Forbes Turns Millionaires into Victims

Leave it Forbes to express discontent on a minimal tax increase on NBA players

My friend Howard shared an article from Forbes Tuesday morning that made me angry… And I don’t like being angry before nine, especially without coffee. The Forbes piece bemoaned the possible minimal tax increase for NBA players due to Obamacare.

Oh cry me a river. Last year, my husband and I discovered our combined tax rate was higher than Mitt Romney’s. Forbes is going to be hard pressed if they want me to feel sorry for a guy who bounces a ball around a court and makes $50 million a year for his “effort.” What I found interesting (or extremely funny, depending on how you think) is the link to another Forbes article in the first paragraph.

That article is all about math. The interesting/funny thing is where the writer gets her math. She gets it from Americans for Tax Reform, the group founded by Grover Norquist. You know, the guy who wants to shrink the government, put it in a bathtub and drown it? That Grover Norquist.

Let me be perfectly honest here. I don’t care if my taxes go up a smidgen to help a single mom take her kid to the doctor. I don’t care if by raising my taxes a hair, a man who may be diabetic can visit a physician and get the help he needs. What I do care about is my taxes subsidizing General Electric, Walmart or Halliburton. I care that I pay more taxes because the wealthy in America don’t have to.

I also don’t mind paying taxes to help the elderly, the disabled, the working poor and helping kids to eat. I want to live in a country where our taxes go to help people who desperately need it, not giant corporations who pay little to no taxes year after year after year. In a perfect world, there would be a section on the bottom of our tax forms asking us where we’d like our money to go. My husband and I would check the boxes for SNAP, Medicaid, the Affordable Healthcare Act and veterans.

We sure as hell wouldn’t check the box that read “Defend DOMA,” or the box for “GE needs your tax dollars,” or “Mitt Romney needs a new car elevator.” Wouldn’t it be nice to elect representatives in 2014 who feel the same way? People who aren’t wholly owned by the Koch brothers, defense contractors and corporate America?

Here’s a little more anger. If the same people who sat on their asses in 2010 do it again in 2014, we will never have nice things. Ever. We will have another two years of the obstruction, of $50 million wasted with Republicans trying to overturn Obamacare. We will have more anti-choice bills, no new gun laws, the rich will get richer and the rest of us will just fade away.

But thank goodness, Forbes and the right wing are looking out for NBA players, because lord knows, if anything ever happened to basketball in America, it would be the end of civilization. Screw the poor and the middle class, low cost or free health care is for France, Kobe Bryant needs to keep his millions of dollars safe so he can create jobs!