Paul M. - San Ysidro, CA

A Progressive is someone who believes that the state exists to serve the people. The power to tax is the power to destroy. With taxes we determine which segments of society will rise and which shall fall. Right now our country acts so that corporations and the people that own them shall rise and the rest of us shall fall. I believe that a Progressive is someone who acts to reverse this in the most direct way possible - by replacing the income tax (tax on labor) with a wealth tax. A wealth tax would mean that the recipients of corporate welfare would have to use their own money to bribe our Congressmen and Senators. Further, they would have to finance their own welfare since they would be the source of the government’s funds and largesse. It would mean that the oil companies and war profiteers would have to use their own money to steal foreign oil and fight self-serving wars and where is the profit in that? It would mean that defense contractors would have to use their own money to pay themselves to build exorbitantly expensive and largely useless defense systems. Those who are wealthy determine the policies of this country. If they were spending their own money instead of the money of the working class, they would probably act more responsibly. A Progressive is someone who acknowledges that the evils of government and corporate corruption come from spending other people’s money.