Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 19th, 2011

So Mitt Romney has revealed (shockingly!) that he pays about 15% in federal income taxes: Is this not common amongst a small country club of the very wealthy? Surely this item reveals to all that in the ONE PERCENT there are very different classes too. And will the class warfare within the 1% be greater than the class warfare between the 1% and the 99%? Are the FIFTEEN PERCENTERS the new class in the US we should all be questioning? Why is the banker earning $ 5million per year paying 35% in Federal taxes the target of the 99%?

I am not against Mitt Romney at all: in fact I think he could be a great president. But for someone claiming a higher moral ground, I need him to explain to the world how he justifies, morally not legally, paying less than half the Federal taxes of his fellow high income earners….at their expense.

Its truly amazing to me how we live in an era where secrets are dissappearing quicker than Polar ice caps. The web has exposed volumes of what traditionally was quiet information, making the lives of corrupt politicians truly horrific. When so much is out there on the web, and stays out there seemingly forever, keeping secrets or concealing information is becoming virtually impossible. The web not only exposes these atrocities widely, but it also exposes the governments and institutions that support and control the atrocities.

What is worse: the fact that such a small portion of our society are so incredibly advantaged, or the fact that they are doing so legally? Who put the laws in place to allow such gross inequality?

It is time to lower the taxes on ALL the one percent and make sure those paying 15% or less pay their fair share: why should the bulk of the one percenters pay for a select few to have such a ridiculous advantage? LIfe may not be fair, but our constitution is supposed to be there to protect certain rights, no?

The big question now is how do those very wealthy who pay 30+% in federal income taxes feel about their fellow millionaires paying half? I know how I feel about the absurd unequal and disproportionate assessment of real estate taxes in New York where neighboring buildings of very similar quality pay taxes that are often up to 50% higher than one another, for no good reason at all……are we truly all equal, but some more equal than others? It appears so.

So for all those politicians out there quoting the constitution for political gain, please explain to all the 99 percenters AND the ONE PERCENTERS paying more than 15% in federal income taxes where in the constitution does it say that “all men are created equal, but some are more equal than others?”  Or is our Constitution merely a re-packaged ANIMAL FARM?  Where is the outrage?