Repairing the Tax Structure
We all hate paying taxes. You do. I do too.
But we all enjoy the serves that those taxes provide us. They pay for the robust military that keeps our nation safe at night. They pay for the police that patrol our streets, the roads that we drive on, and the schools that educate our children and turn them into productive members of society.
But over the last few years, we've watched the tax system be completely turned on its head. It's possible now for a CEO to pay less in taxes than the lady that cleans his office, and she is far more likely than he is to face the horrors of an audit from the IRS.
And who ends up suffering because of all this? The same people that always do. The underappreciated, rapidly disappearing middle class.
The poor typically get back what they pay into the IRS. The wealthy have enjoyed one massive cut after another for the last few years. Who does that leave holding the bag for America's tax burden?
There's even a tax that was passed forty years ago to cover only the wealthiest households in America called the Alternative Minimum Tax. Unfortunately, the Congress that passed it in 1969 didn't bother to index it for inflation, so the definition of "wealthy" in that act started at $75,000. In December 2007, we passed a one year extension to keep the worst negative impact from happening--- But clearly, that was a means of applying a bandaid to a wound that needs surgery.
We must repair the tax code so that we can get this nation moving in the right direction once again. Historically, this nation has functioned at its best, created its most robust economies, with a more progressive tax structure than is in place right now. The poor get everything that they pay in refunded to them. The middle class pay a moderate percentage. And the wealthy, who derive the most benefit from the services and protections that our nation provides, pay the top rate.
Between tax cuts for the wealthiest in American society and the impending application of the Alternative Minimum Tax to the middle class, we are about to see the middle class paying a higher rate than the wealthy.
There are many more poor and middle class families than there are wealthy ones. And when you allow the poor and the middle class to hold onto more of their paycheck, you increase their spending power and drive the economy forward.
All of America, regardless of income level, prospered in the nineties with a more logical, more progressive system of taxation than we have in place today. And I will fight to restore order to the tax system so that we can create a healthier economy while still providing the services that are essential to the Ninth District and beyond.