Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bob Stannard, an author, former House representative and lobbyist for Vermont Citizens Action Network. This column first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
Let me tell you how it will be;
There’s one for you, nineteen for me.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman. – George Harrison
In my previous column that appeared the day after tax day in America I pointed out how we have evolved from a government of the people, by the people and for the people, to one of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.
We have morphed from a country where each and every one of us pulled our own weight to help make this a stronger nation, to one that has become very lopsided on both ends. On the bottom end we have some folks who are content with living off the system. They have figured out a way to game the system so they don’t really have to work. They have earned the title of welfare cheats and they are a drain on the program; no doubt about it. They nickel and dime the system and they end up costing us millions of dollars.
Let me qualify this statement by saying that there are many people justifiably getting assistance from our government. Many have lost their jobs and their homes thanks to unscrupulous bankers who have yet to be apprehended and who have nearly sunk the world’s economy.
On the other end we have corporations who also have figured out how to game the system. They hire lobbyists to ensure favorable tax laws are written and lawyers to make sure that when April 15 rolls around they pay little, if any, taxes.
If the big corporations aren’t paying any taxes, then who is covering the costs to run the show? You guessed it — the middle class — those good men and women who wake up every day and go to work to at least one job, maybe two, just to make ends meet. All they’ve ever tried to do was to do the right thing: raise a family, educate their kids, save for retirement and live life in peace.
What is their reward for a lifetime of hard work? They get to watch as their life savings are wiped out by the biggest fiscal scam in our nation’s history just when they are about to retire; a concept that is now out of the question.
Recently we’ve witnessed an organization known as the “Tea Party” come in to being to protest government spending. They decry deficits and any unnecessary spending. They are predominately, but not all, Republicans who are mad as hell and won’t take it any more.
This is good. Peaceful protest is what America is all about. But perhaps it’s time to ask why these good folks weren’t disgusted by a legislator, John Boehner, now Speaker Boehner, for handing out checks to his colleagues from tobacco lobbyists on the House floor. Apparently the tea partiers don’t see a problem with corporations corrupting our nation, and that’s what separates them from our friends in the United Kingdom.
A new phenomenon is happening across the pond. A true citizen’s movement known as UK Uncut http://www.ukuncut.org.uk has come forward to protest those people and corporations who avoid paying their taxes. A handful of activists were in a pub opining that Vodofone UK owed $6 billion in taxes; roughly the same amount that was being cut for senior housing.
They protested in front of Vodofone stores telling people that if this corporation simply paid what they owed your grandparents would not have to be evicted from public senior housing. Their message resonated and the government was forced to take action.
UK Uncut is now spreading from Wales to America. Unlike the tea party, co-founded by Dick Armey and funded by the Koch brothers, UK Uncut is a decentralized movement that functions on Twitter and other social media. Instead of screaming for cuts in social services, UK Uncut supports making tax cheats pay up. They also challenge why the largest, most profitable corporations aren’t paying a proportional equivalent in income taxes. They support programs that help people versus using hard-earned tax dollars to subsidize corporations that don’t, or shouldn’t, need our help.
The irony is not lost that UK Uncut started in England; the country we defeated so that we could have our freedom, versus the tea party that was started in America as a front for the John Boehners of the world who serve as shills for corporate America.
America could be out of debt if we ceased all subsidies to established corporations, stopped incentivizing them to ship jobs overseas and made them pay their fair share of taxes. Yes, the corporate tax AND welfare cheats must both be punished and we need to revamp our tax codes so that Warren Buffet doesn’t end up paying a lower income tax rate than his secretary.
Americans have a right to be angry, but they have a responsibility to direct their anger in the right direction. The Tea Party fights against programs that help people yet remains silent on corporate welfare. UK Uncut does just the opposite. Which movement deserves your support?
