I know I should be mortified bythe lobbyist-organized mobs of angry Brooks Brothers mannequins who arenow making headlines by shutting down congressional town hall meetings.I know I should be despondent during this, the Khaki Pants Offensive inthe Great American Health Care and Tax War. And yet, I’m euphoricallyrepeating one word over and over again with a big grin on my face.
Finally.
Finally, there’s no pretense. Finally, the Me-First, Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd’s ugliest traits are there for all to behold.
Thegroup’s core gripe is summarized in a letter I received that denouncesa proposed surtax on the wealthy and corporations to pay for universalhealth care:
“Until recently, my family was in the top 3% of wageearners,” the affluent businessperson fumed in response to my Julycolumn on taxes. “We are in the group that pays close to 60% of thisnation’s taxes ... Think for a second how you would feel if you built abusiness and contributed more than your share to this country only tobe treated like a pariah.”
Debunking Their Sob Story
Thissob story about the persecuted rich fuels today’s “Tea Parties”and I’msure you’ve heard some version of it in your community.
I’malso fairly certain that when many of you run into the Me-First,Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd, you don’t feel like confronting the fauxoutrage. But on the off chance you do muster the masochistic impulse toengage, here’s a guide to navigating the conversation:
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What They WillScream: We can’t raise business taxes, because American businessesalready pay excessively high taxes!
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What You Should Say: Here’s thesmallest violin in the world playing for the businesses. TheGovernment Accountability Office reports that most U.S. corporationspay zero federal income tax. Additionally, as even the Bush TreasuryDepartment admitted, America’s effective corporate tax rate is thethird lowest in the industrialized world.
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What They Will Scream: But the rich still “pay close to 60% of this nation’s taxes!”
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WhatYou Should Say: Such statistics refer only to the federal income tax.When considering all of “this nation’s taxes” including payroll, stateand local levies, the top 5% pay just 38.5% of the taxes.
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WhatThey Will Scream: But 38.5% is disproportionately high! See? You’veproved that the rich “contribute more than their share” of taxes!
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WhatYou Should Then Say: Actually, they are paying almost exactly “theirshare.” According to the data, the wealthiest 5% of America pays 38.5%of the total taxes precisely because they make just about that shareawhopping 36.5%!of total national income. Asking these folks to payslightly more in taxesand still less than they did during the go-go1990sis hardly extreme.
Stripped of facts, your conversationpartner will soon turn to unscientific terrain, claiming it is immoralto “steal” and “redistribute” income via taxes. Of course, he will bespecifically railing on “stealing” for stuff like health care, which heinsists gets “redistributed” only to the undeserving and the “lazy” (aclassic codeword for “minorities”).
But he will also say it’sOK that government sent trillions of dollars to Wall Streeters. Andthat’s when you should stop wasting your breath.
What you’ve discovered is that the Me- First, Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd isn’t interested in fairness, empiricism or morality.
With22,000 of their fellow countrymen dying annually for lack of healthinsurance and with Warren Buffett paying a lower effective tax ratethan his secretary, the Me-First, Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd is merelyusing the argot of fairness, empiricism and morality to hide its realmotive: selfish greed.
No argument, however rational, is going to cure these narcissists of that grotesque disease.
c. 2009 Creators Syndicate Inc.
