The subway and train station near my home provide examples of how the administration “tax cut” works. Parking at the Metro stations, while limited, did cost $1.75 per day, and you could get out for free if you left before
That may sound like a small item, and by itself, it is. But even this single item adds up: multiply the $1.75 increase by 5, and you get a weekly increase of $8.75; multiply that by 4, and you get a monthly increase of $35.00; multiply that by 12, and you get a yearly increase of $420.00, give or take a little for either vacations or overtime. Meanwhile, both train fares and subway fares have also gone up, although not proportionately as much.
It should be too obvious to need pointing out that these increases in the cost of transportation hit those people hardest who can least afford to pay – and hit the middle class, the going-to-work-class, much harder than the wealthy. But the nation’s counties, cities, towns and states have to levy such increases to pay for services. We have (1) a growing population that requires transportation, and (2) a shrinking proportion of the over-all percentage of taxes paid by the wealthy and by corporations.
The much-vaunted “tax cut” is, in short, not a tax cut but a tax shift:
- It shifts the tax burden from the wealthy and corporations to the middle class;
- It shifts much of the burden from the federal government to state and local governments;
- And it shifts revenue collection from more progressive taxes like the (somewhat) graduated income tax to more regressive taxes like the sales tax and so-called “user fees.”
Few national politicians, except for John Edwards, have pointed this out.
If you doubt the existence of this over-all tendency, run your eye down the partial list below, emailed by a
Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax
Court Fines (indirect taxes) Dog License
Fishing License Food License
Fuel permit tax Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon [dated])
Hunting License Tax Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Medicare Tax
Property Tax Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Service Charge Taxes
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers) Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax Road Toll Booths
School Tax State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridges Toll Tunnels
Traffic Fines (indirect taxation) Trailer registration tax
Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Again, this list is partial. It does not include a raft of “recordation” fees for everyday official documents like deeds or wills, or the raft of “license fees” levied on entrance to most occupations or professions, or the extra sales taxes levied on – for example – renting a car in a trip to
The broad topic of soaking the middle class goes much farther than fees and indirect taxes, of course, as all of us know who have faced rising college tuition, rising health care costs, and unrestrainedly rising health insurance costs. If George W. Bush had the unstated platform of reversing everything positive accomplished by FDR’s New Deal, he’s made a good start.
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