Left v Right on my Team of Horses . . .

In my last blog, I likened Bi-partisanship to a team of horses all pulling the same load in the same direction. That would be ideal. The challenge, however, is that neither side of the team (left v right) really wants to pull in the compromised direction. Each side wants to pull the load in their chosen, partisan direction.

The result is that the “coach” ends up traveling in a zigzag fashion as one side gains strength over the other and pulls in their direction. Then the other side gains strength, and on it goes. This zigzag pattern pulls us eventually through time to where we are now.

In the last cycle, (a very long Zig) the right side pulled us far to the right starting all the way back to Reagan. The left at first worked with the new direction, compromising and assisting. But as it got more and more radical, the left worked diligently to prevent the worst of such philosophy. The coach is now so deeply off the path of Bi-partisanship that the whole country is hurting, mired in debt, moving slowly and passengers are unsure of the way back.

Some of the things the left was able to prevent were the elimination of the Estate tax, the elimination of the Capital Gains tax and decreasing the Corporate tax. I think I heard an audible gasp through my computer. Yes, I AM serious! Think about it for a moment. Not with the partisan mind warping done by the right in the last twenty-nine years but with your rational brain.

How many readers of this blog are actually susceptible to any of those three taxes? I don’t know anyone wealthy enough to pay an Estate tax. I don’t know any leaders of industry that would pay a corporate tax. Since the middle class has decreased so dramatically under the influence of the right, there are not many left in the middle class that worry about a Capitol Gains tax.

Yet, these are the three taxes that the radical right propose to get us out of this mire and yet apply only to the very wealthy. Newt Gingrich said, “And we have three big things. First, we have zero capital gains. We eliminate the capital gains tax, which is the same as China and Singapore. Second, we go to the Irish corporate tax level, which is 12 and half percent. And third, we make permanent eliminating the death tax, so that small businesses and family-owned businesses aren’t threatened by the IRS when somebody passes away. Let me mention briefly on capital gains, cause it’s a new, bold idea.”

A “Bold new idea?” I don’t think so! It’s the same old strategy they have been using since Reagan. Notice how he calls an Estate tax a “Death Tax?” It’s the right’s way of sound-bite diplomacy to convince the public to vote against their own best interest. By calling it a death tax, it makes it sound unfair and unreasonable. In actuality, the Estate tax affects a very few who have exceeding wealth. Anyone wealthy enough to pay Estate taxes have enough lawyers and advisers to be able to protect their best interests and preserve their wealth. You and I don’t have that access and we don’t pay that tax.

The rights only answer to a sound-bite, created-for-media unfairness is to eliminate it. There are other ways to make things fair. If the level at which the Estate Tax kicks in is too low, then adjust the level with an inflationary calculation. Don’t eliminate the tax.

Will the right’s solutions get us out of the mess they created? NO! It’s what got us here! There will be more on this later.

That’s As I See it . . .