PS: A final note on tax day - by Robert Reich

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Marxists need a bad guy, and that is always a person who has more money than them. Dr. Reich intends to create discord, greed and envy based on money. Thus his article is not to inform, but to agitate.  He's an agent of the political Left, with an agenda to promulgate The Narrative in order to foment revolution.

He'd prefer to have people vote themselves into socialism, but be assured that the typical Marxist has no moral problem with bloody revolution, as we saw in the 2020 summer riots. This is the continuing history of Marxism, where only the methods have changed, but not the goals.

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I just sent in my 2021 taxes. I did it gladly. It’s a responsibility of participating in this society. (No, taxes are an obligation imposed by law. There is no contingency regarding the payment of taxes in order to participate in society.)

But I’ve got to tell you, as I watched the dollars flow out of my account, I couldn’t help but remember that the richest and second-richest people in America — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — pay a far lower tax rate than I do. In fact, some years they don’t pay any taxes at all. (Dr. Reich is obscenely well-paid. But we don't have any feelings of envy towards him, unlike he does towards people who are richer than is he.

As far as tax rate,  according to ProPublica, Musk's average effective federal income tax rate between 2013 and 2018 was 27 percent. 

Dr. Reich is lying.)

Elon Musk alone has more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans. That’s 131 million people combined. In the minute it will take you to read this post, Jeff Bezos will have added about $30,000 to his wealth. (All legally acquired.) 

But virtually none of their wealth growth — the main source of billionaire income — may ever be taxed. That’s because the income tax doesn’t cover billionaire wealth: Bezos’s salary is just $81,840. Musk’s is $0. (Dr. Reich obscures his point in obtuse language. Wealth is money that has already been taxed. Income is money paid for work performed. Everyone has wealth, that is, money that has already been taxed. Dr. Reich wants to tax it again, not for the constitutional purpose of funding government services, but rather to redistribute that wealth to those he deems to be more deserving.)

Their vast wealth allows them to borrow money at bargain-basement rates to cover their lavish lifestyles, and escape taxes on almost all their gains. (Dr. Reich is doing his best to imply that something illegal is happening, but that isn't the case. If someone can borrow money at low rates, that violates no law, and in fact might be beneficial to the economy, since people who have wealth are then ones who create and expand business, hire people, and generally make the economy work.

Further, a person who can borrow money at a low rate is a person with a low risk of default. And borrowing money is a voluntary transaction between private parties. However, Dr. Reich wants to involve government in these private financial activities of people to ensure they spend their money according to the government agenda.)

In many years, they’ve both avoided paying any federal income tax at all. (Again Dr. Reich does his best to imply that something untoward is going on. But government writes tax law, and if someone complies with a zero dollar result, then that is legal and proper. How can someone pay taxes on zero income?)

So while millions of Americans have lost their jobs during the pandemic, billionaires like Bezos and Musk got 70% richer. (Since it was Democrats who shut down the economy in response to COVID, they are to blame for people losing their jobs.)

None of us should accept an economy where teachers, nurses, and firefighters pay a higher tax rate than billionaires. (Dr. Reich's solution is not to lower taxes on the middles class, it is to RAISE taxes on the rich.

Capital gains are taxed at 20%, while income is taxed at rates up to 39.6%. Thus Dr. Reich is comparing the income tax rate of teachers with the capital gains tax rate of investors. 

Leaving aside the obvious non sequitur, we might want to ask: Who pays more actual tax? 157,800 teachers earned an average salary of  $52,350. Their average net tax rate is between 12.7 and 17.35%, lower than the capital gains rate. So Dr. Reich doesn't even get the facts of his basic premise correct.

For simplicity's sake, let's assume all of the kindergarten teachers are single. Their taxable income is $44,300 each. Using the highest gross tax rate, that is $7686 each. That's a total tax paid of 1,212,850,800 for the group. Of course, none of them pay the highest rate, so the net tax would be substantially lower. That is bad for Dr. Reich's argument.

Now for those who earn capital gains. $21.15 billion was earned by the top 25 hedge fund managers. Thus we can calculate that they paid $4,230,000,000 in capital gains taxes. So, not only did they pay a higher tax rate, their total tax paid dwarfs the kindergarten teachers.)

If we want billionaires to pay what they owe, we’ve got to tax their wealth -- not just their income. The Billionaires Income Tax would end an unfair tax code that rewards wealth over work. Congress can make billionaires pay their fair share. (So Dr. Reich finally comes clean. He wants Congress to tax money a second time.)

President Biden’s new budget proposes a fix for this broken system. The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax would establish a 20 percent minimum tax rate on all American households worth more than $100 million. It would raise $360 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. Senator Ron Wyden (with whom I appeared yesterday morning on a webinar sponsored by Americans for Tax Justice) has a similar plan that raises even more. (We doubt it will raise anything. People don't just shrug their shoulders and pay taxes if they can legally avoid them. We predict with almost absolute certainty that these billionaires will move themselves and their assets elsewhere, and then get blamed again for setting up foreign corporations.)

When billionaires don’t pay their fair share, (Who decides what is fair? Dr. Reich? Greedy government? Envious leftists who haven't worked a private sector job in their lives?)

they starve the government of funding (The federal government received $3.86 TRILLION DOLLLARS in 2021, a record.)

that could go toward mental health, child care, education, people with disabilities, and other social programs. (There it is, finally. Dr. Reich wants government to take other peoples' money and give it to others they deem more deserving.)

They defund schools, Medicare, and national security. (Billionaires do this? We always thought that the House was charged with appropriating tax money. Which party controls the House? The Senate? The presidency?)

They contribute to the cynicism (Irony alert. This entire article is designed to contribute to the cynicism by creating resentment and envy. This is classic agitprop designed to cause the proletariat to rise up against the bourgeois.)

so many Americans feel about our system (Dr. Reich doesn't even know why Americans resent our tax system. It is complicated and nearly impossible to comply with. The IRS has seemingly unlimited power to harass and prosecute supposed offenders in a guilty-until-proven-innocent system of oppression and coercion. Most people pay no tax at all, thus have no stake in advocating for simple, fair taxation. 

No, Dr. Reich, most people do not resent rich people, they resent government meddling and corruption with its attendant waste and mismanagement.)

— and how it’s rigged for the benefit of people like Bezos and Musk. And of course, they increase inequality. (If the system is rigged, who rigged it? Again, which party does the President belong to? Who holds the majority in the House and the Senate? Who controls the bureaucracy? Who writes the tax law?)

I may be old-fashioned, but I believe that billionaires should give back to the society that made them successful. (Old fashioned??? Old fashioned people believe that people's money belongs to them, not someone else who didn't earn it.)

 I refuse to accept an economy where school teachers pay a higher tax rate than billionaire investors. (Which is a lie, as we have seen. And by the way, who again created the system?)

Please join me in calling on Congress to pass the Billionaires Income Tax. In the fight against income inequality, the Billionaires Income Tax is a good place to start. (More tax is always a good place to start for the greedy Left.)