“The solution is to reorganize the economy so the benefits of growth are more widely shared. Exempt the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes, and apply payroll taxes to incomes over $250,000. Extend Medicare to all. Extend the Earned Income Tax Credit all the way up through families earning $50,000. Make higher education free to families that now can’t afford it. Rehire teachers. Repair and rebuild our infrastructure. Create a new WPA to put the unemployed back to work.
Pay for this by raising marginal income taxes on millionaires (under Eisenhower, the highest marginal rate was 91 percent, and the economy flourished). A millionaire marginal tax of 70 percent would eliminate the nation’s future budget deficit. In addition, impose a small tax on all financial transactions (even a tiny one — one half of one percent — would bring in $200 billion a year, enough to rehire every teacher who’s been laid off as well as provide universal preschool for all toddlers). Promote unions for low-wage workers.”
I have another idea, stop subsidizing the Volt, wind power, ethanol, central air conditioning, stop throwing money at municipalities that don’t use it to create jobs. Stop improving entitlements until we can afford them.
There were people who had ideas two years ago to suspend sales taxes and to have a payroll tax holiday in order to get money into the hands of people who really need it and will spend it, but instead billions were thrown at road projects and state and local governments with little stimulus resulting. Old Robert’s ideas sound like FDR and his solutions only took ten years to work. It also sounds like near socialism. And here is a clue professor, more tax revenue would not eliminate the future budget deficit because it would be spent as fast as it came in to the treasury.
Related Articles
- Robert Reich: Why the Obama Tax Deal Confirms the Republican Worldview (huffingtonpost.com)
- “Buying Us Off With A Bogus Payroll Tax Holiday” and related posts (correntewire.com)
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