, calculated that even the poorest Americans are paying around 40 percent of their income to some form of taxation.
This divisive rhetoric does absolutely nothing to help fix our country's problems and targets families and the elderly as the source of our economic problems while ignoring those truly responsible.
I had an acquaintance tell me the other day how upset he was that he paid $20,000 in taxes while a teacher that made half his income paid nothing in taxes when he did her tax return for her.
I asked him why he was so upset with a teacher that makes half his income when General Electric made billions in profits in 2010 and paid absolutely no federal taxes.
This inanity coming from these so-called fiscal conservatives is mind boggling.
It drives me to anger when I see trillions spent on needless wars and bailouts for corporations and banks, but when we need someone to blame, grandma's Social Security check is the source of our problems.
What does it say about us as a nation when we turn against those in our society who are the most vulnerable while we give banksters and corporate fat cats a pass as they steal from us in plain sight?
I believe in limited government and I want fiscal responsibility, but it begins by a rational approach to our current situation and placing condemnation on those truly responsible for our current financial crisis.
The last time I checked it wasn't senior citizens who drove the derivative market and sold bad debt as mortgage-backed securities.
It wasn't the poor family up the street that crashed the stock market by naked short selling.
It wasn't the middle class who got trillions of dollars of their own tax money in bailouts.
Redirect your anger at those who actually deserve it, and stop attacking your fellow Americans.
