[quote=luchabee]
I think your comments made more of an anti-tax point than you intended . . . we had a great economy then. It is terrible now. So, let’s increase the marginal federal brackets to 39%? Also, of course, like most lefty examinations on these issues, there was an omission of other new proposed taxes: increased capital gains rates, payroll taxes, limits on charitable deductions, phaseouts for other deductions, limiting mortgage int. deduction, possible cap and trade taxes. Not to mention, the more pronounced impact of the alternate minimum tax.
Of course, we have liberal states like CA and NY passing new taxes whenever possible.
I used to think we were going to have decades of liberal government with Obama et. al. However, as I see it, they are so going to derail the economy with all of this regulation and taxation, they’ll be lucky to escape 2010 with anything intact. Hope and change doesn’t mean much when you don’t have a job.[/quote]
For 1, the top marginal tax will not go to 39%, it will go to 36.5%. (35% + 1.5% surcharge).
And no, it does not make an anti-tax point. Just the opposite. It proves that higher tax rates are not necessarily incompatible with a strong economy. (It does not, however, prove that higher taxes improve the economy, nor do lower taxes weaken the economy, it is simply correlative.)
I haven’t omitted any other “new” proposed tax increases because there aren’t any. Nor is there any evidence that there will be a more pronounced impact of alt min tax. That entire discussion of higher taxes is almost entirely a right-wing talking point, not based on reality. So far there has been nothing more than ideas floated about higher payroll taxes, limits on charitable deductions, phaseouts for other deductions, limitation of home mortgage interest deduction (which I think would be a very good thing for real estate). No bills even in committee. Most of them would not get the support of the blue dog dems anyway, and are unlikely to pass even if they did come up for a vote.
It seems to be getting more and more unlikely that the GOP will resurface as anything more than a regional party, regardless of what the Dems do. Their treatment of Sotomayor in her hearings have probably driven away the small percentage of hispanic votes they still had. The best thing that can happen for the democrats is the vote to go purely along party lines. They can’t win with nothing but old white men and the south. And I don’t think that’s a good thing.
