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No problem there, but the rich gotta pay more. Whether you like it or not, that is what must happen to unfuck this mess. We have been lowering taxes on the wealthy for 50 fucking years and look where that has got us.
but the rich gotta pay more.
I can certainly see the point when high end incomes like Romney's are taxed at 15%.
However, the middle class are now living in conditions that didn't exist under Clinton.
There are other issues vital to their well being and increased taxation isn't a solution to particular problems.
Energy is one of them.
Since Clinton, the public has been paying up to 500% more in petroleum products, in particular, gasoline, diesel and home heating oil. If you remember the headlines during the 2007/2008 period, many of the middle class were having to decide on how to allot their weekly budgets on food,clothing and medication as their lines of credit were already used up......from increases in fuel/energy. This was a factor in the general financial cascade event driving the banking industry to it's knees as shaky mortgages defaulted in unusually high numbers, eventually including many job positions once thought safe and home defaults progressing into what was once thought of as safe.
And those increases in energy are also reflected in manufacturing costs and business expenses....another factor that the middle class has to face as consumers.
The banking failure started a financial cascade in the business sector with unemployment further driving that cascade. At that point, there's not only a business sector to rebuild, there's the need to encourage rapid expansion to reabsorb the unemployed and at the same time provide new jobs for those leaving schools and universities.
Public sector pensions are becoming an economic burden. A really big issue at many state levels. It's a defacto tax on the horizon that has the ability to destabilize economies at the state level.
A good read here ( a pdf )
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/downloads/The_Trillion_Dollar_Gap_final.pdf
And this popped up recently.....underfunded public sector pension funds are now embracing more risk in trying to offset their financial shortfalls>
http://www.ai-cio.com/channel/ASSET...nsions_Pile_on_Risk_to_Beat_Underfunding.html
The taxpayers of those state now have to assume even greater risk.
Clinton had two important things going for him.....cheap energy and a technology boom.
Today energy isn't cheap and that boom is now largely discounted.
(One new avenue is green energy.....and to gain rapid acceptance, tax breaks in new markets of the past have shown a means to generate/encourage those markets.)
Clinton did not pass universal health care. He abandoned it because of lack of support. This now will be added on middle class taxpayers at a time when any tax increase is a negative upon them.
It's obvious that the economy isn't going to get better in a reasonable time with out a stimulation of business.
It's obvious the middle class isn't going to benefit from their being taxed more. That's a double edged sword, too......it not only hurts their precarious status, it reduces their participation as consumers...and that's a business concern.
But tax rates aren't everything. There is also the issue of an accumulation of taxes and a reduction of deductions that drive revenue increases.
Taxation essentially reduces expenditures.....and the middle class is especially sensitive.
that is what must happen to unfuck this mess.
Even the CBO has warned that increasing the tax rates too much would have a negative effect on economic recovery.
How much is too much? I don't know.....but I'd rather phase in changes in smaller increments than make broad jumps to past rates.
But there's a lot more to address than just federal income tax increases.
