Clinton seeks surcharge tax on wealthiest tier of Americans

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Mon Jan 11, 2016 8:14pm EST
Clinton seeks surcharge tax on wealthiest tier of Americans
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire | By Amanda Becker


U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday proposed a 4 percent tax on the wealthiest sliver of taxpayers who earn more than $5 million per year.

The so-called "surcharge" on the wealthiest 0.02 percent would generate $150 billion over the next decade, according to a Clinton campaign aide.

The suggested tax follows Clinton's promise last month as she campaigned alongside billionaire investor Warren Buffett to build on the "Buffett rule," which would establish a minimum tax rate of 30 percent on those earning more than $1 million per year. Buffett has criticized tax policies that allow the rich to pay lower rates than the middle class.

"I want to go further and impose what I call a fair share surcharge on multi-millionaires because right now, we’re behind and we need to get the wealthy and the corporations to pay for their fair share, so I can keep my promise, which is I will not raise taxes on the middle class," Clinton said at a campaign stop in Iowa on Monday.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-idUSKCN0UP26H20160112

[jwirr]

1. Correction: Proposing or suggesting in a campaign is not

the same as seeking.

[anigbrowl]

6. Oh for crying out loud

If you think it's just a campaign promise fair enough, but that's an absurdly legalistic way to parse a headline.

[jwirr]

7. True though.

[anigbrowl]

9. No it isn't.

'Seek' doesn't have any specific legal or legislative meaning, contrary to your claim. If you think otherwise feel free to prose it to Bryan Garner, the editor of my legal dictionary.

[jwirr]

21. Seek is an action not a statement of purpose. She has no

way of seeking anything at this point.

[anigbrowl]

22. Wrong

By indicating her support for such a measure she encourages people in congress to begin work on drafting legislation to that effect. Your attempt to derail this discussion by turning it into a semantic argument tells me she's on the right track.

[Hortensis]

29. +1.

Exciting, and worrying, times, no doubt in a lot of state legislatures as well as Washington. So much is at stake in this election.

[Android3.14]

17. Parsing is what she is good at

Haven't you ever read the fine print on a Citicorp credit card contract?

[anigbrowl]

24. Another irrelevant derail.

[Android3.14]

25. Well, I suppose it is an irrelevant derail to those who want it to be

The rest of us are tired of having damaged goods rammed down our throats.

She sounds fake, she sounds like she will spin right back to her Walmart roots as soon as the primary is over, and she uses mealy-mouthed language to fool gullible people who dismiss the caution as irrelevant.

[anigbrowl]

28. Rammed down your throat, huh?

I hear that phrase a lot...from conservatives. No doubt it's a total coincidence.

[Hortensis]

31. Android, IMO, you SHOULD be very happy about this

and about other, similar announcements. They mean that no matter who wins the nomination, reforms and repairs will continue. That's a win-win situation.

Also, if Bernie does not win the nomination and go on to win the general, we will still have him working for change in the Senate.

Of course, from your viewpoint Bernie would have to be one of the people who has supposedly been ramming "damaged goods" down your throats -- after all, voted with fellow Democrats 94% of the time for nearly a quarter century.

[elias49]

2. The cause de jour -

Trump could never accuse Clinton of being 'low energy'.

[FreakinDJ]

3. Oh Look - "Sanders-Lite"

Sorry - close but no cigar

[trillion]

15. Did you catch that she hasn't said a word about corporations paying their fair share and Bernie has

over and over again? Taxing extremely wealthy people a whole 5 million is nothing compared to what the corporations aren't paying in taxes.

[SoapBox]

4. OMG!

It never ends with the Copy Cat Campaign.

NOT Good Enough Hill.

[Judi Lynn]

5. The important part to me is another intention is announced to deal with economic justice. n/t

[JudyM]

20. +1. She is moving in the right direction. I'm delighted Bernie is shifting her to the left. Nt

[jeff47]

26. She announces a lot of things. She follows through on far fewer things. (nt)

[harrose]

8. Not nearly enough.

... we need a 100% tax on these leeches.

[anigbrowl]

11. 100% tax rate?

Surely some people who earn those kind of rewards are leeches, but many become rich through a combination of talent and hard work. Demanding 100% marginal tax rates is a good way not to get taken seriously.

[passiveporcupine]

10. So there is a 4% surcharge

but what about the loopholes that let so many avoid paying taxes now.

And what about wealth that is not considered salary income now? Is she changing the rate for taxing capital gains?

Sorry...this is not enough. Good start, but needs a lot more work.

[Volaris]

12. '...we need to GET the wealthy and the corporations to pay thier fair share...'

In other words, ask them nicely and hope that convinces them.

I cannot speak for others, but I'm past that point. 4% is laughable..the fuckers would spend double that lobbying Congress to NOT have to pay it just on General Principal.

[Bernin]

13. As usual

Camp weather vane is a day late and a dollar short.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

23. 15B / year is chicken feed!

We need to eliminate all loopholes, and all deductions, except for primary home mortgage/taxes (you can only have one primary home).

Set the rate of people over a million as such:

1 million to 2 million - 40%
2 million to 10 million - 50%
10 million to 50 million - 60%
over 50 million - 75%

Thus if you made 200 million a year you would pay:

40% of 2MILLION = $800,000 - left with 1.2M
50% of 8MiILLION = $4,000.000 - left with 5.2M
60% of 40MILLION = $24,000,000 - left with 21.2M
75% of 150MILLION = $111,000,000 - left with 60.2M

That would put this person in the %70 bracket.

[trillion]

14. HOW ABOUT TAXING CORPORATIONS HILLARY? 5 million is a drop in the bucket when you look at what

corporations aren't paying.

She knows it. She's corrupt.

[JDPriestly]

16. How is she defining "income" for purposes of this tax increase.

One of the strengths of Bernie's plan on taxes is that he specifically wants to tax the speculation going on on Wall Street.

Capital gains taxation is a big issue. Bernie is pretty clear on wanting to raise taxes on that kind of income. What is Hillary's stance on that?

What is her stance on taxing trades on Wall Street and other markets?

I think that the trades need to be taxed.

[Nye Bevan]

18. Presumably Bernie Sanders has proposed raising taxes on those people too?

If so, by how much exactly?

[Javaman]

19. ...Nov 14, 2015

http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Bernie_Sanders_Tax_Reform.htm

Hillary continues with her "yeah, me too!" campaign slogan.

[thereismore]

27. Now she's alienating her base. That'll go over well. nt

[coyote]

30. The problem is

She could go more left and all out Socialist in her proposals and I would not believe a damn word she says.

[PoliticAverse]

32. Does that include earnings from capital gains? n/t