The Rich Get Richer

Discussing all things political in NW Arkansas and beyond.
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Doug
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The Rich Get Richer

Post by Doug »

Taxes Flatten but Deep Pockets Still Bulge, By Joel Havemann, The Los Angeles Times Monday 17 April 2006

Washington - A decade ago, when publishing magnate Steve Forbes ran for president, he vowed to deliver a new era of prosperity with a simple change in the federal income tax: Instead of people with more money paying higher rates, all would pay the same "flat" tax rate - unleashing "the fantastic growth waiting to burst forth in our economy."

Forbes' flat-tax plan was dismissed as simplistic by many mainstream economists and viewed with horror by the legions of special interests that benefit from the deductions and loopholes that flat-tax advocates would eliminate.

But as millions of Americans face the deadline for filing their federal tax returns, they are operating in something very close to the world Forbes and other flat-tax visionaries proposed. Without any fanfare or philosophical debate, millionaires and middle-class Americans now pay taxes at almost the same rates.

"...It's as if Santa Claus dropped bags of money down everybody's chimney," said Leonard E. Burman of the private Tax Policy Center. "Only he dropped extra-big bags in rich people's homes, and extra-small ones in smaller homes."

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"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
Barbara Fitzpatrick
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Post by Barbara Fitzpatrick »

And it is just as unfair as a covert "flat tax" as it would have been as an overt flat tax. It's not how much you pay, it's how much you have left to live on, that makes flat taxes unfair. The Rs sure have made out like bandits over the years. In those (supposedly) halycon days of the 1950s, the top tier (married filing jointly) was 90%. Wonder if that had anything to do with the strong economy of the time?
Barbara Fitzpatrick
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