Yes, It’s Time to Tax the Rich
Lawrence Wittner for Common Dreams
Currently, in fact, campaigns for state tax-the-rich legislation are
flourishing in California, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia, and have already succeeded in getting such legislation
adopted in Massachusetts and Washington.
Similarly, in Congress, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
and Rep. Pramila
Jayapal (D-Wash.) have introduced the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, while
Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Wash.)
are sponsoring the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act. The tax-the-rich
proposals range from increasing the tax rate for the very highest annual income
earners, to instituting an annual wealth tax on the very richest Americans, to
a combination of both.
Although the most affluent Americans, like other Americans,
have always paid taxes to fund public services, the dispute has been over how
much they should pay. Sales taxes and property taxes place a heavy burden on
people of modest means, but a much lighter burden on the wealthy. Therefore,
the wealthy have tended to favor these generators of public revenue and to
oppose a progressive income tax, under which the rich would pay at a higher
rate than the poor. A lengthy political battle for a tax system based upon ability to pay led
to passage of the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution,
which empowered Congress to levy an income tax.
Initially, the new income tax, though progressive, was
rather small-scale. But as the federal government took on new and costly
tasks―particularly funding US participation in two world wars and the Cold
War―the federal income tax grew accordingly. By 1944, the official tax rate for
the highest income earners stood at 94%―although, thanks to deductions, loopholes, and the
rate’s confinement to the top increment of their income, the richest Americans
actually paid at a much lower rate.