Sanders and Warren want to tax the rich. Here's why their plans could work.

[JoeOtterbein]

[link:https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/16/sanders-warren-tax-the-rich-plans-071198|

By BERNIE BECKER 11/16/2019 06:33 AM EST

Ever since they started proposing tax-the-rich plans on the campaign trail, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have been facing charges that the proposals won’t work. Now the economists who came up with the idea are starting to push back against the haters.

Critics of the Warren (D-Mass.) and Sanders (I-Vt.) plans say it’s too hard to figure out how much wealth there is in the U.S., and they point out that wealth taxes failed in Europe. They also argue that wealth taxes are unconstitutional.

But here’s why backers of the Sanders and Warren plans say taxing the wealthy to pay for everything from a range of education initiatives to "Medicare for All" is still the answer to America’s problems.

It didn’t work in Europe, so why will it work here?

Even Democrats, like Andrew Yang, the California tech entrepreneur also seeking the party’s presidential nomination, point out that a number of European countries including France and Germany have abandoned their wealth taxes. “All those countries ended up repealing it, because it had massive implementation problems and did not generate the revenue that they'd projected,” Yang said at an October debate.

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more at link

[Doc_Technical]

1. Return to the tax codes of 1954,

with dollar amounts adjusted for inflation.

[Magoo48]

2. What Doc said.

[oldsoftie]

5. Historically, the US has always paid 16-19% of GDP in taxes. Even in 1954.

Because no one ever paid those rates.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread JoeOtterbein.

[Hoyt]

4. Read the article, not sure it says what OP indicates. Besides, the supportive economists say

it will raise $275 Billion a year, that isn't close to the amount of money needed to pay for healthcare, and a host of other needs.

Not opposed to taxing wealthy, rolling back recent tax cuts for wealthy, reinstating estate taxes, etc., but candidates shouldn't give us a bunch of junk that doesn't withstand even a little scrutiny.

[oldsoftie]

6. Thank you Hoyt. Reality can be a bitch, but we must live in it.

People want programs Europeans have, but they will NOT go along with raising revenue the way they do; almost EVERYONE pays into the system. VAT, income tax, fees, etc. Almost everyone pays. A VAT here would tax the unclaimed income thats easy to hide from the govt. Not the total answer, but a good piece of it