In 2007, just as I was wrapping up my career in law enforcement, the health care crisis was in full bloom and I believed that it would be far worse than anyone imagined. People could no longer afford health insurance. Costs had become ridiculous. Healthy people who had lost jobs would not come back to health insurance pools unless they landed jobs with health care. Employers would no longer furnish health care nor subsidize it. Insurance premiums would skyrocket, sometimes in excess of 50% price hikes per year. Ultimately and quite possibly, there may come a day when only the affluent can afford health care. So bankruptcy was the middle and poorer class solution to insurance. That exodus is in full swing.
People have to cut out the things that they cannot afford. Taxes are next.
The next great exodus is happening now. The dictionary defines exodus as a departure of a large number of people. People are going to quit paying taxes in droves. I believe that. Corporate America, behemoths like GE, quit paying taxes years ago. Here is a link to Obama's tax cheating cabinet and other non tax paying government employees. You'll like this.
http://news.investors.com/Article/599002/201201260818/obama-white-house-staff-back-taxes.htm
The rich and elite have been sending their money offshore for decades. Eons it seems. But since the elite essentially run and control government- like Congress- off shore bank accounts were largely ignored. The issue gets brought up every now and then- only because it brings in a few votes and it is politically expedient. Our government is not really serious about imprisoning the elite class for tax evasion. That is the same elite class who write campaign checks and give the politician kids' really nice jobs.
So the rich have been screwing the I.R.S. for years and getting away with it. They can buy good lawyers- if in fact they aren't lawyers themselves. The middle class and the poor are different. They are not greedy money hoarders. They simply don't have any money to hoard. They evade taxes because they have to- not because they want to.
This distinguishes our two classes. Nobody likes a thief- but society tends to tolerate a thief who steals to feed his family. Thieves who steal even though they already have plenty- do not merit the same brand of sympathy or tolerance. That's why the rich become such easy targets especially during campaign season. But I'll let you in on a little secret here- it's all bullshit. If Congress were really serious about reining in wealthy tax cheats- like themselves- they could pass a couple of laws and attach a mandatory 15 year prison sentence.
Mitt Romney's offshore accounts have 32 million in them.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-01-20/romney-offshore-accounts/52700400/1 How long do you think ol Mitt's been evading taxes?
Let's just see if a prosecutor anywhere, one with a career suicide wish perhaps, brings a charge of tax evasion to Romney's door step. Can you imagine Romney doing a stretch in Leavenworth? That will be a cold day in hell.
So tell me, if corporate America and companies like GE aren't paying taxes, if the rich and elite aren't paying taxes, and the middle and lower classes can't afford to- just who in the hell is going to pay that 16.2 trillion debt we have rung up? Answer- it's not going to happen. They can't even shore up the tax laws enough or in time- in the event of some economic rebound that would generate tax revenue and miraculously land us in the black. Some Deus Ex Machina ending. So it is, the next great exodus has begun. This at precisely the same moment when local, state, and federal governments try to steal more money from citizens. I sure hope the government has plenty of room and resources to prosecute and house the millions of
people tax cheats who simply can't pay anymore. Perhaps they will start with those who won't pay. I hear they have health care in prison, so we've got that going for us.
