May 2013
4 posts
“Of all forms of taxation, [the inheritance tax] seems the wisest… By...”
– Andrew Carnegie, millionaire and philanthropist, in “Wealth,” North American Review, June 1889.
WatchFrom Waukegan High School, a public school in Illinois, Joshua Bill is the 2012 National History Teacher of the Year. Watch a video of one of his inspiring classes.
Join USPS to Help Stamp Out Hunger
Sadly, your taxes do not fund the U.S. Postal Service any more. The USPS runs off of its own revenues from stamps, and has survived for decades on that basis despite huge hurdles.
And this plucky little agency doesn’t just deliver the mail. When they aren’t saving lives, letter carriers give back to their communities.
This Saturday, you can participate in the annual Stamp Out...
Tax Dollars Hire Veterans
When our men and women in uniform come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, many struggle to find a job. Here’s one vet’s story of how the federal government helped her and her family get back on their feet:
After serving 7 years in the US Army, I left with the hopes of finding a decent job and starting a fresh new life with my husband, also a vet, and 4 children in our home state of...
April 2013
7 posts
For the first time ever, you can hear Alexander...
From the Smithsonian Magazine,:
A dramatic application of digital technology has allowed researchers to recover Bell’s voice from a recording held by the Smithsonian—a breakthrough announced here for the first time.
For the first time since his death in 1922, the voice of the man who invented the telephone.
One Third of Americans enjoy *doing their taxes.*
Sure, most Americans think their taxes are fair — but did you know that one third of Americans actually enjoy filling out their income tax forms? In fact, more people like paying their taxes because it’s their responsibility than dislike paying because they think their taxes are too high.
TAX PATRIOTISM FOR THE WIN, says Wendell, the “I Heart Taxes” eagle.
Love for Boston
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
...
Heck yeah, the Census!
The Census helps millions of Americans make smarter decisions. Census data lets local governments assess where schools and hospitals are needed, and helps businesses determine where a new store would find a market. It helps us know whether public policies are working, and it’s what we use to reapportion political districts. Also lots of other serious things, like natural disaster response...
Tax Evaders, The Video Game
Just in time for Tax Day — a video game where you get to defend your local schools, hospitals, and fire departments from the dreaded TAX EVADERS. A totally addictive game for any pro-tax patriot!
Oh no! The school’s windows are boarded and the lights have gone out at the fire station!
Look what happens when we make sure everyone pays their share!
WHEW! Taxes save the day once...
Cleaner Burning Stoves for the Developing World
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory helped develop a new light-weight energy efficient stove, which will reduce fuel use, smoke, and cooking time for families in the developing world.
Stoves like this reduce use of forest resources and emission of greenhouse gases.
Photo credit: Envirofit.
Tax Dollars Create Money. Literally.
Those dollars in your wallet? Printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Check out their awesome anti-counterfeiting work — and the high-tech new $100 bill, coming soon.
March 2013
4 posts
Taxes Prevent Discrimination
A woman gets fired without warning because she is pregnant.
A man missing an arm is fired, though his disability had not hindered his work.
A women with severe rheumatoid arthritis is ridiculed for her limp, and her supervisor refuses to reschedule her for work after she recovers from surgery.
A man faces persistent racial harassment at his job site, and is threatened by his employer when he...
Like Google Earth? Thank NASA and the USGS.
Here’s a photo of the newest Earth-observing satellite, whose images will be made available *for free* thanks to the U.S. government and your tax dollars. Data from previous Landsat satellites have made whole new kinds of research possible (and are also what power Google Earth).
Launched by NASA, this little guy will be Landsat 8. And how have the previous Landsat’s worked out? Glad...
Taxes are Preserving America's Literary Culture
Americans have written some of the world’s great literature, but increasingly few of us are reading it. As the NEA says, literary reading in America is “declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young.”
So for the past seven years, the NEA has sponsored “The Big Read,” a program to encourage reading across...
Less Asthma in Mount Vernon, IN. (Thanks, EPA.)
From the EPA:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Countrymark Refining and Logistics, LLC has agreed to pay a $167,000 civil penalty, perform environmental projects totaling more than $180,000, and spend $18 million on new pollution controls to resolve Clean Air Act (CAA) violations at its refinery, located in Mount Vernon, Ind. Once...
February 2013
3 posts
Social Security Administration: Fast-tracking...
You probably think of the Social Security Administration as the people who make sure Grandma gets her retirement benefits. Which is 100% true, and 100% awesome. But SSA also provides benefits to the disabled — and they’re working hard to get people their benefits fast.
SSA has fast-tracked 200 diseases that automatically make a person qualify for disability. So very sick people, like...
