In case you forgot – and I am almost certain you didn’t – today is April 15th.  Tax day.  Not that you needed or wanted any reminder.

But there are a few things you might not have considered, and a way to re-frame the notion of taxes in order to understand why we pay them – albeit reluctantly.

As was reported today in the Wall Street Journal, the Obamas just paid $1.8 MILLION in income taxes the year.  FYI:  that is NOT a typo. 

Want to put that in perspective?  In 2008, George Bush paid just shy of $204,000 in income taxes;  and Dick Cheney paid approximately $600,000 in taxes that same year.  That means that President Obama paid over twice as much in income taxes his first year in office than George Bush and Dick Cheney did combined in their last year in office.

So when President Obama increased Medicare contributions on the top 1% of wage earners in this country in order to help fund health care reform, he raised his own taxes.  Not your taxes – unless you make in excess of $250,000 a year.  His taxes.  That is something only one President – George Bush I – has ever agreed to do in almost thirty years.

And the President may later propose to raise taxes again on himself and the very rich.  Why, you might ask?

Because this President understands that sublimating his own financial self-interests to that of the greater social good is something Americans have always expected from those who could most afford it – a notion that seems quaint and antiquated in this era of repacious greed and obscene self-interest.  Sacrificing a portion of one’s wealth for the good of America was one of the principle things that made this country so great. 

Want proof?  Read it and weep . . .

This chart from the Citizens for Tax Justice outlines the income tax rates for the top 1% of taxpayers in the United States since 1916.  Take note of several very salient facts:

1)  It may surprise you to learn that with the exception of 1916 (%15), 1925-31 (25%), and 1988-92 (30% +/-), the current tax rates for the wealthiest Americans has never been lower (35%);

2)  In the past, high tax rates on the very rich were able to offset severe economic conditions (The Great Depression), the high costs of war (WW II, Korea, and Vietnam), and helped financed the greatest economic expansion in this country’s history (The Go-Go Years of Wall Street – late 1950’s to mid 1960’s);

3)  The reason most Americans now pay a higher rate of taxes in relation to inflation-adjusted income is that the very rich have paid far less in taxes since 1988 – a policy that should not be lost on anyone, Republican or Democrat; the rich DO keep getting richer.  Unfortunately, political rhetoric and economic propoganda trumps truth virtually every time. 

Here is the reality, America:  If you want to reduce deficits, balance the budget for future generations, keep entitlements at their present levels (Social Security and Medicare), and reinforce the middle-class, taxes on the very wealthy are going to have to go up.  Significantly. 

Call it what you may – “transferring wealth”, Socialism, etc.  This is a zero-sum game.  Otherwise, many of us will go broke over time while they grow ever richer.  It’s that simple.  This is not class warfare.  This is not social engineering.  This is reality, people.

But based on some silly twisted philosophical perception that imposing disporportionately “higher” taxes on the rich is inherently unfair and “Socialist” in nature –  which even Warren Buffet, the richest man in America, agrees is nonsense -  we vote against our own self-interests, and vicariously support the ultra-rich getting richer.  Why?  Because we no longer recognize the fact that in the past, America always imposed a proportionally greater financial burden on it’s citizens who have prospered most from her bounty, and were blessed with the gift of wealth.

Against his own self-interest, President Obama readily accepts that duty, as well as the additional burden it imposes on his family, based on the time-honored American principle of self-sacrifice . . .

All for the good of the country.

NOTE:  The gentleman pictured at the top of this post is none other than the richest man in America – Warren Buffet.