The Party of No Conscience Just Can’t Wait to Keep Taxing the Poor

Taxing the Poor

You might think that with what is happening under the Trump administration, the Republican elected officials will step up and go against him. After all, these are the same policies that they once called crazy and impossible to implement. The idea of a Muslim ban, border wall and defunding women’s health organizations are just among the most radical issues that Republicans went against when Trump was still running. Now that they are in control of the White House, most of them are quiet about the issue.

Before you get too blinded with all the crazy ideas raised by Trump, you have to understand the deafening silence of the Republicans is due to their interest for pushing their own agenda. After years or even decades of fighting for tax reform that will benefit the rich more, they now have the power to make these plans a reality. This is why no matter how they think that Trump’s plans are radical, they will keep their mouth shut so that they can punish the poor even more and give tax breaks to their wealthy friends.

Repealing Obamacare

First on their list is repealing Obamacare. Most of them are moving too quickly in repealing the law without any replacement presented. In fact, most of them don’t have a replacement plan. They don’t care even if 20 million Americans rely on this law. This is because the main idea of a social health care program is that everyone pays an amount to help those who are in need. While Obamacare has helped those who have pre-existing conditions and are unable to afford their insurance premiums, it has burdened the rich. This is something they don’t want to see. Thus, if you see them chanting about repealing Obamacare without any solution, it is because they actually intend to just let poor people lose their health care if they can’t afford one.

taxation

Tax reform

Another agenda on their list is tax reform. This is something that the other party plans to support considering the massive loopholes in the tax system in the country. Sadly, the Republicans are planning to go on a crazier direction- one that helps their wealthy donors even more.

They keep saying that there is too much burden placed on corporations and business owners that they can’t do business freely. The truth is that they are not even paying close to what they can afford. According to studies, the bottom20% pays close to 12-13% of their income in various taxes. The top 1% on the other hand pas only around 7-8%. Those who are at the bottom also pay more for sales and excise tax each year while the rich people pay less than 1% for sales taxes.

There are other Republican officials who advocate for simply eliminating the brackets and have a flat tax. The problem with this idea is that it also eliminates protection for the poor and gives more advantage to the wealthy. During the time of former Gov. Perry in Texas, he boasted about having no income tax in his state. The truth is that the state has relied more on property, sales and excise taxes to make up for the absence of income tax. As a result, the poor is burdened even more as they are the ones who buy commodities like gas, alcohol and cigarettes.

Most of the proposals presented by the right were proven to be untrue. Kansas for instance has suffered massively due to the policies presented by Gov. Brownback. By giving more tax breaks to the rich, he was unable to fund the basic needs of his state. The ones affected the most are those who need help. This is also true in states where the poor has seen a raise on their taxes. The national poverty rate may have increased, but for these states, the rate is even 20% higher.

In short, you should not believe these Republicans when they tell you they will reform the tax system. It is a code for passing on more of the taxes to you.

Photo Attribution:

Featured and 1st image courtesy of Master isolated images / freedigitalphotos.net

2nd image courtesy of Stuart Miles / freedigitalphotos.net