Finally!
And I don't mean they passed the bill.
Those were my thoughts today when I pulled this month’s issue of New Republic from the mailbox and looked at the cover. Who needs that much money?
My question, which I had been trying for weeks to get into
some paper’s OP-ED page, “Why do the rich need more money?” was slightly
different from theirs. It was, however, a question that I thought needed to be
asked, and answered, since all the cuts in the proposed budget bill would
enable Congress to give the rich the tax cuts they desired.
Maybe it was a mistake opening with a Professor Corey skit from
years ago, but I thought interjecting a little humor into an otherwise boring
economic piece would be welcomed. Anyway, this is the question I've been asking and am still looking for an answer to.
* * *
Yes, but Why
Professor Corey, the world’s foremost authority on
everything, had a skit where people asked him, “Why do you wear sneakers?”
“This is a two-part question,” he’d say, and go on to
describe all the philosophical implications of the word Why. Then he’d
answer the second part, “Do I wear sneakers?”
“Yes, I do.”
Congress is currently negotiating a trillion-dollar budget
bill that if passed will cut numerous social programs designed to help the
needy and less fortunate. The resulting savings I keep hearing will pay for tax
cuts for the rich.
My question is, “Why do the rich need more money?”
Professor Corey wasn’t a member of Congress. If he were, and
was working on a bill like this one, and was asked this question, he’d go into
his convoluted explanation on the word why and then answer the second
part, “Yes, they do.”
Will Rogers also wasn’t a member of Congress, and he didn’t
think much of politicians. “With Congress,” he said, “every time they make a
joke it’s a law, and every time they make a law it’s a joke.
But government isn’t a joke, or at least it shouldn’t be,
although sometimes those in government seem to work damn hard at being a joke.
While this bill if it passes might be considered a joke by many, its
consequences are no laughing matter.
Serious questions are being posed about this bill and
serious people are stepping up to answer them. Authorities from every field are
explaining in detail why disadvantaged children need school lunches, why
low-income folks need Medicaid to help with rising health costs, why scientists
need grants to produce new vaccines and discover new cures for diseases, why
the broken immigration system needs more judges, why we need less lead in our
pipes and more and better water treatment plants, why social security needs to
be stabilized not defunded, why college students do need assistance, why
veterans have earned and do need better care, why people hit by natural
disasters need all the help they can get, why agriculture and food-processing
plants need more and better inspectors, why airports need more controllers and
airplanes need to be made safer, why
foreign nations do need our assistance because when they do well we do well, why
the arts are as necessary as arms, and why a whole host of other programs that
are being threatened need to be funded because real people depend on them in so
many ways. Most of all, our government needs people because problems don’t
solve problems, people solve problems.
What I don’t hear is anyone explaining why the wealthy need
more money.
They have found ways to legally reduce their tax bill. They
have found ways to legally get around paying their taxes, often zero taxes on
mindboggling wealth. When push came to shove, many resort to illegal means to
get more money, and have enough wealth to avoid the consequences.
A key to their plan has been to use their money to acquire a
louder voice in government. When the Supreme Court declared that their money
was a legitimate voice, the game was over. The wealthy now do have the loudest
voice in government and the representatives they have put in want to kill or
weaken as many programs designed to help the needy as they can to pay for tax
breaks for the wealthy.
So, my question to anyone in Congress, the president, or to
any of the millionaires and billionaires whose money put these politicians in
office is, “Why do the rich need more money?”
And the answer better not be a long dissertation on the word
Why followed by a quick throwaway response, “Yes, they do.”
* * *
So, this is my answer to New Republic’s question:
No one.
And the answer to my question: Why do the rich need more money?
They Don’t.
I hope every voter in America is asking and answering these
two questions and remember them when they vote in the 2026 and 2028 elections.