In the current climate of United States’ politics, both Democrats and Republicans refuse to hear each other out. While there isn’t a problem in having fundamentally strong beliefs, in order to be heard, people must be willing to listen to others and understand their opinions. This segment of Two Sides of the Same Country explores different political topics and what the two political parties think as well as the reasoning behind each side. 

This week’s topic is taxing the rich. In President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union Address, he pressed for Congress to pass legislation to tax the one percent of billionaires in this country. Taxes have always been a sensitive topic in the United States, as this country was founded on the basis that the national government should not have excessive amounts of power to do whatever it pleases. With that being the case, passing legislation to increase taxes will not ever go over well in the public eye as it has been ingrained in our society that the expansion of taxes is undesirable.

What Democrats have been pushing for years is not the expansion of taxes, but rather making the billionaires pay the same percent of taxes as any other American. For many years the scale of taxes has been unequal because the ultra rich citizens can navigate through many loopholes to get out of paying their fair share. According to financebuzz.com, a website that helps users that delivers information around most subjects surrounding money, some of the top few ways the rich avoid paying taxes is by charitable donations, business expenses, investment income, and trusts. The fact is this: the rich can use many different methods to steer clear of taxes. 

Media that tends to lean Democratic, often oversimplifies the matter, as there are other things to consider as well. The Republicans’ counter argument is that the ultra rich are the ones that control industry and American jobs. Politicians do not want to upset the main economic contributors because when they perform poorly, causing a ricochet of events in the industry world, it reflects badly on the government. Another argument more on the cynical side is that the rich contribute to the politicians’ political campaigns. While this could be viewed as corruption, the cost of political campaigns is climbing higher and higher each year and to survive in the competitive political climate, politicians must pick and choose their battles. 

Living in California surrounded by Democratic views, it is easy to see the unfairness of the inconsistent taxation. With a deeper look, it is clear that this issue is a complex matter as the people representing us in government must consider the effects of their decisions on every part of life, including the economic prosperity of our country as a whole, as well as the unfairness that lies beneath our growing wealth gap.