Conservatives are fighting tooth and nail to block any efforts to close tax loopholes for corporations, hedge fund managers, and wealthy individuals (To be fair, progressive politicians aren't fighting too hard to address these issues either). Conservatives claim that any tax increases would be unfairly and counterproductively "punishing" success, and would stifle "job creators." Moreover, GOP Presidential frontrunners Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Michelle Bachmann have each repeated the dangerous and misleading statement that "47% of Americans don't pay any income taxes." Of course, that these statements are misleading and dangerous is nothing new for progressives, but Paul Waldman at the American Prospect posted a great deconstruction of these ideas today. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/us/18immig.html

As I wrote above, the statistics and graphs that Waldman presents are nothing new in progressive circles, but here are the facts in a nutshell: (1) The top marginal tax rate of 35% is at dramatic historic lows (2) The US top tax rate is among the lowest in the world (3) 20 million more jobs were created in the 1990's under Clinton's 39.6% top tax rate (still incredibly low by historical standards) than in the 2000's after George Bush's tax cuts. (4) Average effective tax rate, when taking into account payroll, sales, gas, state, property, and other taxes, that Americans in each quintile of income pay are, respectively, 16.2%, 20.8%, 25.1%, 28.5%, and 30-31.1%.

This last point is important. Millionaires and billionaires pay about the same tax rate as the upper middle and middle class, and the average working and low-income family contributes as much or more of their income in taxes than billionaire Warren Buffet, who paid 17.4% of his income in taxes last year. To Buffett's defense, Buffett has testified in Congress and repeatedly spoken out for Congress to increase his tax contributions, most recently in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html).

Essentially, I think that right wing politicians' denunciations of these alleged non-existent 'freeriders' is actually a dog whistle. A dog whistle is a phrase or cultural meme that indirectly signals certain politically charged messages to extremist constituents. In this case, the dog whistle is the right-wing idea that communities of color are somehow "free-riding" on the hard work of the wealthy through government programs or affirmative action, or that immigrants are not paying taxes, and are taking jobs and social programs. Much of this anger, though not all, is directed at yellow, brown, and black communities, despite the economic and statistical facts. Especially pertinent to APA communities is the related false accusation that immigrant communities don't pay taxes. As outlined in the analysis above, all families pay taxes, and immigrants pay payroll, sales, property, and income taxes, despite receiving a far lower "return" in terms of Social Security, infrastructure, government attention, police protection, and other government services than citizens. Even undocumented immigrants pay taxes, and usually pay social security taxes as well, without receiving government services in return. Immigrants effectively subsidize citizens in the tax system. 

Of course, AAPI community activists and groups are actively organizing so that we can receive our fair share of returns on our tax contributions, in the form of more effective translations, culturally sensitive public officials, and greater political representation. This is obviously a contentious and complicated subject, and there is a wide range of opinions and beliefs about these matters in the AAPI community. I just hope that at the very least, our public discourse doesn't rely on misinformation and racially coded dog whistles. We are paying our fair share to the public coffers. I think its time for the wealthiest Americans to do so as well. Thoughts?

Picture Courtesy of The American Prospect, Paul Waldman

About me: Hey, I'm Dayne, and I'm a recent graduate of Pomona College. In college, I was active in AAPI student organizing as well as community work. I'm currenlty based out of Washington, D.C., and I'll be posting two to three times a week with the latest in progressive and AAPI political news and policy analysis, as well as spotlight features on young community leaders. Leave comments and share with friends! Follow me on twitter @ dayne4progress