On the day after Election Day, Karen Scharff sent a message to Citizen Action’s members. One paragraph was particularly insightful:
As progressives, our best weapon in politics is our values – because when it comes down to it, our values aren’t progressive or conservative, Democratic or Republican. Our values are human values. And when we don’t hide from our values, we win.
Turns out she was right. Yesterday’s Siena poll confirms it.
When it comes to state budget ideas, nearly three-quarters of voters oppose cutting education by $1 billion to help close the deficit, more than two-thirds oppose cutting Medicaid and health care by $1 billion, however, increasing income tax rates on million dollar earners has the support of nearly three-quarters of voters.
New Yorkers don’t want cuts to the services that they need. They don’t want cuts to education. They don’t want cuts to health care.
They do want to start breaking away the deficit. How? By making the super wealthy pay their fair share. Whether it’s at the State or Federal level – ordinary New Yorkers and Americans can’t afford to be taken advantage of any longer.
Just today, the Fiscal Policy Institute released a new report called Grow Together or Pull Further Apart? Income Concentration Trends in New York.
It’s an astonishing (not really) analysis of 2007 income tax returns that shows the wealthiest 5% of New York State residents control more of this state’s wealth than the bottom 95%.
The problem isn’t rocket science. There is finite wealth in our society. For an economy to work, wealth needs to flow. The problem isn’t necessarily certain people being wealthier than others – the problem is when wealth gets tied up into the hands of a very, very small minority. If money is being held by the uber-wealthy, it can’t be spent, which means other people don’t have the opportunity to earn it.
We need to reverse the trend of the past three decades. Government needs to step in and do it. We need to step in an make them do it.
Our economy can’t recover until the wealth of our state and nation is freed from the hands of the rich.
By the way… the best way we can make sure real tax reform happens is public financing of elections. Visit votersnotdonors.org to get involved now.