(11/2/2005) I guess I have come to expect that everything coming out of this administration's efforts is rotten trash, and this tax reform panel's suggestions are no different. They have offered two suggestions both of which further shift the tax burden from the people and corporations at the top to the people and businesses in the middle.

Yes, their suggestions do simplify the tax code and tax forms, but they do it at the expense of the middle income taxpayers and small business owners.

They claim that both of their proposals are revenue neutral, or that revenues coming into the federal government will stay the same, but if it's true, which I doubt, it's clearly done by shifting the tax burden onto middle income workers.

They claim that their panel is made up of bipartisan members only because John Breaux, a former Democratic Senator, was Vice-Chairman of the panel. However, John Breaux is the Benedict Arnold trader who provided the necessary vote to get the Republican's terrible Medicare legislation passed. This legislation is pushing Medicare into insolvency by giving several hundred billion dollars to the already highly profitable drug and insurance industry (see chart on the right). Just after this vote Breaux was forced to resign from the Senate by his very angry Democratic colleagues. I trust Breaux about as far as I could throw him, and this panel's recommendations reinforces my very negative opinion about him. 

If the Congress passes these tax changes you had better get ready to pay a lot more in taxes. These unfair tax changes will also cause the deficits to explode into the stratosphere, they will cause unemployment to rise, wealth will become much more concentrated, inflation will become a major problem, and any opportunity to move up the income ladder will disappear like a drop of water in a hot oven.

I have a degree in accounting and I worked at a CPA firm doing tax returns and consulting, so I do know a little something about this subject.

Lets look at the tax shifting details of these anti-middle class, un-democratic, and immoral tax reform proposals:

• Elimination of the AMT - The AMT (alternative minimum tax) was put in place in the 80's so that people who make over a million dollars a year would be required to pay at least some federal income taxes; which they weren't being required to do after Congress passed Reagan's huge, highly regressive, tax cuts. However, inflation is pushing more middle income families into this AMT tax position and that is the rationale the GOP is giving for getting rid of it. But what they should do is reform it to adjust for inflation. This AMT repeal will mean a huge tax break for millionaires, and no one else. This is a terrible idea and will result in a further shifting of the tax burden onto middle class workers.

• Cut the top tax rate, increase the bottom tax rate, and reduce the number of tax brackets - This is Reagan's terrible tax legislation all over again. This plan would shift the tax burden onto the middle class, just like President Reagan's tax cut did. Reagan's tax cut exploded the federal deficit throughout the 80's and most of the 90's. When the current Bush administration got into office the first thing they did was rollback President Clinton's tax legislation by reducing the number of tax brackets and cutting the top tax rates. Since that time the deficits have been skyrocketing to record levels. This is a correlation that the American people cannot ignore if they want some degree of fairness in the tax code, and if they want to remain in the middle class.

• Cut deductibility of state and local taxes, home mortgage interest, and insurance premiums, and cut taxes on capital gains, dividend income, and interest income - They want to cut several deductions that have historically benefited middle class families, and they want to cut taxes for people who don't need to work for a living. Not only is this very unfair and highly regressive but it is contrary to the moral and ethical principles that our forefathers put in place to create a middle class, and to prevent the concentration of wealth into the hands of a few inheritance rich spoiled brats.

President Lincoln warned us that concentrated wealth would destroy our democratic republic. Lincoln was right, and to honor his service to this country we cannot allow these regressive tax changes to take place.

These backwards proposals are not just limited to individual income taxes, but their proposals for corporate tax reform are much more regressive with a much greater shift of the tax burden onto small business owners and individual income taxpayers.

I hope and pray that these horrible proposals never make it into law. If they do middle class people better start tightening their belts because the class war the GOP is waging against them will have reached another climax point.

This panel did not even touch on the idea of repealing the estate tax, or the "death tax" as the GOP likes to call it. The estate tax is the last truly progressive federal tax still on the books. The Bush administration keeps trying to get Congress to make his first tax cuts permanent, which would make the repeal of the estate tax permanent, but the Democrats in the Senate have stopped it every time. If the Bush administration ever gets their way on this tax cut the middle class might as well hang up their work boots and go home because opportunity to move up the economic ladder will be gone. The top .1% will horde their wealth and nothing will trickle down, and eventually these few families will own everything in America, including our government and all of its assets and cash flows. If that happens this new group of greedy and ruthless Robber Barons will have won and 99.9% of the American people will have lost.

Once taxes are cut they are almost impossible to increase. This fact became obvious after President Clinton won in 1992 and his administration was barely able to pass its 93' tax increase on the wealthy. It did pass but without one vote from any of the Republicans, and with Vice President Gore casting the deciding vote in the House. This tax legislation, that raised the top tax rates and expanded the number of tax brackets, was the catalyst for the greatest economic boom and deficit reduction that this country has ever experienced. But before it passed the GOP leaders said it would sink our economy and cause massive unemployment. We now know they were wrong and Clinton was right, and they are still wrong.

It should be clear to everyone by now that the GOP only represents the top .1% of the American people. This proposal, along with the Bush administration's actions during the past five years, prove that 99.9% of the American people are being robbed and their representative government is being undermined.

If the American people want legislation that benefits their interest they need to look to the Democrats, or even a strong third party. Otherwise, we will need to learn how to live like the Mexicans in Mexico currently do; poor, oppressed, underrepresented, exploited, un-served, and largely unwanted.

I believe that the GOP has rigged our elections systems with the new paperless voting computers that most of us voted on in the last election. These computers were built by larger corporations, like Diebold, that have long histories of supporting the GOP. The results of the elections can no longer be audited, or re-counted, and therefore the final count cannot be questioned. Which means it will be impossible to vote these right-wing whores and liars out of office.

Therefore, the answer to taking back our government is not at the voting booth. If we don't want to live like the Mexicans we had better learn how to fight back in a way that will effect real change, and we had better start now before our ability to fight back is limited though laws that are being sold to us as needed anti-terrorism protections.