I ended up pondering the issues of taxes this morning–a, finally, fine nice spring morning here in NYC.  The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the government’s receipts from corporate taxes have fallen. The Journal ascribes this to the "turmoil rocking financial markets and housing woes slowing the economy", just another way that people like Citibank’s Robert Rubin have hurt regular Americans because, after all, someone pays for the growing debt…that would be you and I, the average taxpayer.

    Because, remember, the rich don’t pay the taxes they should in a rationale society (well, I suppose we should argue that, in a rationale society, we wouldn’t have the kind of wealth accumulation in the hands of a tiny elite). And, if you or your family members or friends are wondering who to vote for this year, here’s something to consider from the folks at the Citizens for Tax Justice:

The cost of the Bush tax cuts for the years 2001 through 2010 will total around $2.6 trillion. If the Bush tax cuts are all made permanent, as the President has proposed, that will cost another $5 trillion over the 2011-2020 period. This includes the additional interest payments we must pay on the national debt because of the Bush administration’s practice of using debt to pay for its tax cuts.

    And…

These costs should not be written off as some abstract or distant problem. The national debt must be paid off eventually, either in the form of increased taxes or cuts in public services that Americans rely on.

In fact, the White House has admitted this much by submitting budget proposals that slash public services. Under the most recent Bush budget proposal, federal funding for veterans’ benefits would be 9 percent lower in 2012, as a percentage of the economy, than in 2008. Funding for education and social services would be a fifth lower, natural resources and environmental programs over a fourth lower, transportation a third lower and community development over 62 percent lower. Medicare spending in 2012 would be 9 percent lower than in 2008, as a percentage of the cost of maintaining current services.

    And the final killer fact:

The cost of the Bush tax cuts going to just the richest one percent in 2008 (about $79.5 billion) is more than the entire budget for the Department of Education this year ($68 billion), almost twice as much as the entire budget for the Department of Homeland Security this year ($42.3 billion) and over ten times as much as the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency ($7.5 billion).

    Had enough?