In Which I Almost Feel Bad For Ken Blackwell

Just kidding!

Since many readers of this blog (3 out of all 7 of you?) are likely in Ohio, I thought you might enjoy former Secretary of State and erstwhile Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell’s embarrassing appearance on The Daily Show last night. Blackwell is one of my guilty pleasures, because he’s such a blatantly shameless buffoon, and last night was no exception. Woof.

Harry Potter and the Welfare State

In the feverish run-up to the May general elections in the United Kingdom, J.K. Rowling, billionaire author of the Harry Potter series, has published a truly wonderful op-ed in the Times of London about her experience as a struggling single mother and the support she received from the state. The sentiment is particularly relevant in the US today, on Tax Day, when everyone seems to think they pay the government too much.

Rowling, with her massive fortune, pays far more in taxes living in the UK than she would if she decamped to, say, Monaco. But she didn’t, and won’t. To wit:

I chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating ex-pats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles.

A second reason, however, was that I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism.

Food for thought for all those hard-working rich people thinking of “going Galt.”

“47 Percent”

David Leonhardt, with characteristic clarity, gives much-needed context to the misleading statement that 47 percent of American households don’t pay any taxes:

The 47 percent number is not wrong. The stimulus programs of the last two years — the first one signed by President George W. Bush, the second and larger one by President Obama — have increased the number of households that receive enough of a tax credit to wipe out their federal income tax liability.

But the modifiers here — federal and income — are important. Income taxes aren’t the only kind of federal taxes that people pay. There are also payroll taxes and capital gains taxes, among others. And, of course, people pay state and local taxes, too.

Even if the discussion is restricted to federal taxes (for which the statistics are better), a vast majority of households end up paying federal taxes. Congressional Budget Office data suggests that, at most, about 10 percent of all households pay no net federal taxes. The number 10 is obviously a lot smaller than 47.

All good stuff, but what I find more interesting is this: let’s say it was true that nearly half of American households don’t pay any income taxes, as many on the right would have you believe. It’s a proveable fact that our system of taxation is not actually all that progressive (although those same right-wingers would never admit this either). Given that, shouldn’t the really troubling aspect of the 47 percent figure be the sky-high-and-rising level of income inequality necessary for such a case even to be possible?

(Faux) Summer Reading

It is way too gorgeous outside in Manhattan (high of 86!) to do any deep political thinking, or work, so I’d suggest you print out the following articles, find a nice bench or spot on the grass, and enjoy some light reading.

• Rachel Slajda at Talking Points Memo has an entertaining post on right-wing paranoia about the census.
• Since the disfunctions of the US Senate have been such a hot topic in these parts, I can’t recommend Jennifer Senior’s New York Magazine piece on the subject enough.
• Is there anything more entertaining than speculating about Supreme Court vacancies? Nope!
• Even though it’s a few week’s old, I’m still recommending Jane Meyer’s remarkably frank takedown of Marc Thiessen’s execrable book to everyone I know.
• Apparently I’ve been mispronouncing Jonathan Lethem’s last name for years.