If I were president, one of the first things I would do is work to raise taxes. A lot.

[Stinky The Clown]

Like 90% on top incomes and work down proportionally from there, but with zero taxes for people earning twice the poverty rate (or some other multiple).

[grasswire]

1. you've got my vote

FWIW

[HowHasItComeToThis]

15. TAX BACK TO EISENHOWER LEVELS

[ecstatic]

2. I don't think a model like that would work for long

All the rich people would move to another country and then the burden on the poor/middle class would be much more.

[SharonAnn]

7. Really? Where do you think they would move to?

[ecstatic]

10. Somewhere similar to the US but with lower taxes nt

[unblock]

11. horsehockey. other countries would follow suit and raise taxes as well.

we're hardly the only country running a big deficit these days.

besides, america's pretty good at taxing your money wherever you are.

[Hawkeye-X]

13. So invoke a 100% exit tax.

So that the richies have absolutely no money if they depart the U.S.

And it would be connected to their off-shore accounts.

Hawkeye-X

[BR_Parkway]

21. No they wouldn't - they'd reinvest excess into their businesses and expand

rather than take it out as taxable profit.

Our periods of high taxes match up with very robust economies because the taxes act as a dis-incentive to taking huge chunks of cash out and paying taxes on it. It's long term policy versus short term bubble mentality. Inversely, low taxes at higher incomes have always led to them taking out cash instead of reinvesting it, cutting costs (including employees) so they can take out more while it's taxed at low rates.

[Prophet 451]

22. People have been saying that for years

It's always the standard response to any talk of tax hikes but it never happens. And it never will happen. The people who would pick their country of residence for the tax rate have already moved to the Bahamas. The ones who haven't already left won't leave.

[Waiting For Everyman]

3. I agree. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. How are you going to get Congress to vote for that?

[Stinky The Clown]

5. I would name you secretary of getting 'er done.

[C_Lawyer09]

6. I understand what you are saying from a moral standpoint

But you don't outright screw people, by virtue of their being rich. Because truthfully, mass punishment of capitalism, doesn't solve creation of jobs by any stretch. Now, as I've just finished stating on a current thread, and many previous threads: Stop the massive loopholes within the current tax system that allow corporations to gain all of the good that the U.S. offers, while avoiding taxes by setting up p.o. boxes and shell corporations overseas, and we will have a substantial boost in tax revenue, which may be used for the greater good. That is assuming, our pro corporate govt. doesn't gut the changes with follow on legislation, disguised as riders on other bills.

[DJ13]

8. I would do that 90% top rate, but

I would include targeted tax breaks if they invest in new businesses, or something similar to stimulate our national economy in exchange for any reduction from that 90% rate.

The current low rates have no incentives to force them to invest here in the US, and in fact it actually encourages offshore investments to take advantage of currency exchange rates.

The wealthy back in the 50's didnt pay the top rate, there were incentives to build our manufacturing base, which in turn led to our greatest period of wage gains our country ever had.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. No probelm with that at all

Incenting behavior is a time honored tradition because it works.

[Kansas Wyatt]

12. The 90% part that people do not get is...

That it FORCES the rich to reinvest earnings back into their business, new businesses, their community, etc. etc. Just because they are not going to want to pay a 90% tax bill, they would reinvest back into the economy and America, instead of just socking it away in banks, which does nothing to improve the economy.

[laughingliberal]

14. The top marginal rates were 91% when Kennedy took office in 1960

It is a favorite talking point of the supply siders to state that John Kennedy knew that lowering taxes was the right thing to do. They always fail to mention what the tax rates were when he took office.

[SnoopDog]

16. The problem with...

'tax cuts for the rich' is that all the wealth migrates to the top. In
effect, it sucks the life out of everyone below and eventually destroys
everyone.

Taxing the wealthy puts a large damper on that effect and allows the entire 'being'
to survive. More tax money, conceivably and in a proper societal government, would
use that tax money to reinvest in country and citizens.

With an effective tax policy (taxing the high income earners) would allow the
rich to get richer, the rest to get richer, and a 'more better' country.

[kestrel91316]

17. Stinky for President. Tax the rich the same way Eisenhower did.

[notesdev]

18. And a big miss!

People who make really big money don't make it as income, they make it as capital gains.

They OWN Congress and your proposal would meet an ignominous fate, eternally tabled in some sub-sub-subcommittee, about as likely to see the light of day as Dracula.

[cali]

19. If you were president you'd discover in short order that there's no

way on earth to get that through Congress. None.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

20. How would you get that through the senate?

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. Which is yet another reason that you will never be President

;)