LOW TAXES ON WEALTHY A MAJOR US PROBLEM

It all began with Reagan.  He started the low tax, trickled own, supply side idea, which was termed "voodoo economics" by George Bush Sr. (41).  "Lil" George (# 43) took the idea to extremes when he fought two wars on the cuff and at the same time cut high-wage-earner taxes to the bone.  The plutocrats and corporatists now generally pay less than 10% on their earnings, or at least those earnings that they do not squirrel away in the Cayman Islands.  Understandably and predictably, as a result of the low taxes on the wealthy (as well as continued unwise deficit spending) US government revenues have declined and the deficit climbed.  During the "Lil" Bush years the huge housing bubble, war-footing-economy and general mindless optimism of that period masked the problem for a while. Though in the end the boom period came to an abrupt and disastrous conclusion in late 2007-2008 when the Great Recession hit.  Revenues collapsed with the economy thereafter and the deficit climbed.  When Obama took office the deficit figure stood at about 1.4 trillion dollars (it had not doubled).   Those "lost" dollars of uncollected taxes and war spending went into the hands of the few super wealthy and the one-percenters, as well as the war profiteers like Dick Cheney.

My Dad always used to say "follow the money" when he wanted to allot blame.  Doing  just that we can see how the funds moved from the calloused hands of Chinese laborers and entrepreneurs who saved it and then into the Chinese banks which bought our bonds, in effect lending us the money, and then due to those tax breaks, into the coffers of the super wealthy, who tucked it away in the Caymans, or bought monster yachts, or their second Lear jet.   That very same US debt on borrowed money will have to be repaid....by us, our kids and grandkids.  Not fair? You bet it ain't.

Obama would like to recoup some of that money....it's still there, after all being held by the wealthy cruising our waters in their yachts and leaving contrails in the ionosphere with their private jets.

Under Obama the deficit did not double as Mr. Romney likes to claim, for today it stands at about 1.2 trillion.   But the national debt did climb and now our kids and grandkids will have to pay that back to the Chinese and our other bond holders.  It would be sweet revenge if we could recoup some of that money from the hands of the war profiteers and the one-percenters who helped to fuel the awful Great Recession and where much of those funds still remains.  How do we do that?  Raise taxes on those folks as President Obama suggests.   That seems only fair.