Class War

The Clinton tax returns turned out to be a yawner, more or less. There were some interesting dealings in there, but surely standard fare for anyone earning $109 mil. Big money deals interestingly, and although it's obscene if you look at it from the perspective of the two-jobs, no-health-care, wage-earner from Altoona, it's legal in Bush's America. But what struck me was the tax rate the Clintons paid--$33 million on the $109 earned. That's a total rate of 30.3%.

Now, I'm not a two-job, no-health-care wage-earner from Altoona, but I have a fairly standard income for an American--more than the $26k that is the single-earner median, but not quite enough to put me in the mid-quintile, either. And in 2007, I paid 27.5% of my income in taxes. I make .2 percent of the Clintons, yet I pay only 2.8% less of my income in taxes.

This is the effect on wealth re-distribution of 28 years of GOP rule. To compound matters, median incomes are flat, the services we need to get buy--health care and education--are far, far more expensive, and thanks to Bush's Folly in Iraq and his tax cuts, we have inherited debt substantial enough to keep us all well-taxed through our lifetimes. Oh yeah, threre's also gas prices and their damage to the pocketbook and inflation, Bush's second recession of his regime, and a collapsing housing market--Americans' last source of liquidity. Hey, at least no one can declare bankruptcy anymore!

As always, seeing stats like these make me want to hoist a baseball bat and head into some board rooms. What is it about Americans that makes us so lax in our protest--or even simple recognition--of these facts?