April 15th Tax Day

Tax day is the fifteenth of April and this year it seems everyone has a comment so I am going to make one also. Republicans and Tea Party people are shouting outrage at the fact that around 47 million Americans will pay no federal income tax. What they are saying is that the people who are paying taxes are supporting the people who don't. Let's take a look at the people who don't. I believe that it is people who are below the poverty level working minimum wage jobs or worse. They can barely survive as is. People like Rush Limbaugh would have you believe that all those people need to do is go back to school and try hard and they can be a part of the American Dream. Funny, because I know plenty of college educated people who have been unemployed for a while now. For many years they paid into the system and what they get back is some hick with the travelling Tea Party roadshow, whose most likely on unemployment himself, blasting them for not paying taxes this year. On the other hand there are plenty of well off people who don't pay taxes at all either. It is alleged that the Pritzker family pays no federal income tax. Something about offshore tax loopholes and reinvesting any profit back into the company. For those that don't know who they are, they're probably Chicago's wealthiest family and basically own Hyatt Hotels, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and Trans Union the credit reporting service. If I remember correctly this information came out about four or five years ago when two of the Pritzker children sued their family for their portion of the family trust. The court was going to open the Pritzker books and the family decided to settle rather than open the books. The two young adults ages 20 and 22 at the time settled for a reported 900 million dollars. That's a lot of dough to shell out for a couple of early twenty somethings just to keep your finances a secret. And finally one last look at not paying taxes. Exxon Mobil had a 13 billion dollar profit in 2009 and is not paying anything to Uncle Sam. Who loses? You, me and everyone in this country. It is estimated that there are over 150 large companies in this country who are not paying any income tax but they will receive a tax refund of some kind. Why aren't the Tea Party people going after them? I guess it's just easier to pick on the little guy.