America's Newest National Park: Pinnacles
This year, Pinnacles National Monument, in California, became America’s 59th National Park. Pinnacles was first protected by Theodore Roosevelt, who reminds us:
Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of the nation.
The Prairie Falcon, a species native to the Pinnacles.
December 2012
1 post
George Takei, Tax Patriot!
Star Trek legend and champion of civil rights George Takei takes up the cause of tax patriotism on his blog today:
I didn’t grow up wealthy. In fact, when I was a little boy, the government took everything away from my family and shipped us off to an internment camp. Years later, when we returned to Los Angeles, we had to scrape our way up from nothing, living on skid row and saving our money,...
November 2012
3 posts
Pro-Tax Nation!
The American people voted resoundingly for higher taxes this year. 61% of voters want to increase taxes:
This is what a mandate looks like. But it doesn’t stop there — voters brought their tax-love right into the polling booth.
In California, Propositions 30 and 39 passed handily, raising billions of dollars for California public schools and universities.
In Arkansas, Amendment #1...
This Election Day, PRO-TAX!
Citizens for Tax Justice have a spectacular round-up of all the chances Americans have to vote pro-tax this year. Vote in favor of your state’s schools, roads, fire fighters, and hospitals!
Taxes Save Lives: Hurricane Sandy edition
Here are just a few of the ways your tax dollars saved lives this week.
Taxes paid for the forecasting that accurately predicted Hurricane Sandy’s path. Five days in advance, the National Hurricane Center predicted the site of landfall within thirty miles. “This long lead time was critical for preparation efforts from the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and no doubt saved lives,”...
September 2012
1 post
Your Tax Dollars --> Scientific Breakthroughs
From the New York Times today:
That’s right, just another tax-funded scientific breakthrough.
The ENCODE project, led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, has produced “a dynamic picture of how the human genome does its job.” It fundamentally changes what we know about diseases from multiple sclerosis,...
August 2012
1 post
$17 TICKET TO MARS, anyone?
From NASA: “This is one of the first images taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT.”
For a mere 0.6% of your federal tax dollars, NASA turns science fiction into reality. For the median four-person family, that meant about $17 last year.*
Yeah, that’s right. A $17 TICKET TO MARS. Taxes are awesome AND an awesome bargain.
...
July 2012
2 posts
Nuns Stand Up for Tax-Funded Anti-Poverty Programs
The Nuns on the Bus are touring the country to protest immoral federal budget cuts that harm American kids.
When the federal government cuts funding to programs that serve people in poverty, we see the effects in our daily work. Simply put, real people suffer. That is immoral.
We talk a lot about how paying taxes is the patriotic thing to do. When taxes are what keep millions of...
June 2012
3 posts
Army National Guard Fights the Colorado Wildfires
Flores says he’ll remember the look and smell of smoke, and the sight and feel of searing flames as he operated the cockpit controls—and witnessing all the destruction as he flew in the path of the fire.
Army National Guardsmen from four states have joined the U.S. Forest Service in fighting the wildfires consuming Colorado. Those Black Hawk helicopters are in the air because of your...
Great Idea: The Robin Hood Tax!
If you haven’t heard about the Robin Hood tax, listen up:
This small tax of less than ½ of 1% on Wall Street transactions can generate hundreds of billions of dollars each year in the US alone.
Enough to protect American schools, housing, local governments and hospitals. Enough to pay for lifesaving AIDS medicines. Enough to support people and communities around the world – and deal with...
May 2012
4 posts
Honor the fallen, pay your taxes.
Today is Memorial Day, a day for every American to remember the sacrifice of those who died while serving in the Armed Forces.
For those of us who have not served, it is our duty to “care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” As a taxpayer, you’ve helped provide for the families of the fallen. Tax dollars give Gold Star families monthly...
Tax Win! Rural Dadeville, MO, Gets Clean Drinking...
You have probably never met any of the 234 people that make up the tiny, rural village of Dadeville, Missouri. But thanks to Stimulus funding, those Americans have access to clean drinking water. From the USDA:
“The village received a $390,000 low-interest loan to construct a new standpipe, new pump controller, and a permanent liquid chlorinator. The new water storage and equipment will...
Massachusetts Department of Transportation builds...
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation doesn’t take months to rebuild bridges, or even weeks. They can build a bridge in a single day. Click the pictures to watch the video.
p.s.: Is this New York Times article a little old? Yes. We do our best at IHT, but we can’t always work at government speeds!
