Oregon Soaks the Fat Boys

“You wanna know what my platform is? Here it is. I’m gonna soak the fat boys and spread it out thin.”

~Willie Stark, “All the King’s Men”

Props to the state of Oregon for approving Measures 66 and 67 on Tuesday, which will slightly increase taxes on corporations and households earning more than $250,000 a year. The state is facing a $733 million budget deficit this year, so the passage of these measures ensures that key funding for health care, education  and public safety remains. The campaign to pass the measures was apparently spearheaded by the organization Vote Yes for Oregon, a coalition of community organizations, labor unions and businesses. “Oregon voters said ‘no’ to more 4-day school weeks and bulging class sizes and ‘yes’ to corporations and the wealthy paying their fair share,” said one of the coalition’s members.

It seems like we’re always looking for new solutions to our problems, but I’m realizing more and more that old solutions are actually still pretty solid, like taxing the rich, “soaking the fat boys.” We don’t tax the richest 1-2% enough, and especially not the corporations that they control. Going a step further, if we moved away from focusing solely on income and started taxing actual wealth, like they do in a lot of other countries, some economists project that the United States could raise up to an extra $450 billion a year. That extra money could go a long way towards investing in education, health care and alternative energy.

I hope that other states, as well as the federal government, look to Oregon as a model and try to pass similar measures.