Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGame
As for taxes... until people forget about Bush, across the board tax cuts, or any type of cuts for the top 5% will be unpopular. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and accept the popular position on things. If the model of empowering the middle/lower class fails, then that's when you go back and point out how well your old system works. Yes, if you truly believe in 'trickle down' economics, it is a very bad thing to put the economy in danger just to give the people what they want... but there really isn't a choice now, it failed and democrats will play on that until their own system fails.
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The main problem with tax policy is that what makes for great policy makes horrible politics. Example: I'm a strong proponent of a progressive flat tax for income. Every dollar earned up to $35 - 40k is taxed at a low rate, maybe 5%., or not at all. Then every dollar earned above $40k us taxed at 25-30%, and that's that. This way the more you earn, the higher percentage of your income taxed at the higher rate. Someone who earns $50k only have $10k taxed, while someone who earns $140k have $100l taxed. Simple, easy, and no loopholes outside of charitable donations and maybe average home mortgages.
You may say: Well what about the super rich? The super rich don't pay earned income tax; they pay taxes on dividends and capital gains because while they don't work, the money they already earned (and paid income taxes on) does. Now we could tax this at a higher rate, but history shows this not only chases money away from investment (vital to the economy), but it also reduces the revenue derived from these taxes. It's a tricky balance between rates, participation, and revenue.
Now, take the content of those two paragraphs and challenge any politician to explain them in a debate, especially primary debates where you get 30 seconds to create a soundbite for 24/7 news media obsessed with tickling people's ballsacks instead of real news. This is why we get simplistic bullshit like "999" or "pay their fair share".