Monday morning and the world is still spinning, at least it seems to be there outside my windows.
Last week on CBS Sunday Morning, there was a segment with Ben Stein doing a monologue with him bemoaning the fact that though he is in the highest tax-bracket he is not rich and that he feels he is being punished for being successful by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire or by letting the cuts continue for only those making less than $250,000 per year. It’s nagged at me for the past week and I wanted to comment on this new surge in whining by those in higher tax brackets that seems to be popping up more and more these days.
But this morning I find myself just tired of the whole thing. There is just so much data out there to counter all this whining and doomsaying by those who say that a return to the tax rates of the 1990’s would be apocalyptic that it just seems like an exercise in futility. I want to point out an article from the NY Times this past weekend by Richard Thaler and another article on Tax.com from David Cay Johnston that provide a lot of content about the negative effects on the economy from the actual Bush tax cuts.
But that’s it this morning. I think I will stick with what I do, which is paint. Just paint and let the world spin outside my window this morning.
To that end, here’s a song called Favorite from one of my favorites, Neko Case.
Redtree Times 
I like the painting – and its title. We do anchor in our surroundings. I lost a palm tree outside a window in a terrible Houston freeze, and it took a long time to stop expecting to see that tree when I glanced out the window. It was like tripping over the view every time.
We have several majestic blue spruces along our driveway that are slowly succumbing to a fungus and in a few years will be dead. Their absence will change the whole dynamic of our environment here and I dread the thought of that change. Like losing an old friend.
And mouthpieces for the selfish, like Ben Stein, always fail to acknowledge that they will be getting the same refund as the working and middle classes. Keeping the cuts for incomes less than $250,000 gives the SAME benefit to everyone. The upper-income earner is only denied the extra benefit, which is also denied to those earning less. Progressivity is thereby strengthened by removing a windfall extracted in better economic times (i.e., before the Dubya disaster).
A progressive tax system is only fair: society’s payback from those benefiting the most from the U.S. economic system. Otherwise, adopt the flat tax and place most of the burden for operating government on working families.
Well put, Gary.