Tax Day Activism
Two things are rapidly approaching.
1) Budget and debt ceiling deadlines. Some sort of budget compromise is imminent. 2) Tax Day: April 15. Or, technically, April 18 this year. The anti-tax forces will doubtlessly want to use this to revitalize and re-energize the Tea Party.
It is also a critical moment for those of us who care about antipoverty measures to make our voices heard.
As I’m working on taxes, I’m acutely aware of where I fall relative to the poverty line. At somewhere shy of 400% of poverty, we’re around the median income for those in our age. The budget is snug—but manageable.
I can’t help but feel a deep sense of shame when I think that one in seven Americans is trying to scrape by on less than a quarter of what I have. That’s 43.6 million people. And that’s just in America, the wealthiest country in the world. Yet somehow, the thought of raising taxes to alleviate this problem around the country and around the world is considered politically impalatable.
This should disgust us all. If we care about tackling poverty, we need to put our money where our mouths are. And we need to let our representatives know that we’re willing to do it. If we need to balance the budget—let’s do it by raising taxes on people (like me) who can afford to pay them. If we’re going to cut spending, let’s ensure that the most vulnerable are protected from those cuts.
Over the next week, I will be planning to contact federal, state, and local representatives. I will ask them to raise my taxes before they cut services to the poor. Anybody else on board?
