The "Mayonnaise" Sandwich
By William Bailey (01/03/03)
When I was growing up and we were either short on food OR we were in that awkward period at the end of one grocery-buying time, but before another one . . . on indicating that we were hungry, my Mother (God love her and rest her soul) would suggest that we go fix ourselves a mayonnaise sandwich. For those who aren't familiar with this "gourmet" delight . . . it's two pieces of bread with mayonnaise. No meat, no tomato, no lettuce, just bread and mayonnaise. Looking back on that time, it also reminded me of the funny and very popular TV commercial of a few years back where the short, elderly, gray-haired lady would show up at a hamburger place and, on being provided her order, would ask, "Where's the beef ?".
And, about now, I guess some of you are wondering . . . "Where in the world is he headed with this one ?"
I have come to the conclusion that what we have going on in our Federal government is akin to a "mayonnaise" sandwich . . . bread and mayonnaise. No substantial filler.
We seem to have come to a point in both government and time where the answer to any problem is . . . throw more money at it. Well, as I believe time has shown, this approach (without some filler in the sandwich) is sheer folly. The main result that occurs is that the tax bite on the citizens of this country just keeps getting more and more . . . and, we don't seem to be solving the problems that confront us.
You can, almost, name the area . . . public education; environment; law enforcement; and on and on and on. The allocation and appropriation of funds keeps going up and up and up, but no solution ever seems to take place. And, unfortunately, this situation has little, if any, relationship to which political party happens to be in power at the time. It seems to have become a "mindset" . . . a "way of life".
While data is always dry (and boring) let me share just a bit of it with you so that you can quickly see what's been happening to taxes. This data comes from a report entitled "New Study Profiles Total Tax Burden of Median American Family", dated March 9, 200, and issued by the non-profit, non-partisan organization, the Tax Foundation. An organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937.
Here we go . . .
In 1955, the median income for a two-earner family was $5,477 with a Federal income tax liability of $479 and state/local taxes of $178. . . total, $999. By 1975, median income for the same category had grown to $17,410 with the Federal income tax liability reaching $1,815 and state/local taxes rising to $1,527, total . . . $5,609. In 1998 (the last year the report references) the median income had reached $68,605; the Federal income tax $6,083; state/local taxes $8,996 . . . total, $26,759. Please note that, included in the total(s) are both the employee and the employer's "Payroll Taxes" along with a "catch-all" category labeled, "other federal taxes".
Total taxes as a percentage of income went from 18.2%, in 1955, to 30.5% in 1975, to 39.0% in 1998. Again, all of the data refers to two-earner incomes.
When you look at the data in light of the premise that we seem to be following the direction of "forget a solution", just "throw more money at it", one could quickly come to the conclusion that we're buying a lot of bread and mayonnaise and not much filler.
The problem areas identified earlier will not solve themselves nor will a solution be found in the simple exercise of throwing dollars at the problem(s). At some point, sometime, somebody is going to have to get rid of rhetoric and platitudes and start dealing with finding solutions.
Wonder if the new Congress is up to the task ?
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