Labour backbench proposals only serve to distract from huge wealth ...

Over the weekend a number of Labour?s backbench Dail deputies unveiled what they must have considered an audacious proposal to be included in Budget 2013. Their bold idea is that the Universal Social Charge should be increased from 7% of gross salary to 10% for individuals earning over ?100,000 per year and seems to be the only proposition to emerge from the ranks of Labour?s voting fodder within the Coalition government.

Sadly, when it is understood that this proposal would only raise a paltry, extra ?71 million in a year, what strikes most people is, not how audacious these Labour Party members are, but how cringingly accepting of the austerity agenda which dictates that low and middle income earners make the sacrifices to bail out the European financial system while the very wealthy go virtually unscathed. ?71 million is one fifth of one percent of the ?3.5 billion which the Government is to realise through brutal cuts and tax increases in the Budget.

One of the Labour deputies claimed that their proposal ?would make other budget cuts more bearable by sending an important signal that those earning more were paying their share.? Well an adjustment of this tiny fraction wouldn?t make anything more bearable for those who are suffering real pain, especially the unemployed, the low waged and the so called squeezed middle. In any case it is far from a ?fair share? of the bailout burden.

These crusading Labour deputies needn?t look very far for some ideas on how they could propose extra amounts of tax from higher earners and big business that could begin to make a real difference as opposed to a token gesture. In answer to a parliamentary question from myself to the Minister for Finance on October 23, we learn the following: Three new income tax bands at rates of 50% for earners over ?100,000, 60% for earners over ?135,000 and 70% for earners over ?200,000 would yield extra income ?of the order of ?1.1 billion? in 2013.

Another answer on the same day informed me that if corporation tax was raised from 12.5% ? one of the lowest rates in the twenty seven EU Member States ? to 15%, 17.5% or 21.8% extra amounts of income could be realised respectively, of ?675, ?1.35 billion or ?2.5 billion. In supplying these figures the Minister for Finance was extremely defensive and went to the unusual length of prefacing his answer with the admonition that, ?The Taoiseach, myself and other members of the Government have repeatedly expressed the Government?s commitment to the retention of the 12.5% rate.? God forbid that the big multi national corporations were troubled by rumours of a tax rise on their profits in Ireland.

These potential increases in taxes from the wealthier sections of society could be added to by a tax on accumulated wealth of a substantial nature. While the State here has done no scientific auditing of wealth it is possible to divine from the Central Statistics Office data and anecdotal evidence that substantial resources rest with the wealthiest 10% of the population. Of course the government will not even consider making extra demands. At the same time low and middle income workers are being lined up for another hit in the form of the proposed property tax to be announced in the Budget and designed to bring in ?600 million next year.

There is nervousness among the ranks as the leadership of the Labour Party copper fastens its adherence to the Troika demands of more cuts, more taxes on ordinary people and rapid privatisation of State assets. Hence the token proposed USC increase. Judging by the results of a RedC opinion poll published at the weekend, Labour?s vote is in danger of moving in the same direction as that of Fianna Fail and the Green Party at the last General Election. Only 14% of Labour voters see themselves as ?loyal? while a massive 86% pronounced themselves either as ?becoming disillusioned? or ?losing faith?.

Working people across Europe are also getting increasingly disillusioned with the austerity agenda being foisted on them by governments taking exactly the same approach as the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition here. That is borne out graphically by the fact that on November 14 no less than six EU States will see simultaneous general strikes ? Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Malta. Shamefully this has hardly been reported in the capitalist dominated media here. When right wing politicians from Germany or elsewhere pronounce on the necessity of persisting with cruel austerity to bail out their financial system it generates major headlines. This austerity makes countless millions suffer. But when the same millions rise up in anger as on November 14 their voice is deliberately muffled on the European stage. Nevertheless their earnest struggle is the only way to force a change of policy.

CHECK OUT OTHER RELATED ARTICLES:

1. Video: Joe Higgins calls on Government to immediately introduce a wealth tax
2. Joe Higgins questions the Tanaiste on what purpose the Labour Party is supposed to serve
3. Video: Joe Higgins TD puts Taoiseach to the test on Labour?s pre election promises
4. Comment: Austerity Budget will do nothing to stimulate growth but will only serve to hammer the poor and vulnerable
5. Budget 2012: Political decision to attack most vulnerable and leave wealthy relatively untouched

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/joehiggins-eu/~3/Pm8EXA60pyw/

Source: http://www.unitedleftalliance.org/labour-backbench-proposals-only-serve-to-distract-from-huge-wealth-that-exists-in-society/

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