R
Ridgerunner
Guest
Only Trump supporters are vague on what marginal rates are?Thanks for this. During the primary, I remember having to explain to a Trump supporter who clearly had no clue about what a marginal tax rate is, that Bernie was not proposing to tax all their income at 90%. And that person’s income is such that actually no portion of it at all would even fall in the top bracket anyway. As you stated a top marginal rate of 90% is not even close to taxing all their income at 90%. Far from it.
Some troubling aspects of Clinton’s tax plan are:
-Lowering the exemption from the “death tax” from the present 5million to 3.5 million. While either seems like a lot to some, there are a lot of people with estates of 3.5 million. For farmers, ranchers and small business owners, it means sale of the asset, so the family can’t have it anymore.
-Capping itemized deductions to 28%. The ability to deduct income is very important to business start-ups. Oftentimes it’s the only thing that makes it possible.
-Modest increase of the tax on super-high earners is almost certainly illusory, because they always find a way to avoid it.
-It, combined with her spending plan, still produces a net deficit.
The only really comforting aspect of her spending/taxation plans are that she probably doesn’t really intend the benefit parts that compose most of the spending increases. What really needs to the thought about in all of this is who is most able to buy her. Anybody whose fortunes are going to be determined by the most likely buyer of Hillary Clinton will do well under her presidency. If your life is determined by the losers in the bidding, you’ll lose too. So, if your employer is Goldman Sachs or Walmart, or an importer of foreign oil, you’ll probably gain. If your employer is the rival of either of the first two or a domestic competitor of the middle eastern oil producers, you’ll probably lose.