A modest tax proposal

[n2doc]

The RW'ers are always fond of pointing out how the rich pay most of the income taxes in this country. There is another fool writing in the seattle PI today on this, and (while lying about where the upper 10% tax bracket starts) mention that the lower 50% of tax payers only pay 3.5 percent of the dollar amount collected in income taxes. Well that got me thinking. Why not eliminate ALL income taxes on the lower 50% if it is such a small amount by raising the taxes on the top 1% by a similar (almost unnoticeable to them) amount? Somehow this makes a lot more sense to me than repealing a tax (e.g. the estate tax) that affects the top 1% only and making the lower 50% cover more debt.

Seems like it would be a progressive winner, even to the idiots that have been duped into thinking that they will be a part of the upper 1% someday.

Biggest issue would be if the rich left the country, but the tax structure could be set so that those that gain the most would be peanalized for leaving. And frankly, they didn't leave back when taxes on the rich were in the 50% range in the 80's.

[pansypoo53219]

1. don't forget FICA

if we eliminated the top level the fed could FICA tax, we could probably save SS for the future AND reduce the total %.

[Lib Grrrrl]

2. Fuck!! You Are A GENIUS!! K&R!!!

Hey, yeah...if it is SUCH a small amount, then they won't mind covering it for me, now would they?

[ima_sinnic]

3. the wealthy tax dodgers are greedy pigs who wouldn't give you a

dime, let alone pay your measly tax burden. They act like they would be dead without that extra few billion that even their children's children would not live long enough to spend. The fact that they oppose the estate tax is proof enough of that. They have NO concept of the "common good" or one iota of appreciation for the working stiffs on whose backs their scumbag fortunes are made.

eat the rich.

[n2doc]

4. Oh, you are right

But the point is, they complain about paying so much and the rest paying "so little". So let us turn this on its head for a change. Actually, just by closing some loopholes we could probably raise enough to cover the proposed change without any changes in the "official" rates! Even better- one could spin this as the "tax law simplification and relief act of 2007"- the second plank (after investigating Bushco) for the new Democratic majority to stand on.