Imagine the possibilities

[hfojvt]

Right now our national debate about taxes is this argument

between

Obama, who wants to extend 78% of the Bush tax cuts

and

Republicans, who want to extend 100% of the Bush tax cuts.


I happen to be sort of cursed. I think outside the box. I don't like EITHER of those options.

We have other options. Democrats should be proposing, promoting and fighting for better options. For possibilities like these

1. Increase the standard deduction by $5,000 per couple. This will save people at the bottom about $750 a year without being a windfall for the rich.

2. bring back the making work pay credit (without the extra damn form). That was a refundable $400 per person, $800 per couple, phased out for higher incomes.

3. increase the personal exemption by $500. Unfortunately the rich will benefit from that, but not by much more than the poor. It means $75 for the poor and only $197 for the rich. It would be a $2,000 automatic deduction for a family of four.

4. Re-introduce lower brackets. Say, a 5% bracket on the first $3,000 and a 10% bracket on the first $7,000 for individuals. The first would be a $300 tax cut for most taxpayers and the second would be another $200 for most taxpayers.

Of course, such proposals will NEVER pass the current Republican House.

But that is just one MORE reason to propose them. When Republicans vote against them, we can use those votes to drive them out of office in 2014. It uses their own propaganda against them. They have spent years praising tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, and now they will have to run as - the person who voted against the tax cuts.

Bottom line - let ALL of the Bush tax cuts expire AND propose more progressive alternatives. We should be fighting for something much more progressive than 78% of the Bush tax cuts.

I cannot make these options part of the conversation. If you like these options, then kick and rec this thread and more people will hear about them, maybe more people will demand them. It's a windmill for this Don Quixote, but I am not ready to just give up and accept a really bad option as our best possible option.

[Vincardog]

1. Raise the top rates back to Eisenhower rates. The good old days

[hfojvt]

2. it would be nice to add that to the conversation too

although I was talking about tax breaks more than tax increases.

Increases in the top rates beyond Clinton have also been taken out of the conversation. Nobody even considers it.

Your proposal is so far outside the pale it would just be laughed off the stage. I would suggest something far more modest as a start

It makes perfect sense to me to put in three more brackets
39.1% up to $500,000
45% up to $1,000,000 (1)
55% up to $5,000,000 (2)
65% for the rest (3)

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/122