The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him.
I remember that and how that story encouraged gullible Americans to disdain and revile "welfare queens," which was nothing more than a code name for poor black women. That image got a lot of Americans (the large majority of whom voted for Reagan) angry over how poor black people waste their tax dollars and cheat the government at the same time.
I wonder how great their anger will be, how stygmatized the fabulously wealthy and powerful in America will be when this story gets around.
You'd have to line up the so-called "welfare queens" side by side and have them reach the moon and come back in order to equal the amount of money these upstanding fabulously wealthy, powerful, red-blooded American citizens stole from the US government (that's you and me, my friends).
But we don't get angry when fabulously wealthy and powerful cheaters rob the US government--only when powerless poor people do. Then we have presidents publicly denigrate them and hold them up to scorn and contempt.
A link to the Senate report is in the ABC News story. Here is the opening paragraph:
U.S. SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS
STAFF REPORT ONTAX HAVEN BANKS AND U.S. TAX COMPLIANCE
July 17, 2008
Each year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in tax
revenues due to offshore tax abuses.1 Offshore tax havens today hold
trillions of dollars in assets provided bycitizens of other countries,
including the United States.2 The extent to which those assets represent funds hidden from tax authorities by taxpayers from the United States and othercountries outside of the tax havens is of critical importance.3 A related issue is the extent towhich financial institutions in tax havens may be facilitating international tax evasion.
From ABC News:
Investigation Reveals Secrecy Tricks Allegedly Used by Swiss Bankers
Federal regulators should consider revoking the US banking license of the giant Swiss Bank UBS because of its role in helping wealthy Americans evade billions of dollars in taxes, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) told ABC News today."I don't think that any bank that goes to the extent that UBS has gone through to avoid doing what their agreements with the United States require them to do, should be allowed to continue to do business unless they clean up their act," Levin said.
UBS's role in arranging "undeclared" accounts for an estimated 19,000 US citizens was one focus of a hearing by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Levin today. The role of the LGT bank, owned by the royal family of Liechtenstein, was also investigated.Levin said UBS practices resulted in its U.S. clients maintaining undeclared Swiss accounts that collectively held "$18 billion dollars in assets that have been kept secret from the the IRS."
Former Senator Phil Gramm (Sen. John McCain's economic adviser, works for UBS as a consultant).
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5394214&page=1
1 comment:
Before I lay into you, let me say that we do need to find a way to fix the tax mess here. When this money sits in banks in other countries, it sure doesn't benefit us. Having said that, however....
But we don't get angry when fabulously wealthy and powerful cheaters rob the US government...,
There's one really serious flaw in your logic here. The "welfare queens" are breaking the law taking money that was already taken from someone else. The "powerful rich" might be breaking the law because they are hiding their money from a government that taxes it three or four times, then really starts the theft when they die.
The difference, if you missed it is that in the latter, IT IS NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S MONEY!
The fact is people across the spectrum do everything they can, legal, shady, and illegal, to avoid the government sticking a gun in their belly and a shop vac in their pocket. I know I have, friends and family have, and even your beloved Barack Obama probably has.
I'm not debating the legality here, but the mindset that ANY money rightfully belongs to the government. While taxes to support a government are necessary and inevitable, it's the incessant manipulation of the tax system, combined with the idea that people don't deserve the money they've earned because they've earned a lot more that has caused this revolt.
Being a solution man, I'll throw up a link to the FairTax here, as only a wholly new approach to collecting the taxes is going to work at this point. Because right now, in anticipation of an Obama victory, and the inevitable tax increase on the "wealthiest 1%" (everyone, I mean) there's a whole lot more cash headed overseas where the people who produce don't have to watch it stolen.
Unless, of course, you have a better way to solve this problem.
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