Let me tell you how it will be There's one for you, nineteen for me 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman Should five per cent appear too small Be thankful I don't take it all 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman If you drive a car, I'll tax the street, If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat. If you get too cold I'll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet. Don't ask me what I want it for If you don't want to pay some more 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman Now my advice for those who die Declare the pennies on your eyes 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman And you're working for no one but me."

These lyrics from the 1966 song by the Beatles, The Taxman, were written by George Harrison after he discovered how much of the band's earnings were being taxed. Harrison discovered that each of the band members were only keeping about 5% of their earnings, so Harrison penned a song that reflects a perception about how it seems that even the act of walking could get taxed by the system.

This lyrical outrage is of course a bit exaggerated but it does speak to an unfair nature of the system. Over the next few weeks the news media, as if does every year at this time, produce stories of how so many Americans are procrastinators when it comes to doing their taxes. The TV stations will run footage of cars lined up in front of the post office waiting to drop off their tax documents or maybe they'll even have a "certified tax specialist" who tells people that it's always best to have a professional do your taxes. Generally that is the extent to "Tax Day" coverage. So what is missing for the news about taxes and tax policy in the US?

According to David Cay Johnston, author of Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit The Super Rich and Cheat Everybody Else, the tax system we have today is only beneficial to the rich and the super rich. It hasn't always been that way and according to Johnston if the US had the same tax structure as we did during the Eisenhower years, the amount of tax money generated from taxing the rich would be enough to eliminate the national debt and more than adequately pay for all existing social programs throughout the country. The major shift of our current tax structure began during the Reagan years and has continued through every administration up to the present, with the Bush II administration getting bi-partisan support to continue this radical restructuring of the country's tax system.

Here is a simple break down of how it works. Huge corporations get major tax breaks so much so that according to the non-partisan group Citizens for Tax Justice the top 275 companies combined received $70 billion is tax breaks for 2003 alone, a number that increased by $10 billion from the year before. For example, a company like AT&T received about $4.5 billion in tax breaks between 2001-2003. Do you think for a moment that AT&T as a company is hurting or that they are lowering their rates to consumers? Most of these companies also receive tax "subsidies," a form of corporate welfare, when they want to set up shop in a new community or expand an existing facility. Local governments even compete to bring corporations to their communities by using as an "incentive," taxpayers money as a way of making their offer sweeter.

A local example would be Smiths Industries Areospace, which in recent years has received at least $6.5 million in tax breaks. Much of what Smiths manufactures are components for military equipment, which means these are Department of Defense contracts. Therefore, taxpayers provide the money for Smith's Industries to make the equipment and additional taxes breaks in order to operate or expand their facilities. Hmmmm, sounds like a form of state socialism doesn't it? Whatever happened to companies making it on their own in "the market place?" I thought that the current push was to make government smaller and not have it fund programs? Maybe it is just social programs the government isn't supposed to fund? Right, cuz it doesn't teach people responsibility. Are George Harrison's word startin' to make more sense, are they ringing in your head?

Now, at the same time big corporations and the rich are getting huge tax breaks, what are the rest of us getting? While more creative images might come to mind, the rest of us are basically getting stuck with the bill. According to Citizen's for Tax Justice "From 2001 to 2006, the typical middle-income American received a tax cut totaling $1,855 per family member (over the 6 years). But that family's share of the added national debt burden was $8,936 per person. This means that the net impact of the Bush fiscal policies on the middle 20 percent was an added burden of $7,081 per person -- or $28,322 for a family of four." In addition to the added burden on most Americans, the current tax structure has also meant additional cuts in social spending by the government. We all know the effects - cuts in housing, education, health care, transportation and environmental protection.

Everyday in the news media there is another story about local municipalities having to cut costs from already trim budgets. The State of Michigan is also faced with a huge budgetary crisis and the political parties argue over how to "balance the budget." Unfortunately, most of the discourse is centered around cutting funding for social programs or changing the tax structure, which means things like taxing hair cuts. In other words, the burden will be put at the feet on working people. Why is there no discussion about the millions of dollars in tax breaks that corporations get in the state of Michigan? Why is there no discussion of how much money is leaving this state to fund the war in Iraq? According to the National Priorities Project, over $11 billion dollars has left Michigan to fund the 4 years of war in Iraq. On a more local level, some $214 million in taxes have left Grand Rapids to fund a war that has left thousands dead, private contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater with billions in profits, and Iraq in a state of chaos.

Former Secretary of State George Schultz, who was also a former CEO of Bechtel, used to have a placard in his office that read "Let them march all they want, as long as they pay their taxes." I don't make it a point to look to people like George Schultz for insight, but in the case he certainly understood what threatens power. Unless there are systematic changes in our economic policy our protests, whether verbal grumblings at the dinner table or in the street are pretty ineffective. We can fight amongst each other for the scraps or we can change the system. Which do you want to do?