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"Isn't tax relief the natural way to talk about taxes? I'm a progressive, but I have to admit, they do seem burdensome sometimes. "Homework in school is burdensome too, but you have to do it if you're gong to learen anything. Exercise is burdensome, but you have to do it if you're going to be in good physical shape. Taxes are necessary if we are going to make wise investments in our national infrastructure that will pay off for all of us years and years in the future. That includes investments in things like education and health care for those who can't afford it. Education and health care are investments in people. They are wise investments because they give us an educated citizenry, an educated workforce, and a healthy and efficient workforce. Those are the practical reasons for taxes. Other reasons for taxes are public services--like police and fire, disaster relief, and so on. "Those are the practical reasons for taxes, but there are moral reasons as well. Education and health are important factors in fulfillment in life, and this country is about fulfillment in life. There is a reason why the Declaration of Independence talks about the pursuit of happiness and links it to liberty. The reason is that they go together. Without liberty, there can be no fulfillment in life. Thus there are practical reasons why it makes sense to understand taxation as investment, and there are moral reasons to understand taxation as paying your dues in a country where you can pursue happiness because there is liberty and freedom" (108). "[Radical right] tax cuts are not about tax cuts... They are about getting rid of all social programs and regulations of business. Vouchers and school testing are not ultimately about vouchers and school testing; they are about conservative control of the content of education... )George Lakoff. Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate: 108).
www.rockridgeinstitute.org... "frame shifting. Example: A tax cut proponent says, We should get rid of taxes. People know how to spend their money better than the government. Reframe: The government has made very wise investments with taxpayer money. Our interstate highway system, for example. You couldn't build a highway with your tax refund. The government built them. Or the Internet, paid for by taxpayer investment. You could not make your own Internet. Most of our scientific advances have been made through funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health--great government investments of taxpayer money. No matter how wisely you spent your own money, you'd never get those scientific and medical breakthroughs. And how far would you get hiring your own army with your tax refund?" (George Lakoff. Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate: 117-118).
"My favorite authority on taxes is David Cay Johnston of The New York Times, who won a Pulitzer for reporting on the terminally unsexy topic of taxes. His book, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich--And Cheat Everyone Else, is the single best work on public policy okf recent years, I think... "The rest of us are subsidizing not only the super-rich, but also corporations. Fifty years ago, corporations paid 60 percent of all federal taxees. But by 2003, that was down to 16 percent. So individual taxpayers have to make up the difference, as corporate profits soar and wages fall. "As more and more rich people cheat on their taxes, the IRS is increasingly unable to go after them because it is so poorly funded. "For all this, we can thank the Republican Party... "We don't need to raise taxes in this country, we need to collect them... "On March 30, Congress was told that 78 percent of known tax cheats in investment partnerships are not even asked to pay because there are not enough tax collectors to go after them. "The IRS oversight board asked for money to go after these cheaters, but both Congress and President Bush refused... "The Senate budget currently under consideration includes $129 billion in new tax breaks for millionaires and a $2.8 billion cut in farm and nutrition programs (i.e., food stamps)... "As economist John Kenneth Galbraith put it, "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness"" (Molly Ivins. "Subsidizing Selfishness." Texas Observer, April 29, 2005: 14).
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