Apparently he wants to tax income above $400k at a 39.6% income tax. The current rate is 37%. There's also a 2.35% Medicare tax at this income so the real marginal top tax rate is 39.35%. He also wants to bring back the SS payroll tax on income over $400k. That's 6.2%. Therefore on every dollar earned above $400k we are talking about a 39.6% income tax, 2.35% Medicare tax, and a 6.2% Payroll tax. That's a 48.15% top tax rate if you're W-2. If you're 1099 you pay both sides of SS and that's a 54.35% top federal tax rate. This is before states+local income taxes. CA is 13.3%. Depending on how much you can deduct people will be paying over 60% over the income earned on income-related taxes. I get making people who earn their money through capital gains pay the same rates as those who do it through ordinary income, but these rates are crazy high in my opinion.
We could always cut military spending in half and still spend $100BB more than anybody else per year.
Sure. When a .1 cent resistor has to cost 3 bux because it must meet Mil-spec, we're never going to have a cost-efficient military.
Yes the underpinning to these is quite nefarious indeed. Taxing income hurts the middle class. Do you think anyone, Republican or Democrat, cares about the middle class? No. So they raise taxes on the upper crust of society. People taking down $400k/year and generally high value. Sure there are degenerate gamblers, movie stars, etc that take down as much or more but that salary is respectable careers generally means someone is either a small business owner, high profile scientist/engineer/etc or another important position. Inheritance taxes are even worse. They amount to a double, sometimes triple tax on income. I go back and forth on these taxes. Death shouldn't be a taxable event but passing hundreds of millions onto heirs also leaves a bad taste in my mouth (I strongly dislike taxes, I dislike dynasties marginally more). Mostly due to the fact the money wasn't "earned" by the recipient. Call me a utilitarian. If Biden et al. really cared about helping the class, and I mean REALLY cared, they'd take what Yang had said seriously. A VAT tax isn't perfect but it is a far better way to take away money from the billionaires. You can't hide from VAT as it attacks the supply chain directly. Unfortunately, the counter-argument is these taxes will simply be passed onto the consumer in the form of increased prices further damaging the lower and middle class. Another option is simplifying the tax system into a flat tax. Not only will this trim the national budget (why does the IRS need all those workers anyway), stop predatory tax schemes (turbo tax, etc) and improve the overall ease of payment. This one resembles a tithe however the numbers still don't perfectly line up if you consider the effective tax rate of a multi-millionaire is still paying more in dollar value than someone in the middle class. I guess the moral of the story is any tax change will screw over the middle class. The middle class can be characterized as rich enough to pay taxes but too poor to avoid them. The ultra wealthy will always have a way to hide their money. I'd be interested if anyone has ever come up with an idea that would effectively put a stop to the consolidation of wealth by several dozen individuals. What we have today is a fiefdom. There is no American dream anymore. The problem with the socialists is they're too stupid to realize how money works. Perhaps if they learned that, they could produce a useful way to stop the fiefdom from growing further instead of bleeting on about free college.