Class Warfare? It’s Just Politics

September 29, 2011 No Comments

Jason Cohen

Peabody College

Class of 2013

Class warfare. I don’t know exactly what constitutes class warfare, only that it brings to mind the image of a united infantry composed of the homeless and other poverty stricken member of our society, marching towards Wall St. to reclaim our country from the millionaires and the “executive class.” Maybe that’s what this #OccupyWallSt business was all about…but somehow I find that unlikely.

What I do know, however, is the intentionally vague and undefined concept of class warfare has become the Republican Party’s primary talking point against President Obama’s recent tax proposal dubbed the Buffet Rule, aimed at restructuring our tax code to lower corporate loopholes, ensuring that those of us in our society fortunate to earn an income of over one million dollars will be charged with bearing the same tax burden as the rest of us. The ultimate goal of this reform is not to disenfranchise the top earning class in America, as opponents to the plan might have you believe, but rather to help diminish our government’s deficit, through collecting increased revenue, from those who can most afford to bear a heavier tax burden.

What seems silly, to me, about the almost unilateral Republican criticism of this plan, is how this goal is ignored, and Republican strategists see this plan as policy intended to hurt the upper class. What is important to remember is that both Democrats and Republicans, who rarely agree on anything at all, have both come forward stating that the federal Government should operate within its means, and that running such a large deficit and accumulating debt is unsustainable and irresponsible. That is where the similarities between the thinking of the two parties ends, as the Republicans oppose this Buffet Plan, instead calling for spending cuts as the vehicle for deficit reduction.

I’m no economist, and am certainly not qualified to debate the merits of tax hikes or spending cut as means towards the end of reducing our national debt, but should Obama’s Buffet Rule be shot down on the basis that it constitutes class warfare, I would think the American people deserve a clearer definition of what opponents to the plan mean when they use that term. It seems to me that people are calling the Buffet Rule class warfare, because it negatively affects one class of society, while leaving the rest unaffected. If we use this definition, then yes, the Buffet Rule does negatively affect the top per cent or so of income earners, while leaving the tax code for the rest of the country unchanged. However, using this definition of class warfare, I see no choice but to label some of the proposed Republican spending cuts, as class warfare as well. It is interesting to me to note how Republicans have such a heavy trigger finger with the class warfare moniker when it comes to asking their precious millionaires to bear their fair share of the tax burden, but say nothing when their proposed spending cuts over the summer called for cuts to important programs aimed at benefitting the middle and lower class such as the Pell Grant, a government sponsored grant helping students with financial need pay for a college education. Now, if closing loopholes and forcing Warren Buffet to pay the same percentage of his income in taxes that his housecleaner does, constitutes class warfare, I absolutely maintain that cutting important federal programs benefitting those in financial need constitutes the same, and a worse kind at that. A millionaire, after paying an increased tax rate under the Buffet Rule, will most likely still be a millionaire, while a poverty stricken high school student will most likely not be able to attend college should programs like the Pell Grant be cut.

Obama’s proposal calls for 1.5 trillion dollars of tax hikes. This equates to 1.5 trillion dollars slashed from the federal government’s budget, most of it coming from programs benefitting the middle and lower class, according to the Republican’s strategy for deficit reduction. Should the Republican Party continue to attack the Buffet Rule as “class warfare”, all I ask is that they recognize that their proposed spending cuts do the exact same thing: lower national debt by negatively affecting one class of people while leaving another relatively unharmed.

Like I mentioned previously, I’m not qualified to make economic decisions for our country, and it may be the case that trickle down economics, or tax cuts for the wealthy, might be the engine we need to drive American economic growth, but if Republican talking points regarding the Buffet Rule continue to circle around the term class warfare, the American public deserves an explanation of how this constitutes class warfare, but cutting programs aimed at helping the vast majority of Americans, while leaving the top earners unharmed does not.

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