Piff Perkins
Veteran
Like most of the things she says, the plan is half baked. If you want to tax rich people you should basically do the inverse of what the Trump tax plan did: eliminate nearly every tax deduction and incentive for the rich, increase the top rate back to pre-Bush tax cut levels (hell, or even go higher by a few points), increase the estate tax, and increase capital gains taxes.
Consider the financial situation of the country in 2016. Deficit was decreasing yearly since 2013, when Obama allowed the "fiscal cliff" to go into effect (ie letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire). Tax revenue increased, deficit decreased. Imagine how even more effective it would be if we actually shytcanned incentives the rich exploit to avoid taxes - not to mention corporation loopholes.
A 70% marginal tax rate is not extreme in of itself. We've had higher rates - the top tax rate was 90% until JFK dropped it to around 70%. But the US labor force was constantly growing at the time. Post WWII, soldiers came home to jobs. By the 1970s and 80s, women started entering the work force heavily. Right now the labor force is not going in the direction it needs to go in...and automation and the death of retail are slowly strangling our economy. Throwing a 70% marginal tax rate on top of that isn't going to fix anything. We need more people to enter the work force, period.
Consider the financial situation of the country in 2016. Deficit was decreasing yearly since 2013, when Obama allowed the "fiscal cliff" to go into effect (ie letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire). Tax revenue increased, deficit decreased. Imagine how even more effective it would be if we actually shytcanned incentives the rich exploit to avoid taxes - not to mention corporation loopholes.
A 70% marginal tax rate is not extreme in of itself. We've had higher rates - the top tax rate was 90% until JFK dropped it to around 70%. But the US labor force was constantly growing at the time. Post WWII, soldiers came home to jobs. By the 1970s and 80s, women started entering the work force heavily. Right now the labor force is not going in the direction it needs to go in...and automation and the death of retail are slowly strangling our economy. Throwing a 70% marginal tax rate on top of that isn't going to fix anything. We need more people to enter the work force, period.