Monday, January 4, 2010

Confiscatory Taxation

Digby is fretting -- again -- that Pete Peterson, et al, are gearing up for a major marketing push for a Commission to tackle Entitlements and the Deficit.

They're planting "news" articles in places like the Washington Post, they're getting on the teevee constantly, they're buying ads, and on and on and on, wailing and gnashing their teeth at the appalling level of the deficit (in these Recessionary Times, too!) and targeting the Entitlements of Social Security and Medicare for a major haircut if not outright elimination.

If we don't take on the Entitlements, runs their argument, and curb their unfunded liabilities, our grandchildren will be paying for our profligacy, and no one wants that. Do they?

Well, how about that, same as it ever was, we've fallen right back into 1934, only this time around, Hoover won a second term. Lucky us.

Of course, the real issue is simple: Peterson and his billionaire buddies (and their heirs) don't want to be on the hook for the taxes required to cover those unfunded liabilities, liabilities that are only unfunded because he and his ilk have benefited from massive tax cuts over the years (while ordinary workers' payroll taxes doubled) and now that the bill is coming due, they don't want to pay.

The specific remedy is to tax the holy shit out of these people, confiscatory taxation on incomes over a certain level, 100% tax on high value estates, tax all hedge fund transactions, indeed, tax all stock market transactions. Tax the movement of manufacturing and jobs overseas. Tax credit default swaps and all the other 'instruments' by which the Masters of the Universe rule. Take it all.

Every damned dime of ill-gotten gain for the last 30 years has been scammed and stolen from We, the People. Get it back.

No quarter. None. Take everything they have and everything they've hidden. Tax the damned ads they run. These people have had a free ride for decades, they are bloated with so much gold they can hardly move.

Don't fret. Get even.

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