It seems that every "debate" on the cable talk shows regarding the deficit has the Republican talking about how bad it would be to increase taxes on the "job creators" and the Democrat saying the Republican wants to eliminate Medicare to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. I believe that this is not a very effective strategy for the Democrats and they should stop it.
For starters, despite the fact that "job creators" aren't creating jobs with their tax cuts, it doesn't sound good. Many people believe that the definition of the American Dream means that one day they will be the "job creators" and they will want those tax cuts when that happens. Secondly, and it is basically the same reason, they hope to be the millionaires and billionaires who's taxes the Democrats are proposing increasing.
This violates a fundamental sense of fairness among us, and there is a better way.
Let us stipulate that equal protection under the law is a fundamental American value. If that is so, then taxing one person more than another is antithetical to that value. As the Republicans put it, we are penalizing success. Here's a radical idea: Let us not tax people at all.
Rand Paul's ears perked up there. I'm not as crazy as I sometimes claim to be (it makes a good defense). The truth is that we do not tax people. We tax the money they make. It is the basis of the progressive income tax system we have. Remember, we have to treat all people the same.
So, we tax the first "X" dollars everyone makes at 10%, the next "Y" amount at 15% and so on, up to a maximum amount of 35%. Actual rates can bee found at this link: http://taxes.about.com/...
In the past, that maximum has been as high as 90%, but nobody was paying 90% of their salary in taxes. We are not talking about that high level of taxation either.
Under President Clinton, the highest marginal rate was 39.6%. Currently, it is 35%. Since the talking point has been "millionaires and billionaires," let's stay there. In our effort to effectively pay for the responsibilities of government (i.e, paying for our armed forces, maintaining our roads, preventing disasters and cleaning up the ones we can't, et al), we are going to tax that second million dollars and beyond at a slightly higher rate.
Is it such a bad thing to ask someone to pay an $40,000 more for their second million than their first?