Sun, 31 Aug 2003 13:56:26 GMT

Tax the rich the same as the average people, Camejo says

Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo on Thursday unveiled one of the recall campaign's most detailed and liberal proposals, one he contended would lift California out of its budget morass.

Camejo, who heads an investment brokerage firm he founded, called for strikingly higher income tax rates on Californians who earn more than $500,000 a year, changing Proposition 13 to allow reappraisals of many corporate properties and tax cuts for low-wage earners.

“We have a crisis,” Camejo said. “At least (the wealthy) should pay what the average person pays, and that would balance the budget.”

Heck, maybe the rich need to be taxed even more than the average person…

Disparity in wealth is killing democracy, scholar warns

One scholar argues that representative democracy is effectively dead ö done in by the biggest shift of income and assets to the super-wealthy since the 1920s.

“President Bush's tax cuts increased the political power of the richest Americans,” says Walter Williams, University of Washington professor emeritus of public affairs. “Their gains fueled the huge increase in campaign contributions and made big money the driving force in national politics.”

[Politics in the Zeros]