The Pro-Tax Consensus
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise — there is very widespread consensus that taxes need to go up, especially on the wealthy. Nearly 4 in 5 Americans want millionaires to pay more in taxes — and that includes two thirds of Mitt Romney supporters.
Check out this graph from the American Panel Survey (pdf). Sure, Obama supporters want to increase taxes more than Romney supporters...
April 2012
8 posts
Stephen King is a tax hero.
Author Stephen King has written a glorious and foul-mouthed rant over at the Daily Beast, and you should read it immediately. Most of it is unprintable in a family blog. Though we mostly try and keep it clean here, IHT is a family blog in the “save public education” sense, not the “fainting at the sight of Anglo-Saxon verbs” sense. So here’s a snippet.
Mitt Romney...
WIN! Congress Stands Up for Tax Fairness,...
Great news! Last summer we reported on certain American companies, including Apple and Microsoft, that were lobbying for a “tax holiday” — a special privilege to bring home profits they’ve squirreled away overseas without having to pay their taxes. Especially with the American economy hurting, skipping out on your taxes is unfair and unpatriotic. As we said at the time:
...
Meet the Teacher of the Year
Every year, some of America’s greatest teachers are honored as part of the Teacher of the Year program. This year’s winner is Rebecca Mieliwocki, who teaches seventh-grade English at Luther Burbank Middle School. As she says, “you will never meet a more hardworking American than a teacher. It’s the best value your tax dollars can get.”
Ms. Mieliwocki knows what she’s...
Hubble Space Telescope: 22 Years of Tax-Funded...
To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 22nd birthday, NASA has released new, amazingly detailed pictures of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy 170,000 light years away:
Hubble pictures aren’t just pretty. They have changed what we know about the universe. Hubble data helped physicists in Maryland and California figure out that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, a...
Tax Patriotism! Thousands Rally for Tax Day
On Tax Day this year, thousands of patriotic Americans held more than 300 rallies across the country to support fair taxation. The message was consistent: we proudly pay our fair share — and so should everyone!
In Rockford, Illinois, taxpayers waved American flags and held pro-tax signs like this one: “Pay Taxes, It’s Patriotic.”
In Pittsburgh, parents rallied at the...
Know Your Grovers
People are pretty angry with Grover. I know what you are wondering — how could anyone not love such a cute and furry monster?
It turns out, there is another Grover, a Mr. Grover Norquist.
It’s an easy mistake to make. But there are ways to distinguish the Grovers. We’ve assembled some important signs so that you can always tell the difference:
Grover the Muppet...
The Tax Party: Everyone's Invited!
There are rumors out there that many people don’t pay taxes! Hogwash! Almost everyone comes to the tax party.
March 2012
2 posts
Tax Patriotism = Good Politics
Check out this article at The American Prospect, on the political windfalls of tax patriotism:
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has been straightforward about raising taxes to maintain the state’s schools and services, which are among the nation’s best. In 2007, he combined tax increases with budget cuts to address structural deficits. O’Malley got re-elected in 2010—a bad year for other...
February 2012
3 posts
FLASHBACK: Taxes Funded the Civilian Conservation...
During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps built 3,470 fire towers and 97,000 miles of fire road, and planted more than three billion trees. When the country was struggling, the CCC’s tax dollars put 2.5 million jobless young men back to work.
Say it with me: Taxes create jobs.
I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Can I get a little help in here? One more...
This Week in Tax Patriotism
Two views of the tax propositions in Obama’s 2013 budget
Taxing wealth like work… sounds like a fair deal!
And… meet the Tax Dodgers!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HONEST ABE!
Abraham Lincoln was president when the IRS was first formed (then called the Bureau of Internal Revenue). America’s first income tax helped win the war and free the slaves. Taxes helped ensure that, as Lincoln put it, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the...
January 2012
5 posts
Christian Parenti Hearts Taxes
A must read article: Christian Parenti, author of the new book Tropic of Chaos, argues that only the federal government has “the capital and capacity” to deal with massive climate disasters.
Consider Hurricane Irene: as it passed through the Northeast, states mobilized more than 100,000 National Guard troops. New York City opened 78 public emergency shelters prepared to house up to...
Tax Pride in the Ocean State
Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse has got tax pride:
I think average Americans see a lot in government that they like: a military that we are proud of, police officers who protect us day and night, child-protection agencies that work to help troubled children and their families. There’s a lot about government in America to be proud of…
As long as people think the tax system is...
This Week in Tax Patriotism
Support for a higher gas tax in Iowa.
To protect public schools, tax increases on the slate in California.
The IRS makes sure millionaires pay their share.
Jared Bernstein explains how progressive taxation could help combat income inequality.
A new campaign to tax Kim Kardashian.
