I am on the populist band wagon and in 2017 I "understand" making "the rich" pay a higher %...However, asking ANYONE to pay more than 20-25% of their income to the gov't is extortion. And furthermore, we need to define "the rich". My wife and I together make over 6 figures...we are nothing more than gnats in this economy. Even the DEMOCRAT Mary Landrieu criticized Biden & Obama for saying anyone over 200k is "rich" and they should revise that to be a million...in my mind, the upper middle class extends well into the 6 figure mark. The upper middle class may have a higher living standard, but they still work and are not independently wealthy.
What the republicans are doing is going TO THE LEFT of Obama and saying anyone married w/ kids over 100k is rich. That's bull-sheet; especially w/ inflation. They could at least knock it back up to 250k...that would save the upper end of the Trump base and not piss off so many people. In my mind, (although I'll probably never be there myself), the upper middle class can be 250k-500k easily. The real "rich" are those who can influence policy or an election...those are the ones who need more scrutiny, not the working class, middle class.
The tax rates should probably be something like this (for an individual tax return, corporate would be diff but similar in structure):
0-30k - 0%
30k-100k - 2.5%
100k-250k - 5%
250k-500k - 7.5%
500k-1million - 10%
1million-2.5million - 12.5%
2.5million-5million - 15%
5million-7.5million - 17.5%
7.5million-10million - 20%
and perhaps above 10million - 25%???
Then eliminate a lot of the loop holes and crap to simplify the tax code and stop wasting tax money on various things like we see in Coburn's annual tax report.
Then you could file 1-page tax returns in most cases...this plan should satisfy LIBERALS because the "rich" pay a higher % and we eliminate some of the loop holes, and the poor & middle class pay much lower rates. This plan should satisfy CONSERVATIVES because the rates are a cut and more fair.
The % and brackets are up for discussion but this is just an example of something I've thought for a while now that nobody in the swamp has tried...essentially a progressive flat tax w/ some deductions still on the books. Instead, the republicans want to hurt middle class families w/ kids and mortgages by moving to the left and saying anyone over 90-100k is the rich.
What the republicans are doing is going TO THE LEFT of Obama and saying anyone married w/ kids over 100k is rich. That's bull-sheet; especially w/ inflation. They could at least knock it back up to 250k...that would save the upper end of the Trump base and not piss off so many people. In my mind, (although I'll probably never be there myself), the upper middle class can be 250k-500k easily. The real "rich" are those who can influence policy or an election...those are the ones who need more scrutiny, not the working class, middle class.
The tax rates should probably be something like this (for an individual tax return, corporate would be diff but similar in structure):
0-30k - 0%
30k-100k - 2.5%
100k-250k - 5%
250k-500k - 7.5%
500k-1million - 10%
1million-2.5million - 12.5%
2.5million-5million - 15%
5million-7.5million - 17.5%
7.5million-10million - 20%
and perhaps above 10million - 25%???
Then eliminate a lot of the loop holes and crap to simplify the tax code and stop wasting tax money on various things like we see in Coburn's annual tax report.
Then you could file 1-page tax returns in most cases...this plan should satisfy LIBERALS because the "rich" pay a higher % and we eliminate some of the loop holes, and the poor & middle class pay much lower rates. This plan should satisfy CONSERVATIVES because the rates are a cut and more fair.
The % and brackets are up for discussion but this is just an example of something I've thought for a while now that nobody in the swamp has tried...essentially a progressive flat tax w/ some deductions still on the books. Instead, the republicans want to hurt middle class families w/ kids and mortgages by moving to the left and saying anyone over 90-100k is the rich.