Part of the problem is that one man's truth is another man's BS. In our polarized and increasingly self-segregated society, many of us in America have started choosing what realities we wish to accept. There's one reality going on over on Fox News, for example, while another, completely different reality exists on MSNBC. The version you choose to accept as "real" will likely depend on your political party affiliation, race, socio-economic level and education, among other things.
It seems to me, however, that there could be one topic on which the right and the left should be able to find common ground: taxes. I was thinking about this after watching the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC last night.
Part of her program was dedicated to a discussion of the Bush tax cuts. She explained why those cuts are due to expire at the end of the year (answer: that was the intention all along, since there had been no provision made to pay for them when they were signed into law and so a 10-year window was stipulated as part of the plan), and she explained how it doesn't seem likely that the GOP will have enough votes to force an extension. But the main point she made was that both the Democrats' plan and the Republicans' plan will leave most Americans' tax levels the same, or nearly the same, as they are now. The only groups that will see significant changes in their tax rates, should the Bush cuts expire, will be those making upwards of $500K per year.
The chart Maddow referenced originally appeared in the Washington Post, and is the handiwork of their economic columnist, Ezra Klein. Here's a better view of it. Go ahead - don't be afraid, give it a good look.
So, it's pretty clear that the extension of the Bush tax cuts WOULD HELP NO ONE, other than the very highest earners in America. Anyone making less than $500,000 a year should have no problem with the Obama plan, which allows the cuts to expire for the top earners but keeps the cuts in place for everyone else. And, unless you are in one of those very top income brackets, I can't understand why you'd support any politician who is still fighting for the tax cuts for the top 2% to remain in place.
As for the politicians themselves, I have no clue as to how they can go out in public and say, with a straight face, that letting these cuts expire will have a negative effect on the economy. Especially after they all ran campaigns based on fiscal responsibility, and reducing the deficit, and all that good stuff. You'd think they'd understand the simple concept that the deficit can't be reduced by allowing such huge tax breaks to continue. And yet, there was Mike Pence, a Republican congressman from Indiana, yammering away on Christiane Amanpour's show this past Sunday about how raising taxes on the rich won't really help increase government revenue, anyway. In fact, Pence upped the ante by claiming that revenues actually go down when taxes go up.
Only problem is, he's completely wrong about that. As reported by PolitiFact this week, the idea that tax increases don't correlate to increased government revenue is false. Pence, and all the other conservatives beating this particular drum, are simply not reflecting the facts accurately, and those on the right who parrot their party lines are seemingly oblivious to how far off these politicians and pundits really are.
I find it amazing - stupefying, really - that the American public as a whole isn't seeing this thing the same way. I get why politicians have to peddle this baloney, but I am finding it impossible to comprehend how all the non-millionaires that make up the bulk of the GOP's base could be so supportive of what their side is trying to pull.
As I watched Rachel Maddow's show, I realized that the folks who most needed to see it wouldn't even be watching. They'd be busy seeking out their version of reality over on Fox. But I found myself wondering if it would make any difference at all for conservative voters to see that chart, and to have a clear picture of exactly what we're talking about here when we discuss these Bush tax cuts. Would what seemed so obvious to me be as apparent to them, or would they find some basis on which to reject it? Would they have their own chart, drawn up by someone who's not part of the "lamestream media", which told the opposite story about who would benefit from the tax cuts?
It can be both maddening and wearying to contemplate these things, especially in the political environment in which we find ourselves at the moment. With a newly divided balance of power in Washington and with so little incentive for either side to give ground, with polarized voters and with an overload of dueling statistics and sources of information, how can we hope to figure anything out? It has long been said that the only two sure things in life are death and taxes, but I think we've actually found a way to narrow that list down to death alone.
