Shifting Taxes

Now that Molly is safe, I'll be returning to my regular blogging, which includes political rants and random thoughts that I'm sure all you wonderful family members and friends who have used this site for Molly-watching will find offensive to varying degrees. Or maybe not.

Today, FairEconomy.org released a very interesting study that examines how the tax burden has steadily shifted away from the rich and corporations and onto the middle-class and poor, especially in the last few years under Bush.

Those around me tire of my expounding on the difference between regressive taxes and progressive taxes, but this study shows the clear trend away from progressive taxes, like income and estate states, and toward regressive taxes, like property and sales tax. In many cases poor and middle-class taxpayers are paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes than millionaires. That's not fair.

Take the time to read the report. Once you're done with that, take a look at this report from this site, which shows the expenditure per federal tax dollar per state. Now take a look at this red/blue state breakdown of the 2000 election. The so-called "red" states--Republican-voting states in the Midwest and South--generally receive much more back than they paid, which really turns the idea of the "tax and spend" Democrats on its head. After all, all those welfare moms who are sucking taxpayers dry tend to live on the coasts, while all those hard-working, tax-paying conservatives live in the Midwest and South, right? Wrong. The red states are on the federal welfare dole, getting more than a 100% return on their federal taxes paid in some cases, all the while whining about their taxes.