Reply #44: Thank you for killing the Democratic Party [View All]

[jmowreader]

The main effect of this proposal would be to destroy the Democratic Party.

Here's what you should do.

First, exempt every American's first $25,000 of "earned income" from taxation. This is a term from back in the old days when money you got from working was "earned" and money you got from investment was "unearned." So if you made $20,000 working at Wal-Mart and $200,000 shorting its stock, the $20,000 is yours but the $200,000 is taxable...although, come to think of it, if you were actually doing this you deserve a special award for Testicular Fortitude.

You note the "every American" and not "every family." If your spouse works, you get to exempt $50,000.

Limbaugh is going to have one hell of a time convincing his listeners that their taxes are going up (his will be) if they can see their taxes have really gone down.

Next, eliminate the FICA cap. We hear all this shit from Numb-Nuts and the Publicans about how Social Security needs to be privateered if it's to survive. Any rational observer will note that privateering the SS system will just eliminate it, which is really the Publicans' plan all the time. If we were to apply the FICA tax, without cap, to these multimillion-dollar incomes, the SS problem would just about disappear.

And third, give the rich--anyone who makes over $1 million per year--two ways to pay their taxes. They can choose the full array of tax deductions and credits they now enjoy, but with a flat 60-percent tax on all income over $25,000, or a flat 25-percent tax on all income over $25,000 with only charitable deductions up to 10 percent of gross income allowed. I would consider modifying the deductions to allow donations to church-owned accredited educational institutions and church-owned healthcare facilities, but not to churches themselves. (If you allowed unrestricted donations to churches, there are churches like Falwell's, Swaggart's and Robertson's that would start laundering money.)

It would be more palatable than just whacking the rich with 95-percent tax brackets or other stupid shit like that.