Attachment - Wealth Taxes
Senators Warren and Sanders have proposed wealth taxes to get our financial house in order. As expected, wealthy donors are not liking the idea of a wealth tax, nor are those who felt that President Trump will still be in office by election day. They under estimate the desire by Senate Republicans for self-preservation. Even without Trump on the ballot, 2020 is more like 1974 than 1984.
The bigger danger to enacting a wealth tax us that, even though Senator Warren is taking only small dollar donations, congressional candidates have no such qualms.
Wealthy taxpayers must want to pay more or they will stop higher taxes cold. They won't pay more to fund a higher child tax credit, a Green New Deal or Medicare for All.
Senator Warren is getting a raw deal on Medicare for All. Her funding solution was meant to fund the Sanders proposal. Critics are decrying her plan for being less specific, but the reality is that her plan dovetails off of his bill. Her proposal is an attempt to add meat to the revenue side, which Senator Sanders leaves open.
Broad based social services must be funded by a broad-based tax, such as our proposed subtraction VAT in Attachment Two. The reason that the Affordable Care Act came under attack was not objections to mandates (which is a creature of the Heritage Foundation proposal), but because it was funded by a payroll surtax on unearned income from dividends and capital gains from taxpayers in the top 2% of filers.
High income investors exercise monopsony power over their workers, it is likely that everyone shared the pain. A broad-based consumption tax would be an easier sell (were it not for President Obama's promise not to increase taxes on the bottom 98%). The cynical view us that Obama knew that attacks in ACA funding would make the Republicans demonstrate their fealty for the rich. If so, this stunt cost his party the Congress.
A wealth tax can be considered an ex post facto income tax, also making it unconstitutional. It could be established by constitutional amendment, but it would be far easier to create salary surtax prepayment bonds. This plays to why the wealthy would want to pay more and would save us a bundle on net interest payments.
Getting the wealthy on board is essential to reform. Social Security was passed because FDR played Wall Street against the threat if socialism. It is now time to fund socialism by helping Wall Street get out if the debt bomb it has created for itself.
The bigger danger to enacting a wealth tax us that, even though Senator Warren is taking only small dollar donations, congressional candidates have no such qualms.
Wealthy taxpayers must want to pay more or they will stop higher taxes cold. They won't pay more to fund a higher child tax credit, a Green New Deal or Medicare for All.
Senator Warren is getting a raw deal on Medicare for All. Her funding solution was meant to fund the Sanders proposal. Critics are decrying her plan for being less specific, but the reality is that her plan dovetails off of his bill. Her proposal is an attempt to add meat to the revenue side, which Senator Sanders leaves open.
Broad based social services must be funded by a broad-based tax, such as our proposed subtraction VAT in Attachment Two. The reason that the Affordable Care Act came under attack was not objections to mandates (which is a creature of the Heritage Foundation proposal), but because it was funded by a payroll surtax on unearned income from dividends and capital gains from taxpayers in the top 2% of filers.
High income investors exercise monopsony power over their workers, it is likely that everyone shared the pain. A broad-based consumption tax would be an easier sell (were it not for President Obama's promise not to increase taxes on the bottom 98%). The cynical view us that Obama knew that attacks in ACA funding would make the Republicans demonstrate their fealty for the rich. If so, this stunt cost his party the Congress.
A wealth tax can be considered an ex post facto income tax, also making it unconstitutional. It could be established by constitutional amendment, but it would be far easier to create salary surtax prepayment bonds. This plays to why the wealthy would want to pay more and would save us a bundle on net interest payments.
Getting the wealthy on board is essential to reform. Social Security was passed because FDR played Wall Street against the threat if socialism. It is now time to fund socialism by helping Wall Street get out if the debt bomb it has created for itself.
posted by Michael Bindner at 3:07 PM
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