isn't it fairly obvious that the top marginal tax rates have to go UP...?

[dysfunctional press]

appreciably.

ronbo raygun slashed the rates, and said that it would increase prosperity so much for everyone, that revenues would be more than enough to keep the country running.

but the revenues never materialized, and we've been living on borrowed money and accounting tricks ever since.

and now our trick bag is pretty much empty, and we've dug ourselves a hole that we can't borrow our way out of.

the 'wealth gap' has become a chasm, and fewer and fewer people who want to cross it are able to.

the money and the wealth IS there...or rather here- in our own country.

with cities and states going broke- having to cut services and sell resources- isn't it time that we re-tap some of that wealth by going back to tax rates that worked...?

[Wapsie B]

1. He slashed the rates for some but took away the personal interest deduction.

That's a significant tax increase by itself.

[stray cat]

2. actually they have to go up across the board

[Warpy]

6. Actually, they don't.

Income taxes were never meant to rely on the sweat of one's brow and were never meant to cut into subsistence for the poorest. With 40% of OASDI contributions being robbed and used in the General Fund, that's exactly what Reagan and his followers did to us.

What we need to do is create a much more progressive system, with tax rates going to near confiscatory levels for obscene incomes over, say, five million. One thing you can say about the progressive income tax with a top marginal rate of 90%, it provided a disincentive to executive greed until first Kennedy and then Reagan decreased it.

Nearly all of Stupid's budget deficits can be traced to one thing: his reckless tax cuts that disproportionately favored the obscenely rich. Simply allowing those tax cuts to sunset might slow the deficits but we need to reverse them. Hiking taxes on the favored class is the way to do that.

They stole it. Now they need to give it back.

[DJ13]

3. What we really need is an increase in capital gains taxes

The wealthiest make most of their money on speculative investments.

A higher cap gains tax would also significantly reduce the churn in the markets, which has destabilized our economy.

[dysfunctional press]

7. income is income- capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as wages.

however- i could see some type of allowance for the first 50k or so for retirees, who planned for their retirement under the current tax code.

[harun]

4. A bunch of tax changes are obvious and are certain not to happen.

[FormerDittoHead]

5. How about having unearned income subject to SSI?

Even if it was only the 'employee' side, and then subject to the same limit of ~$90k a year (total, earned+unearned).

Wow. I know THAT'S never gonna happen!

[dysfunctional press]

8. i'd rather see the cap on wages removed.

btw- iirc, the cap is now over $100K.