Post on 01-Apr-2015
Time to talk about tax reform
Talking about money: mine and oursPrivate money• Wages• Investment• Inheritance
Private opportunities:Housing, transport, education, recreation, healthcare,recreation, contacts,
Public money• Taxes• Fees
Communal opportunities:Transport, safety, green space, courts, democratic process, arts, clean air, education, recreation
Protect the vulnerable Shelter, health care, crisis intervention, help for seniors, people with disabilities and children
Private Money
Current private income distribution
Concentration of wealth since 1980
The best things in life aren’t free
The cost of raising a child in a middle-income family has increased by 40 percent since 2000. Every child-rearing expense has steeply increased: day-care, education, food, gas, medical insurance, etc
The 2008 recession was the worst blow
Many megabanks brought down the economy by creating and selling risky financial products – with our money
$15 trillion in personal wealth was gone -- Almost $50,000 for every man, woman and child in the US $ 6.1 trillion in housing value disappeared-- As if a hurricane destroyed every house in every state on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida8.4 million jobs were lost
The losses were huge
Investors have fully recovered …
Too many Americans have not…
Milwaukee's poverty rate at 29.4%
Public money
Public money creates opportunities for everyone
Public money sustains the middle class
Public money sets the groundwork for economic growth and security
Dane County Airport
Sewage System Highway systemChippewa Valley Tech College
Sanitation systemPort of Green Bay
Tax policy moves money
We can decide:• where to collect it
• how much to collect
• how to use it
• how to keep the public informed
The less money we collect, the less we have to use for the public good. The less we get from corporations and the super rich, the more they have to invest in elections and lobbying.
City water system
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Not everybody pays their fair share
Not everybody pays their fair shareCorporation Profits Taxes Owed P What could we buyMattel $1 billion $270,000,000 0 Family Caregiver Support
Wisconsin Energy
$1.7 billion $456,000,000 0 Senior employment and training programs
Corning $2 billion $540,000,000 0 Annual funding for Alzheimer’s research
Du Pont $2.1 billion $567,000,000 0 Rheumatoid arthritis meds for 60,000 people
Honeywell $4.9 billion $1.3 billion 0 Health insurance for 80,000 workers
Boeing $9.4 billion $2.54 billion 0 National Park Service
Gen Electric $10.5 billion $2.84 billion 0 Small Business Administration
Verizon $32.5 billion $8.8 billion 0 Environmental Protection Agency
Wells Fargo $49.4 billion $13.34 billion 0 National School Lunch program
Tax policy now grows wealth for the top 1%
“280 consistently profitable Fortune 500 companies paid about half the statutory corporate tax rate while spending $2 billion to lobby Congress on tax policy and other issues”
As low as 15%
25% 25% 25%
28%
Top taxes are low-especially for the richest
with income over $87 million
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Causes of the federal deficit
House of Rep./Ryan Budget Plan
Make all Bush tax cuts permanent
Maintain capital gains tax rate at 15%, no Buffet Rule
Maintains current FICA cap, no increase above $110k
Reduce tax rates for wealthy to 25% - average gain = $175,000
Reduce other tax rates to 10%
Cut the formal corporate tax rate to 25%
Eliminate taxes on overseas profits
Repeal Alternative Minimum Tax and taxes in Affordable Care Act
Estimated Reduction in Revenues over 10 years: $10 trillion
Impact of Spending Cuts in House/Ryan Budget
• 17 million people lose access to health care
• 21 million low-income Americans lose Medicaid within 7 years.
• 8 million people lose Food Stamps
• 2 million children removed from Head Start
• 1.8 million women, infants, and children lose food and healthcare support (WIC)
• Over 1 million students lose Pell Grant support
Making the changes we need
Polls consistently show that increasing taxes on the wealthy is hugely popular. In a recent Gallup poll, 62 percent of respondents said “upper-income people” were paying too little in taxes.
In a CNN poll, 68 percent of Americans agreed that “the present tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to the ordinary working man or woman,” and 72 percent said they support changing the tax code “so that people who make more than one million dollars a year will pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.”