Thursday, February 07, 2019

Paying for the Green New Deal

The Tax Policy Center had a piece today regarding the lack of specifics in the GND and how much it might cost (and that may slow the economy). You can find the article and my response at https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/green-new-deal-would-cost-lot-green

It is not true that the GND will slow the economy. Just the opposite. What passes for modern economics is flawed, not even keeping with the official definition of GDP, which equal government spending, consumption from government employee, contractor, transfer recipient and second order private sector spending, which leads to private sector investment, and exports net of imports (which creates a source of funds for debt finance). Nothing in that definition reduces growth and it is the model of the GND that Representative Ocasio-Cortez ran on and Senator Markey embraced.

From separate proposals, we know that part of the freight will be picked up by putting in a 70% tax rates on income over $10 Million (which would probably capture only CEOs of companies with over 1,000 employees. An interim level would also be useful, say 50%. It goes without saying that the Trump tax cuts would be repealed and a carbon tax instituted. If  looks at what her fellow DSAs propose, you may have to actually score my tax plan. As a reminder it includes

  • an income and inheritance surtax for all income received from employment, dividends and cash from inheritances (including the sale of assets) over $50,000 (double for joint filers and widows) to eventually fund net interest (no rollover), overseas defense spending (greatly reduced) and debt pay down, starting with Social Security for the Boomers;
  • a net business receipts/subtraction value added tax (SVAT) to pay for social spending (Medicare for All, FICA employer contributions credited equally for old age and survivors insurance and all unemployment and disability insurance and education (including paid remedial, vocational and college) with offsets for the increased child tax credits in the GND (I propose $1000/month/child), and any retirement savings (equal for each worker) that is devoted toward employee-ownership (with a $15 minimum wage so that people work for more than their CTC);
  • employee contribution to FICA (if retained);
  • Carbon Taxes (CVAT) for infrastructure and remaining GND items and a Goods and Services tax to fund the rest of domestic spending (military and civil).

Any presidential candidate flying the DSA/Warren/Harris radical democratic party flag will find this all very useful. We can also include a wealth tax that could also be dedicated to paying down the national debt - possibly at 13 times the prior year's income tax collections net of Treasury notes already possessed and canceled (which may result in a refund). If that figure is untenable in one year, it can always be split into two or more years. The Federal Reserve would have to shift to funding employee owned company debt, possibly as part of an insurance fund to protect against another Enron type loss.

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