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This week on CounterSpin: News media coverage of taxes falls broadly into two camps: There are, especially in April, lots of “news you can use”–type stories—like NBC‘s Today show on April 14 warning viewers to be mindful of typos and not be lazy about filing for extensions, or NBC Nightly News on April 18, noting that if you filed by mail, you might wait five to eight months for your return, due to backlogs at the IRS. Taxes as an “oh well, what are you gonna do” thing that all of us have to deal with.
Then there are other stories, disconnected stories, about tax policy: Who pays, how much, and why? We’ve talked about that a fair amount on this show, and we’re going to revisit two of those conversations today.
Last April, we spoke with Emory University law professor and author Dorothy A. Brown about how, though you can scour tax policy and find no mention of race, our tax system still affects Black people very differently, in ways most conversation obscures.
Trancript: ‘The System for Building Wealth Is Designed for White Wealth’
And in February 2019, we spoke with economist Dean Baker about why the idea of raising taxes on the superwealthy makes sense to many mainstream economists and to the general public, but still faces a perennial headwind in corporate media.
Transcript: ‘The Distribution of Income Depends on How We Structure the Economy’
Two revelatory conversations about tax policy, this week on CounterSpin.
“Paying taxes is for suckers.” – nobody you know
Speaking of taxes, real taxes paid, who does and who does not actually pay, worse – who the scandalous IRS overwhelmingly chooses to go after and why it only seems like we don’t have the social capital to cover each other and then some, check this video out by Amber Ruffin. She broke it down pretty succinctly I’d say:
https://youtu.be/L12sMXMi8Oo
The top marginal tax rate in the U.S. in 1963 was 91%… but “nobody” knows that.
Bradley,
Steven Greenhouse wrote a book titled “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” that talks about those higher tax rates the wealthy used to enjoy willingly. That book is over ten years old now, and the conditions described within in it have only worsened.
Jeff Bezos claimed a $4000 child tax credit, while making $140,000+ per MINUTE.