{"id":3087,"date":"2010-10-12T02:37:01","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T09:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3087"},"modified":"2010-10-12T02:37:01","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T09:37:01","slug":"fix-the-broken-irs-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/12\/fix-the-broken-irs-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Fix the Broken IRS Code"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m no accountant, but I know that the IRS code is filthy with loopholes to enable the uber-rich to evade their fair share of taxes.  What I did not know is that they are the ones who benefit most from tax relief that is ostensibly for the poor and middle classes.  That stinks!<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"12taxscam\" IF YOU WERE spending $400 billion a year on social programs, would you give half of that to the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans<\/strong>? We didn’t think so. But that is the perverse result of the stealthy spending conducted through the federal tax code. The code is salted with "tax expenditures" — programs, many worthy, designed to promote policies from homeownership to education to retirement savings. There are two problems with this approach. <\/p>\n

First, it lacks transparency and accountability. While direct spending programs are subjected to continual review, the spending that takes place through the tax system operates on silent autopilot<\/strong>. Once embedded in the code, the preference tends to be in place until dislodged. <\/p>\n

Second, accomplishing social policy through tax expenditures tends to award the most help to those who need it least. As a new report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Annie E. Casey Foundation<\/a> [PDF] demonstrates, the $400 billion federal asset-building budget — subsidies to buy homes, save for education or plan for retirement — is upside down. Rather than ameliorate rising income inequality, it reinforces it. Low-income households who do not earn enough to itemize deductions don’t get the benefit<\/strong>. A middle-class household earning $50,000 a year "receives less than $500 in benefits" from tax breaks for mortgages, property taxes and investment income, the report found. "By contrast, taxpayers bringing in more than $1 million enjoy $95,820 in annual support through mortgage and property tax deductions and investment tax breaks," it said<\/font><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Something is wrong with this picture\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Fixing such problems would not be that difficult.  Simply rewrite the code with income caps, above which the deductions do not apply or set a maximum deduction.  Surely republicans will fight tooth and nail to protect their only true constituents.  Let them.  Is putting Republicans on Front Street for representing Easy Street and screwing Main Street a bad thing?<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m no accountant, but I know that the IRS code is filthy with loopholes to enable the uber-rich to evade their fair share of taxes.  What I did not know is that they are the ones who benefit most from tax relief that is ostensibly for the poor and middle classes.  That stinks! IF YOU […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}