Letter: Fairness lacking in U.S. taxation

Talk about it

A recent Cal Thomas column said, “Taxpayers, revolt!” Cal, ol’ boy, where have you been? Haven’t you heard about the off-share tax havens a lot of the richest Americans are using to hide their money from Uncle Sam? Then there are the big corporations — about 50 of the biggest don’t pay any taxes. Then, even if they were taxed at 39 percent, most of them would only pay 12 percent after deductions.

The chickens come home to roost. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spent like drunken sailors, and their many tax cuts led to the 2008 depression. Social Security didn’t cause the deficit, and as they may take a good portion of the federal budget, they also pay in a big part of it — so big, in fact, that Congress has robbed it many times and now it’s payback time.

If Americans can dump billions of dollars into the lottery, they can pay their taxes. In 1982, the wealthy had to be worth $75 million to make the Forbes 400 richest people in America. In 2012, you had to be worth $1.1 billion to make it on to the list.

Meanwhile, the main auto parts supplier for GM and Chrysler was bought by hedge fund raiders (oops, “traders”) and billions of taxpayer dollars, and production was then moved to China. The Delphi Auto Parts home base was moved to a tax haven off the coast of France. The investors, including Mitt Romney, made 3,000 percent on the deal. “Thanks, taxpayers,” and no, they won’t pay taxes here — they are now in a sweat shop in a Communist country. We need more employee-owned companies instead of those “twinkies” that loot and leave their companies broke.

Tags: opinion, letters, politics