The Tax Republicans Love

The history and understanding of Taxation in America should be part of the American political debate, but it is not. Conservatives, Tea Partiers, Government conspiracy advocates, Republicans, and the mega-rich (to name a few) have successfully turned the words “Tax” or “Taxation” into dark verbs connoting strangulation in the infernal regions of Hades.

So successful have they been over the past 75 years that an intentional disconnect between Government taxes (revenues) and the benefits they provide has been amazingly achieved. To have, say, a miner in Pennsylvania, who pays little or no taxes yet receives many benefits, vigorously advocating the liquidation of the IRS is an extraordinary thing to behold.

The negative emotion attached to Taxation is, of course, not new. Your mid-Western John Deere salesman need only raise his Good Book to the heavens as validation of the evils associated with tax collectors. However Taxation 2000 years ago right up to the 20^th century bears little resemblance to what taxation is today.

Through most of human civilization taxes were assessed by those in power (Kings, Lords, Emperors, Clergy) almost exclusively to retain power. Military security and conquest were the big drains on their coffers, the aggrandizement of their lifestyle a close second. Taxes were primarily paid by those with assets that could be identified. More often than not surrendering of assets was the means of payment. Little or no benefit accrued to the payer, beyond some promises of security (perhaps from the payee himself).

Not much changed as nations developed. Central governments need for capital continued to be driven by military adventures or defense.  What changed were growing industrial economies, a greater dispersion of resources, and a new class of wealthy individuals where the focus was in expanding and securing assets. Not bearing the cost of Government was a prime goal, as most taxes continued to be levied on property.

It wasn’t until 1913 in the US, with the adoption of the 16^th Amendment, that taxes could be successfully assessed on all Americans through their income. Even then it proved less than practical until 1943 when laws (and accounting capabilities) began withholding on income, aka taxation at source. Then everyone was potentially in the game and the primary source of revenue reverted away from assets to income generated by the middle class. It has been an economic class struggle ever since and the middle class is losing.

The needs today are to UN-demonize and expand the definition of Taxation. Taxation is more simply put as a transfer of wealth. Taxes are not paid to support a King. They are paid to supply benefits to the population as a whole, whether it is military protection, emergency aid, road building and other infrastructure, protection from injury or crime, an independent Judiciary, education, health and well being, and so forth. However, they don’t necessarily have to happen on a paystub or form 1040.

The tax Republicans love most is the thousands of dollars you pay each year (or paid on your behalf) in medical expenses and medical insurance.  They want you to think that it is just a commodity you’re purchasing. They have fought, virtually for decades, to retain (what is now) a $4 trillion transfer of wealth from you to the medical industrial complex. This harkens back to pre-19^th century taxation when taxes went exclusively to the powerful.

If we use as a comparison the cost of per-capital healthcare in all advanced economies in the world who provide as-good or better healthcare, then fully a third of medical expenses in the US are either wasted or go into the pockets of a relatively few individuals.  That’s $1.3 trillion (with a T). If only 2% of that largess goes toward lobbying Republican lawmakers, then $27 billion flows up to Capitol Hill Republicans. No wonder they love it.

Many of you have been convinced that medical care paid with taxes would somehow be detrimental, even catastrophic.  Ask anyone on Medicare, Medicaid, or VA Health how catastrophic their healthcare is and how much better off they’d be if they didn’t have it.

It really doesn’t matter if healthcare is paid directly through taxes, as it is done in Britain and France, or through insurance entities, as done in Japan, Canada, and Switzerland.  The reality is that it must work for the entire population not primarily for a beneficial few. That can only happen when a for-profit system no longer controls those who make up the rules.

Those that believe in their guts that taxes are evil will vote against their own best interest. They unwittingly support the super wealthy (as with the 2017 Tax Bill). They are also the ones who support the Republicans who maintain the status quo in Healthcare with banners reading Nationalism, Free Enterprise, and Don’t Tread On Me.

After years of analysis a Columbia economics professor showed that a 2% Federal tax on assets (not income) would expand services and ultimately retire the National Debt.

Healthcare will continue to be middle class Americans biggest “tax” until we create a system which employs cost controls, regulates expenses, and includes everyone.

Politicians who follow the money will likely never support either.