The Rich Are Greedy Whiners

There is a plan to fund health insurance by imposing a small tax increase on the rich in this country. The plan actually makes sense, but the Republicans have been screaming bloody murder. To hear them talk, you'd think the rich are already overtaxed -- to the extent that they simply could not bear to pay more. What stupid nonsense!

As the tax table above shows, the top tax rate in the United States is near it's lowest point since the 1920's (which is incidentally the last time we had an income gap as large as the current one). The current top tax rate is less than 40% -- not for all Americans, but just those making enormous amounts of income.

How does this compare with other times in our history? During the time of the "New Deal" under President Roosevelt, the top tax rate ran from 63% to 79%. Under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy the top rate was 91%. Presidents Johnson and Nixon presided over a top rate of at least 70%, and during President Reagan's first term the top rate was 50%.

And you know what? During those times, the rich had no problem getting richer, and many new millionaires were created. In fact, most economists consider the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's to be a very good time for the United States economy. It was not until the 1980's, after Reagan lowered the rates, that the economy suffered a severe recession. The current recession came after Bush made his own unnecessary taxes cuts, c reating the current huge income inequity.

How bad is that inequity? The Wall Street Journal reports that management executives now receive one-third of all pay earned in the United States. The total payroll of the United States was $6.4 trillion in 2007. Of that money, $2.1 trillion was made by management executives (and that doesn't include such lucrative things as stock options). I expect that ratio has probably even gotten higher in the last couple of years.

In fact, since 1979 the income of the top 1% in this country has increased by 256%. That might be OK if everyone's income had increased that much, but of course it didn't. Income for the middle class increased by only 21%. The working class fared even worse, since their income has barely risen at all in this same period.

An interesting sidelight of this new concentration of payroll to the richest folks is that it has gotten so bad that it is hurting social security. While the rich executives make a third of the income, they don't pay anywhere near a third of the social security taxes. Although the rich won't admit it, this is one of the major causes of the impending social security shortfall.

My point with all these figures is that the rich can easily pay a small surtax to help pay for health insurance. They can also afford to pay more in social security taxes. Both of these together would still leave them paying far less taxes that the wealthy have paid in the past (and currently pay in most other countries). The rich are not overtaxed -- they are undertaxed, and it is time Americans cut through the Republican lies and realize this.

That's why I say most of the rich are greedy whiners.