The More Things Change

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

Rich people hate to pay taxes and they really hate for the public to know how little they pay. A few well-placed “campaign contributions” to their Republican friends in Congress and that problem is solved.

Supposed Billionaire Donald Trump paid all of $750 in Federal income taxes for each of two years when he was president. The public will never know how little he paid in 2021, but this is nothing new.

The 1924 Federal Income Tax Publicity Law made individual and corporate tax returns public. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was America’s biggest taxpayer that year coughing up $7.4 million ($123 million today) to the Treasury. Henry Ford was #2 at $2.5 million ($41 million today). It is no wonder that the Rockefellers stashed their profits in Chicago’s Rockefeller University or that the Ford Foundation became their tax shelter.

To hide chicanery, the Rockefeller and Fords of the country pressured Congress to pass a law making tax returns private in 1926. Chicanery was revealed when tax returns were public. William Wrigley of chewing gum fame paid $865 K in Federal income taxes in 1923. Wrigley “wriggled” into a few “tax breaks” in 1924 and paid only $3 K. When this was revealed, the public was irate ( a great Wordle starting word by the way). Wrigley made damn sure that his Congressman voted for the Tax Return Privatization Law.

Since the Rockefeller, Fords, and Wrigleys had Congress in the palm of their hand anyway, the 1926 law not only guaranteed anonymity but reduced the maximum income tax rate from 40% to 25%. By the way, a certain retired couple residing in PA pays a higher rate than that today. I’m surprised they didn’t push through a few Supreme Court nominations while they were at it.

Tax cuts for the rich did not begin with Trump and Reagan. It began almost one hundred years ago with Calvin Coolidge. “The more they remain the same.”