The Deficit, Income Inequality, Greedflation, Domestic Terrorism, Immigration Reform, Healthcare, and Education

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart

The issues listed above exist. They receive a great amount of lip service, and nothing more. Washington D.C. was once a great city, a city every American would like to visit. For the majority of my 79 years I was proud to be a citizen of the United States of America.

Everything changes. Standing still, accepting the status quo is not possible. Doing nothing is moving backwards.

All of the above problems have solutions. However, all three branches of our government are playing politics. Therefore, an entire nation is being forced to accept the current situation, which literally means 340 million people are moving backwards into America’s dark past.

Every one of these problems has one simple and fair solution, with the exception of Immigration Reform. This problem can only be solved through lengthy, sincere, and honest discussion and eventual compromise. Placing anyone who is not pure white in concentration camps is moronic and fascist.

The remaining issues involve billions of dollars, and one simple bipartisan act which is fair, just, and guaranteed to succeed. It’s time America revised its 6,871 page tax code, and every entity is required to pay their fair share of taxes.

Throughout my life I read proposals which would eliminate the Internal Revenue Service. I believe that several offered possible solutions which would be fair for all Americans, but after 1980, they were tossed aside. Reagan created policies designed to protect the profits of one percent of all Americans. We call them billionaires or oligarchs.

Reagan’s administration was responsible for the rise of the national debt to more than one-trillion dollars. His fiscal policy of “trickle-down economics,” the same policy used by George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, allowed America’s wealthiest men and women to avoid paying taxes. Today, the debt is more than 36 trillion dollars. This is what that looks like: $36,000,000,000,000.

All governments must tax their people. America’s current system is broken and unfair.  

One example everyone can understand. After Trump passed additional tax cuts for the one percent in 2017, in 2018 Amazon and Walmart paid zero dollars in taxes.

Here are three other examples, and there are dozens more.

In 2024, Amazon’s net profit was 59.2 billion dollars. Walmart’s net profit was $15.551 billion. Pfizer’s adjusted income was 17.716 billion. Each of these companies experienced huge increases from 2023.

However, not one of these huge corporations paid as much as 10 percent in taxes.

The 6,871 page tax code contains thousands of ways to avoid paying taxes. Consider one suggestion by a leading economist. He offered a proposal which would force every individual and every corporation to pay a flat rate of 10 percent. The national debt would disappear in a decade.

Another proposal involves a national sales tax. The revenue from the purchase of mansions, expensive cars, yachts, and private jets owned by the super-rich would help pay for universal healthcare, and higher education for anyone who wants it.

The men and women who live lives unimaginable for most Americans must pay for their right to make amounts of money they could never spend in a lifetime.

One last issue. It’s time for the United States of America to end its policy of preparing for the next war. The Pentagon’s national budget will soon reach one trillion dollars. Watchdog groups claim that 50 cents out of every dollar it receives goes to waste.

People must take precedence over profits. All of the problems in my title can disappear if every American pays their fair share of taxes.

It’s past the time when working class Americans are forced to pay for the luxurious lives of the one-percent.

Op-ed by James Turnage

Follow my blog and be informed