Rebecca Wilkins

I’ve just survived my first mid-life career change. After twenty-some years as a CPA, I went back to law school and graduated this past May. So while I have many reasons to support the Obama/Biden ticket, there are two hot-button issues for me: the Supreme Court and taxes.

During law school I paid a lot more attention to the U.S. Supreme Court. And it was truly frightening. During the past two terms, after Justices Roberts and Alito joined the bench, the Supreme Court has cavalierly disposed of years of legal precedent. And their decisions are alarmingly anti-women.

In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, the Supreme Court said it was too late for Lily Ledbetter to file a discrimination suit after receiving twenty years’ worth of paychecks as much as 40% lower than men in the same jobs. The Court said Ledbetter should have filed her lawsuit within 180 days of receiving her first discriminatory paycheck, twenty years ago! (Do you think she knew then?) Sen. Obama co-sponsored a bill to overturn the Supreme Court decision. The bill passed the House, but fell short of the votes needed for Senate consideration by four votes. McCain, on the campaign trail, did not vote, but said he opposed the bill.

In another very disturbing case, Gonzales v. Carhart, the Court upheld the federal partial-birth abortion ban, even though it had no health exception for the mother. The procedure cannot be used even if continuing the pregnancy would put the mother in a vegetative state, keep her from getting cancer treatment, or destroy her ability to have any future children. Justice Ginsburg, dissenting in Carhart, warned that the Court’s decision threatened to erase 40 years of progress in women’s ability to participate fully in our democracy, and reminded us that women’s ability to realize their full potential is "intimately connected to their ability to control their reproductive lives."

Our next President will appoint at least one, possibly two or more Supreme Court Justices. While we will live with the policies of our next President for four or eight years, we will live with the results of the Supreme Court nominations for generations.

And so I won’t bore you with taxes, I offer only one example. Since the 2003 Bush tax cuts, which McCain supports extending, a single person making $45,000 pays $5,500 in federal income tax if the $45,000 is from wages (and that doesn’t include payroll taxes). But if the $45,000 in income is from capital gains and dividends (a person living off their wealth), the federal tax burden is only $2,250. Yes, you got it—the trust fund baby pays half as much tax as the working mom—the nurse, the firefighter, the teacher. The working person, at every income level, pays roughly twice as much federal income tax as someone living off their assets (at income of $300,000 the difference in tax is $35,000).

And this unfairness continues at retirement. If your retirement income is from retirement plans, like your 401(k), that you saved while working, you will pay twice as much federal income tax as someone living off dividends and capital gains.

The worst part is that this tax policy dramatically widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The person earning $45,000 in dividends and capital gains, who already owns substantial assets, has $2,250 more to invest at the end of the year because of the lower tax bill.

I could go on…but I’m sure you’re glad I won’t. But it is beyond me how anyone who cares about women’s rights, or any working person, can support the McCain/Palin ticket.