Politspective

nbclatino:

(Photo Courtesy 401k) 

BY ISRAEL ORTEGA 

Just in time for the start of the general election, President Obama is seeking to cast himself as a man of the people by pushing for a millionaire’s tax to promote a more equitable and fair society. It’s a predictable pitch that the president has campaigned on before. As his argument goes, the wealthy must pay their “fair share” in order to fund a seemingly limitless government.

And thanks to a number of Spanish language surrogates and a sympathetic Spanish language media, President Obama is getting virtually a free pass convincing many Latinos that enacting the “Buffett Rule,” will help solve our country’s fiscal problems.

Latinos, as all Americans, should read the fine print

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It is easy to denounce a President for being populist -specially in a Democracy-, but it sure is not that easy trying to argue that claim without being populist oneself. First of all, asking people with different incomes and assets to pay different taxes is not class warfare, it is fairness. But hey, in an election year, when The Heritage Foundation is seeking to see one of their guys in The White House, using anachronistic terms to revive communistic fears is just necessary. It just isn’t populism when it comes from the right.

The text is full of misleading words and expressions chosen to generate fear and hate. Take for example this sentence: “Instead of providing the full picture on the taxes levied on America’s most successful […]”. Just one thing: being rich is not equal to being successful. If trying to sell a policy suggestion as “punishing success” is not populism, then I don’t know what is. If you haven’t heard of successful people who are not necessarily wealthy or of wealthy people who got rich just by chance, then I’m willing to introduce you to some.

Now, yes, the revenues are a small share of the whole National Debt, but I’m sorry, is just more income than no tax revenue at all. Even better, it is way more money, than spending even more on tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans. And yes, some of the money may not go directly to pay the national debt, but that doesn’t mean that it will be wasted. There are also good things the government can invest in. And Latinos, hear well, because you may be the most benefited. 

By the way, even as Latinos represent the biggest and fastest growing minority in the country, they make just a very, very small share of the wealthiest people in the U.S. This huge gap is not because Hispanics are lazy or not so “successful” and it says a lot about how wealth distribution works in the U.S.  So don’t worry, Latinos, in fact you should not reject the Buffet Rule, you should embrace it. It very, very probably won’t reach you. And if it does, it well may help to fund education and health for your community and ultimately change the composition of the richest of Americans.