Until the recent crop of radical, far left Democrat hopefuls started piling into the 'I'm running for potus 2020' clown car, the punditry about tax rates was obscured in platitudes and sound bites for obvious reasons. 'Tax n spend liberal' used to be a political pejorative. But lately, it appears to be a resume enhancement for the radical left of the Democrat party.
"The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." - Will Rogers
Let's talk tax rates. "How high is high enough?" Give me a number. The response is typically, "The wealthy need to start paying their fair share." As if Leftists get to grant themselves the authority to self-appoint and make that determination for society.
Define 'fair.' Give me a number. 50%? 60%? During the 1990's, the Clinton administration commissioned a tax rate study that extrapolated tax rates out to 100%. Their conclusion? One hundred percent taxation can only happen once - because after that no one will produce anything if the government simply confiscates it all.
Forty-five percent taxation is generally agreed as the point of diminishing returns. Why be very productive if the government simply confiscates most of it? More importantly, where did this ideology of avarice about other people's money arise? And why am I disparaged as greedy for wanting to keep more of my money, but the government isn't judged as greedy for wanting ever more tax dollars?
Since the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913, we've had a graduated income tax on all earned income. In 1914, the lowest rate was 1% for under $20k, and 7% for over $500k. The federal government revenue that year was $725 million.
For Fiscal Year 2019, the OMB estimates U.S. government's total revenue to be $3.422 trillion, plus a $600 billion deficit. That's a far cry from 1914. So, who pays? The top one percent income earners pay 39% of all income taxes. Is that fair? The top 20% of income earners pay 87% of all income taxes. How is that fair? The bottom 45% pay zero, zip, nyet, nada of all income taxes, and in fact, frequently have a 'positive tax situation' where the federal government uses our tax dollars to pay them money via credits. That's a perverse definition of 'fair.' Shouldn't all citizens should be treated equally under the law with a uniform flat rate? That sounds fair.
Yet still, the radical, far Left demand 'the wealthy need to start paying their fair share.' Again: How high is high enough? Give me a number. Mike LaChance at Legal Insurrection writes a very blunt headline as a clue: 'Democrat 2020 Hopefuls Already Competing for Who Wants the Highest Tax Rates'
“Repealing the trillion-dollar-plus Trump giveaway to the superrich and giant corporations is becoming the new floor for what Democrats will be pushing for on taxes,” said Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee…"
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump lowered both personal and corporate tax rates, among other tweaks to the tax code. This sparked an economic boom in 2018.
But Democrats ain't having any of that, and pine away for the good 'ol days: "Julian Castro, an Obama administration Cabinet official who has announced a testing-the-waters presidential committee, quickly jumped on the bandwagon by telling ABC News that it’s time the wealthy be tapped for their “fair share.” (Castro has since officially announced - DK)
“There was a time in this country where the top marginal tax rate was over 90 percent,” Mr. Castro said in praising Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s vision. “Even during Reagan’s era in the 1980s, it was around 50 percent.”"
This is true, but no one paid that percentage. These mendacious politicos conveniently leave out the 40,000 page IRS ‘loophole’ leviathan constructed by the ‘Lobbyists/Accountant’ industry to combat the government’s assault upon private income & wealth. The typical response by Democrats will utilize platitudes and sound bites to rant against the ‘loophole’ leviathan because 'it doesn't pay its fair share.' Yet, human nature dictates that when a thief attempts to pick your pocket, you defend against the robbery.
It's a brave new political world in 2019. The recent crop of radical, far left Democrat hopefuls have come out of the clown car. They openly proclaim a 90% confiscation rate by the federal government. 'Tax n spend liberal?' They don't care. And they have a constituency.
These bold pronouncements by this new crop of radical, far left Democrat hopefuls are simply a DOG WHISTLE to reassure their base that the fundamental transformation of the federal government into a machine powerful enough to take away almost all income from earners is still on-track.
After that, fundraising! Because they can't confiscate $$$ - yet.