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.

This is the face of the future for Republican Health Care and Social Security Reform – memorize it!

Now remember all of those terrifying Town Hall meetings in the Summer of 2009, where all you heard about on a daily basis were “Death Panels” and Medicare cuts, and Big Brother’s government bureaucrats making decisions about both the quality and quantity of health care you were going to receive?

You have nothing to worry about.  Obama’s Health Care Reform is likely all but dead, and many of you will try to vote the Republicans back into power in this Fall’s mid-term elections so that they can protect you from Obama’s scary Socialist Big Government.  Hip, Hip, Hooray (or is that Horror?) for their brand of Capitalism and individual freedom.

Except for one thing.  The Republicans do not intend to protect you from anything (remember, that’s the point of shrinking government support).  Including going broke in your retirement years from either rising health care costs, or diminishing retirement income.  Think I am kidding?  This is not hyperbole!

Ignore what follows at your own peril . . .

At the 2009 CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) - this is the Superbowl of Conservative power-brokers, with Glenn Beck as their 2010 Keynote Speaker - Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) proposed that Medicare be completely dismantled, and replaced by a system of vouchers for seniors to purchase health insurance in the private sector. 

Make no mistake about it:  this will be the platform for the Republicans’ answer on how to reform health care once they are back in power.  Do you doubt that?  Well, Fox News reported that Ryan has been annointed as “the leader of future of the conservative movement.”  That’s code for Republican Presidential nominee.  He is their visionary, and here is his vision for American retirees’ Medicare and social security safety nets.

According to The Economist magazine, and an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Ryan’s “daring plan” will stimulate both the health insurance industry, as well as the health care industry, while slowing the growth of government health care spending;  which is great if you are a Republican rising star like Ryan, who receives almost 40% of his political campaign contributions from health-related industries and their beneficiaries.

What’s not so great for retirees is that the CBO analysis shows why this is so great for the government and those industries:  the dollar value of those vouchers you are going to get under Ryan’s plan will not rise as quickly as the projected costs of health care.  Which means retirees will have higher out-of-pocket expenses as time goes on.  And you can be certain that if those costs are going up, your private health insurance will also be going up at an equally rising rate – after all, they have to make a profit.  That’s Capitalism.  Right?

Another great thing about this plan – but not so great for retirees – is that the cost to the government will continue to grow more slowly because, as the CBO projections show, people will use less health care when they have to increasingly pay more and more out of their own pockets.  Remember last summer when Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers scared you about the government rationing health care?  Now you can do it to yourself!

In essence, Ryan’s Republican plan would make the government go broke more slowly than American retirees will, while temporarily keeping this growing health care crisis at bay another decade or two, and increase the profits of health-related industries along the way, forcing you to resort to receiving less and less health care as you grow older. 

Don’t believe me?  Do the math.  It’s really that simple.

And Remember:  Under the Republican Healthcare Reform Plan you will NOT even have Medicare supplemental insurance to fall back on.  You wanted government out of your life . . . you got it!

So be happy you are not going to get Health Care Reform from Obama.  I don’t mean to alarm you – especially after the Republicans scared you sufficiently enough to ensure health care reform would not get passed.  After all, now they are free to begin selling you their notion of a “free market” alternative.   Caveat emptor (“buyer beware”).

And recall the proverbial admonishment: “Be careful what you wish for . . . you just might get it.”

Happy retirement, America. 

P.S.  Ryan’s “free market plan” also calls for Social Security to be completely dismantled, and privatized.  Surely the impact of that policy is not lost on anyone after the global financial markets collapsed for the second time in a decade – losing almost 40% of their value in both downturns, with average investment returns for the past ten (10) years of about 1%.  What if your social security safety net was invested there?  Hint: it’s not a “free market” proposal - the government will limit your choices on how you can invest your social security retirement.  Are you really so naive as to think Wall Street won’t have their greedy fingers in that enormous financial pie?  They own Washington, D.C.!