A taxing problem, too

“Them whats gots gets.” Which means the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but we know that.

The U.S. has a spending problem and a bigger revenue problem. Spending will come down, but revenue must go up.

Revenue should go up, because this country has a lot of wealth. The 400 richest folks in the U.S. enjoyed an average tax rate of 18 percent in 2008. In 1992, they paid about 26 percent, according to the IRS. Is your tax rate that low?

What about the corporations that don’t pay any income taxes in this country? The Government Accountability Office states, “Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income tax between 1998 and 2005.”

According to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services and Oxford Economics, over 10 million households in the U.S. now earn over a million dollars a year. These millionaires now possess $39 trillion, but at the end of this decade, their wealth will more than double to $87 trillion.

We will have to cut our spending in the U.S., but to be fair, we must also increase the revenue. We can do that by simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire!

Larry M. Belmont

Coeur d’Alene