It always seems that the last few things go faster. The last potato chips in a bowl, the last tickets to a popular concert and - for all of us - the last few days on the calendar. So, before I rip off the December page and put up a brand new January, let me say good-bye to a few things that deserve to go away.
I’m too smart to expect they will go away. of course. I know they will hang around like the ghost of Christmas past, who vanishes each year after visiting Scrooge, only to come back again next December 24.
But, they should go. Forever. So, in no particular order, here are the things that I hope will be consigned to the dust bin of history, or the nearest toxic waste site. Certainly not to a recycling bin.
1 - The Republican double-barreled argument that we have to cut corporate tax rates and that their tax bill is really designed to help the middle class.
If you want to cut corporate tax rates because ours are, they say, among the highest in the world, then do it. But, at the same time, eliminate all those special tax exemptions that let scores of really big businesses pay no tax at all. That would simplify the tax code by getting rid of half the pages.
You say it’s too complicated to do? Well, I agree. Cut the tax rate to 22 percent if you want, and leave all those exemptions. But, add a small provision. Every company, no matter what else the tax code says, must pay an alternate minimum tax of 15 per-cent.
If you just defer income, or just stash it off-shore, you will have to pay 10 per-cent a year in interest on that money, every year it is deferred. After three years, the government gets to take legal action to recover that deferred cash, or any other asset your business may hold.
2 - The tax cuts are for the middle class. Well, I know the tax code is really complicated - I just said that - so here’s how I would do it. Leave our tax code alone, and just send a rebate back to everyone. You pay your taxes, and the feds say they are taking in too much money, so give every man, woman and child a check for $500 or $1,000. That way, everyone gets the same tax break. It may look like big families get a bonus, but just try raising a kid on $1,000 a year. Good luck with that.
3 - It’s all Hillary’s fault. Well, this is a gift to the Republicans. Our president just has to stop blaming the Clintons for every problem in the country (people may start noticing that there was a Bush or two in office while some of those problems were getting bigger). What’s the gift? The Democratic party will have to recognize that Hillary was their own creation, and take the responsibility for all the things that went wrong in her campaign.
4 - Korea. We threaten. They threaten. We threaten louder. They threaten louder. They started it. We started it. Here’s my advice. You want to get serious and get tough? Just ask Congress to reinstate the draft. No deferrals, please. You want to show the whole country is willing to share in the sacrifice, bone spurs or not.
4A - Just how serious would a war be? Since we have no memory of that 1950 conflict, here are some facts.
- The war started when 75,000 North Korean troops surged across the border to bring Communism to South Korea by force.
* In the three years that police action lasted (no war was ever declared) the U.S. dropped more bombs and napalm that we used in the entire Pacific theater in World War II.
*There were more than 52,000 American casualties during that police action. Numerous estimates were that more than five million people (mostly civilians) died as well.
- Our South Korean allies provided prostitutes to the men in its army. There is no official record of whether that benefit was extended to our soldiers.
- About five million men and women served in the armed forces during the Korean police action, although most of them were not directly involved in the fighting, or even in the country. We currently have about 1.5 million men and women on active duty, and another half million or so in reserve forces.
5 - We are the party of fiscal responsibility. Just stop passing tax cuts that expire in 10 years just so you can make the bills fit under the laws that were passed to limit our ever-mounting debt. That’s what Republicans call tax gimmicks when they are not in office .
6 - We shouldn’t have to pay our taxes for those free-spending liberal states. There are actually lots of different ways to figure out how much a state pays in federal taxes and how much money they get back, but on a per-capita basis (and we each pay only our own income tax) New Jersey gets only about 50 cents back from the federal government for each dollar their residents pay in taxes, and Delaware gets back only about 30 cents. Illinois, Minnesota and Kansas residents also get back about 50 cents for each dollar they pay.
On the other side, New Mexico residents get back more than $2 for every dollar they pay in federal taxes. So do residents of Mississippi, Kentucky and Alabama. Montana residents only get back $1.25 or so for every dollar they pay in federal taxes.
Since they all want tax fairness. maybe everyone who pays taxes in Mississippi or Alabama could look at what they pay, then make out a check for the very same amount and send it to New Jersey or Delaware, or even New York. After all, fair is fair.
Happy New Year!
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