Even though the "Tea Partiers" are screaming about the government taking too many of your hard earned dollars, a recent USA Today analysis of federal data shows that Americans paid the lowest level of taxes last year since Harry Truman's presidency. Federal, state, local, property, sales, and other taxes were 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, which is the lowest rate since 1950.
What might be better for us to scream about would be that mult-imillionaires and billionaires, who pay a maximum 35 percent income tax on salaries and not a penny in Social Security taxes on the vast majority of their income, and who can often call their income from dividends capital gains and pay a maximum 15 percent income tax on them, are also not paying too much in taxes. And these people have the resources to keep it that way. They can buy their way into the congressional votes needed to keep the status quo in their favor. For the full story go to: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2010-05-10-taxes_N.htm
I still believe that the best first start to take back our government would be campaign finance reform. Television advertising is the single largest expense in current campaigns and if we could take a page from the Brits and out and out ban political commercials, it might start us back toward a leveler playing field. There is no guarantee that such action would improve the quality of the winners, but it would be a bold simple step toward controlling the fundraising necessary to conduct a run for office. Without the incessant, repetitive, and often truth starved messages of campaign commercials, we would also immediately improve the relative sanity of the air waves. Just think about a TV world in which you could once again concentrate on trying to figure out if you will be ready when the time is right.
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