People today are scared to death someone will raise their taxes. As it is, most of us can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart. We certainly can’t afford a tax increase.

Liberals haven’t been able sell the idea that investment in a good society pays dividends to us all. We don’t think about how much money we’d save with national health insurance or if government helped out more with college tuition. Few think what it would be like if we didn’t have to dip into our savings to support aging parents. We forget about the hidden costs of not investing in preventing crime or pollution. And most don’t imagine how increased support for small businesses or job training might transform our lives. “Tax and spend. Tax and spend,” chant the conservatives.

Oddly at the same time, conservatives have gotten people to believe borrowing money on the national debt to give huge tax cuts to the rich will stimulate the economy. It’s easy to understand why the rich would favor such a theory. They get their money up front. For them, it’s no gamble. But why would the rest of us go along? It’s been almost 25 years and we’re still waiting for it to pay off.

The rich now pay less than half the taxes they paid in 1980. That’s right, their taxes have been cut by more than 50%. And when you calculate after tax income for the rich while adjusting for inflation, you find their incomes increased more than 2 1/2 times in less than twenty years. Most of that increase came from tax payers borrowing money on the national debt to finance huge tax cuts for them.

Under President Reagan, 1/3 of every tax dollar went to pay interest on the national debt. In other words, without that debt, we could have lowered everyone’s taxes by 33% and not had to cut any services. By 2000, the average American was working (100) hours more a year than they had been when the giveaway to the rich began in 1981. Since the 1980’s, many middle class families have had to put another family member to work just to stay afloat. Nevertheless, between 1979 and 1997, household income for middle class families has only increased 10% or by $3,400. That’s compared to the top 1% who’s after tax income has increased 157% when adjusted for inflation -- a whopping $414,000 extra a year. Keep in mind, that’s mostly due to tax breaks. And that’s all before George W. Bush put into effect his tax cut which was largest in the history of civilization. It overwhelmingly favored those in the top 1%. To put that in perspective, the top 1% are people whose already had incomes in excess of $1 million a year.

The great tax fraud in history is going on right before our eyes. Politicians stand up straight faced and say it right out loud: “Middle Class Tax Cuts.” It’s all a high stakes con game. With so much money at stake, they throw all sorts of fancy statistics at you to create that illusion. In truth, most of the money goes to the rich. However, spin doctors work full time trying to mask what’s really going on. The real agenda is pretty simple: Tax cuts for the rich. Lies for everyone else.

Unless you know the tricks, it’s hard to see through the smoke and mirrors and spot the con. This book will show you how.

Strapped for cash, working families welcomed the $300 or $600 tax rebates George W. Bush sent out after he took office. Few noticed (and I don’t think anyone in the news media reported) that he borrowed money on the national debt in our name to send them out. It was one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time. And few noticed that he also borrowed enough money on the national debt to give the average rich person an extra $69.000 each.

If we taxed incomes over $1 million a year at the same rate as we did in 1977, we’d have an additional $200 billion. To put that in perspective, $60 billion would pay for college tuition for every student in America. Health care for everyone can be purchased for less than that. We need to think about what our priorities are.

We’ve created a winner-take-all social arrangement where those who make it to the top pull the ladder up after themselves. Some talk about what a wonderful country this is and how “Only in America” could they have been able to make it. Then, when it comes tax time, they don’t want to pay their dues.

We need a honest conversation about who pays, who gets, and how we spend our money. The hard truth is that social problems call for social answers. While some things are a waste of money, some things pay for themselves may times over. Investing in society pays dividends. We need to ask: What works and what doesn’t?