How Heavily Should The Rich Be Taxed? February 1, 2023January 31, 2023 “America’s wealthy used to pay taxes to support the nation,” writes former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. “Now, they lend it money and collect interest from the rest of us.” It is, he says . . . The Biggest Story You’ve Never Heard About Today’s Federal Debt It’s always the same when Republicans take over a chamber of Congress or the presidency. Horrors! The debt is out of control! Federal spending must be cut! Not only is the story false, but it leaves out the bigger and more important story behind today’s federal debt: the switch by America’s wealthy over the last half century from paying taxes to the government to lending the government money. This back story needs to be told if Americans are to understand what’s really happened and what needs to be done about it. Republicans won’t tell it, so Democrats (starting with Joe Biden) must. A half century ago, American’s wealthy financed the federal government mainly through their tax payments. Tax rates on the wealthy were high: Under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, they were over 90 percent. Even after all tax deductions, the wealthy typically paid half of their incomes in taxes. Since then — courtesy of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump — the effective tax rate on wealthy Americans has plummeted. Even as they’ve accumulated unprecedented wealth, today’s rich are now paying a lower tax rate than middle-class Americans. (The 400 richest American families paid a tax rate of just 3.4 percent between 2014 and 2018, while the rest of us paid an average tax rate of 13.3 percent.) One of the biggest reasons the federal debt has exploded is that tax cuts on wealthier Americans have reduced government revenue. . . . The wealthy used to pay higher taxes to the government. Now the government pays the wealthy interest on their loans to finance a swelling debt that’s been caused largely by lower taxes on the wealthy. This means that a growing portion of your taxes are going to the wealthy in the form of interest payments, rather than paying for government services everyone needs. So, the real problem isn’t America’s growing federal budget deficit. It’s the decline in tax revenue from America’s wealthy combined with growing interest payments to them. Both are worsening America’s already horrific inequalities of income and wealth. What should be done? Reduce the debt by raising taxes on the wealthy. This back story needs to be told. Please spread the word. Jury selection in the first of two ParkerVision trials against Intel begins tomorrow. Here is how the trial is set to proceed: IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS WACO DIVISION PARKERVISION, INC., Plaintiff, -vs- INTEL CORPORATION, Defendant. § 6:20-CV-00108-ADA NOTICE OF TRIAL PROCEDURES In anticipation of the upcoming jury trial, the Court notifies the parties of the following trial procedures. I. GENERAL TRIAL PROCEDURES A. Jury Selection Jury Selection will begin at 9:00AM, February 2, 2023, in Courtroom #3 in the United States District Court, 800 Franklin, Waco, Texas 76701. Judge Manske will conduct voir dire and hold a pre-voir dire conference as indicated in a separate order. Seven jurors will be selected for this trial. Each party will have four peremptory strikes. The Court will provide the parties an opportunity to do a general and individual voir dire at the Court’s discretion. The Court will provide the parties with a diagram of the room that identifies the jurors and their seat assignments. B. Trial Trial will begin at 9:00AM, February 6, 2023, in Courtroom #1 in the United States District Court, 800 Franklin, Waco, Texas 76701. The parties shall jointly provide notebooks to the jurors on the first day of trial before the trial begins. The notebooks shall be provided to a Court staff, who will deliver the notebooks to the jurors. Each party will have 12 hours of trial time. Each party’s first 30 minutes of opening arguments and first 30 minutes of closing arguments will not be counted towards the party’s allocated trial time. A party may not reserve trial time for closing—30 minutes is the limit. Trial should be complete on Friday (four days) and may require earlier start and later end times each day, as the Court deems necessary. There will be no bench conferences in the presence of the jury during trial. If necessary, the Court may take a short recess from the trial to conduct any bench conferences and resolve any issues in the absence of the jury. If a party raises a dispute for the Court to resolve outside the presence of the jury, that time will count towards the party against whom the Court resolves such issue. The parties shall use electronic exhibits for any exhibit displayed and/or given to the jury, unless providing or displaying an exhibit electronically is impractical or restricted under the protective order. For the sake of clarity, any witness, counsel, staff, and the Court may each have his or her own set of physical exhibits. However, physical exhibits will not be passed to the jury absent approval by the Court. C. Audio Access for the Public Although seating will remain available to the public in the courtroom, a webinar feed will be made available to the public. The public is permitted to listen to the trial proceedings by telephone. Any individuals who are interested in observing the trial by telephone may use the following information to observe the trial proceeding: One tap mobile : US: +16692545252,,1609668354#,,,,*383575# or +16468287666,,1609668354#,,,,*383575# Webinar ID: 160 966 8354 Passcode: 383575 Recording of the proceedings in any way is not permitted. D. Video Access for Party-Affiliated Individuals [none of us is such an individual] E. Remote Participation Decorum [but if we were, we should dress and conduct ourselves appropriately, as if we were in court] IT IS SO ORDERED. SIGNED this 24th day of January, 2023. ALAN D ALBRIGHT UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE For PRKR shareholders, it’s show time.