Thoughts On Tax Day

Today is tax return filing day. Filed mine awhile ago. Had to pay a bit more to the state and the city, but got a decent refund from the feds. My refund wasn't quite as decent as these:

ExxonMobil made $19 billion in profit in 2009, paid no federal income tax, and received a $156 million rebate from the IRS.

Last year, Bank of America made $4.4 billion in profit and got a $1.9 billion tax refund. Previously, BoA received almost $1 trillion in TARP bailout money.

Chevron chalked up a $10 billion profit in 2009, and got a $19 million IRS refund.

Last year, Boeing was given a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airplanes. They also got a $124 million tax refund.

In the past 5 years, General Electric has reported $26 billion in profits while receiving $4.1 billion in tax refunds.

And these are but a few examples among hundreds, maybe thousands. Against this backdrop, consider all the penny-ante squabbling over the 2011 budget (with R's insisting on cutting out NPR and Planned Parenthood -- ooh, that'll help). Consider the rancor to come in the election year 2012 budget (with the first salvo fired by Paul Ryan's silly "Path to Prosperity", filled with tax cuts for those who don't need them and the elimination of social services for those who do).

Obama responded by correctly calling Ryan's proposal crazy, punitive and "not right". He said the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would be extended over his dead veto pen. Right on, Cuz! 'Cept you coulda and shoulda said so much more.

Boehner said any tax increases in 2012 would be "a non-starter." This is such an incredibly stupid statement. I realize Orange John is just a Beltway parasite, but even he must know he's tellin' the Big Lie when keeps saying "no taxes". If he doesn't, his brain is the non-starter.

Look, nobody "enjoys" paying taxes. It's been a big bone of contention from day one, whenever that was. No matter what's in or out of the tax code, somebody will be unhappy, something will be unfair. But if we truly want to do something about this deficit "crisis", the solution is not the R's endless Libertarian slash-and-burn rhetoric. It's not the Cato Institute crap. We're gonna have to do something about the revenue side too. And that means more taxes, on somebody, maybe lots of somebodies.

Revenue is revenue, we need more revenue, and it doesn't matter where it comes from. Buster submits that there is no better source at this precise point in time than some of those above-mentioned corporations who are rolling in it, paying nothing, and somehow getting massive refunds to boot. It's obscene.

Paul Ryan thinks blowing up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, combined with tax cuts for fat cats, is a masterstroke of financial genius that will solve all our problems. If less is more, says Paul, then nothing is most. And if you can't afford to live this way, then please hurry up and die.


Alternatively, the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously put it this way: "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society."

Buster will roll with Justice Holmes.