The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-11-02
Reactionary Congress Will Mean Thai
Workers Will Pay Most Of New Taxes

Detroit (LPA) If the peopl
stay home Nov. 7 and a reaction
ary Congress is elected, the peopl'
will pay at least So billion of th'
1910 billion in new taxes. Thos'
with an income of $40 a week ant
under will be hit five times as hare
as the Oct. / tax increase hit them
That is the analysis of the Unit
ed Automobile Workers, which say
that at stake in the election is th'
question of who will pay the $1(
billion in new taxes-high income
individuals and corporations mos
able to pay, or low income indivi
duals least able to pay.
"If Liberals elect a strong maj
ority in the 82nd Congress-, say:
the article, we will get a tax law
based on ability to pay. If the can
didates backed by the Nationa
Association of Manufacturers win
the nation will get "spare the
rich and soak the poor" tax law.
Adoption of the NAM tax pro.
posals, says the article, will near
$3.50 a year in additional income
and federal sales taxes-on top OF
the increase which went into effect
Oct. 1.-for families of auto work.
ers and others in the same wage
bracket.
The NAM opposes an excess pro-
fits tax, and said in an article ir
its NAM News Sept. 80 that "Poli-
tics and November Elections HOLD
the Key to Excess Profits Propos-
ais" The NAM wants to substitute
for an excess profits tax a three
stage tax program: A federal sales
tax; a super sales tax which will
be labelled a defense tax; and a cut
in personal income tax exemption
from 5000 to $500.
The Auto Worker gives figures
to illustrate what will happen tC
the $40 paycheck under the NAM
proposal. A married man with two
children, making $40 a week, was
nicked each week $500 in with
holding tax, before Oct. l. After
that it went up to $3.50 a week. If
the NAM program to soak the low
bracket taxpayers is added, the
weekly Withholding will be $3.50.
But to do it that way would
show you how much you were being
taken for. That's why the NAM
wants hidden tax-the sales tax.
So the same $40 a week man with
two children would still have $3.50
a week withheld; but the sales tax
would come to $5.25, for a total of
$8.75 a week, an increase of $50
percent in his weekly tax. (These
sales taxes would not show up as
a deduction from the weekly pay
check, so you might be fooled.)
Now, as to what happens if the
NAM proposal to reduce the per-
sonal exemption in income tax from
$500 to $500 is put over. The same
man, married, two children, MAX
ing $40 a week, now has a with
holding tax of $3.50 a week: If the
exemption were lowered to $500,
the Withholding weekly would be
$5.05, an increase of S1.55 a week,
or "A percent. This change in the
tax law would not only soak lower
bracket incomes hard and leave
upper bracket incomes unchanged,
but it would hit hardest the fam
lilies with children.
Under the present law (the 20
percent increase which went in eff
feet Oct. -, taxpayers with income
under $500 a year are being taxed
at the wartime rate, whereas the
upper income taxpayers are not.
"a liberal Congress will put
5hese people on the wartime rates
Just as the 81st Congress did to the
people with lower incomes, says|
he Auto Worker. "That onel
change will raise So billions in new
axes, even at the levels of 1850. Ifl
Incomes are higher in 1851 it will
'aise more.
"Another $5 billion and more can
md should be raised by increasing
taxes to the wartime
ate Of 81 percent and again levy-l
ng of the wartime excess profits
ak.
"Another So billion can be OBJ
aimed by closing eight tax loop
loles, including three new ones
pened by the 81st Congress-"
In this way, by applying single
tandard of sacrifice all along the
me, the needed so billion in new
axes could be raised without in
reasing the taxes of low income
above the war-time
evels now in force for them and
hon, a1one saws the AutO Worker |