Report: Sanders proposes $15T in tax increases, hitting most taxpayers

[riversedge]

Report: Sanders proposes $15T in tax increases, hitting most taxpayers

By Brian Faler

03/04/16 01:07 PM EST

Updated 03/04/16 04:58 PM EST


Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has proposed $15.3 trillion in tax increases, according to a new report, and would raise rates on virtually everyone, including the politically all-important middle class.

Not surprisingly for a candidate who has made income inequality his central issue, Sanders’s plan would wallop the rich, an analysis released Friday by the Tax Policy Center shows.

The top 0.1 percent would see their tax bills go up by more than $3 million, the report said, which would cut their after-tax incomes by almost half.

But Sanders, going where few politicians dare, would also raise taxes on middle- and low-income families, with those in the dead center of the income spectrum facing a $4,700 tax increase. That would reduce their after-tax incomes by 8.5 percent, the report said.

The report underscores the stark choice facing Democratic primary voters when it comes to tax policy.

Rival Hillary Clinton has proposed a number of tax increases as well, but she has targeted the wealthy and on businesses, and plans a tax cut for those further down the income ladder.

“There is a very, very clear choice,” said Len Burman, head of the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. “They really couldn’t be more different.”............................

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/bernie-sanders-tax-increases-220267#ixzz422cjDbLN

[think]

1. Nice use of a deceptive headline and story. The GOP would be proud....

[book_worm]

5. HA! kettle calling the pot black--you guys always use GOP talking points

to attack Hillary--and websites. If you can't handle this then you won't be able to handle the GE if Bernie were nominated because this will be the theme they will use over and over. TAX AND SPEND.

[virtualobserver]

2. so the institute founded by Robert Rubin - Goldman Sachs- Clinton's Sec. Treasury

Favors Hillary Clinton's plan.

How very non-wall streety,and non-partisany.

[angstlessk]

4. Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution

non-partisan my...they are Estiblishment think tanks!

Urban Institute

(Chair) Jamie Gorelick - who served as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 1994 to 1997, during the Clinton administion.

(Members)
Erskine Bowles - Bowles served as the Democratic co-chair of President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
Greg Mankiw - Mankiw was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. In 2006, he became an economic adviser to Mitt Romney and continued during Romney's 2012 presidential bid.
Judy Woodruff - and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Brookings Institution

David M. Rubenstein - Co-Chair of the Board The Brookings Institution Co-Founder and Co-CEO The Carlyle Group
John L. Thornton - Co-Chair of the Board The Brookings Institution Chairman of the Board Barrick Gold
Suzanne Nora Johnson - Vice Chair of the Board The Brookings Institution Former Vice Chairman The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

[noamnety]

3. already debunked

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511412120#post8

[Gothmog]

8. I have far more trust in Prof. Krugman

I trust Prof. Krugman on this http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/weakened-at-bernies/?_r=0

On health care: leave on one side the virtual impossibility of achieving single-payer. Beyond the politics, the Sanders “plan” isn’t just lacking in detail; as Ezra Klein notes, it both promises more comprehensive coverage than Medicare or for that matter single-payer systems in other countries, and assumes huge cost savings that are at best unlikely given that kind of generosity. This lets Sanders claim that he could make it work with much lower middle-class taxes than would probably be needed in practice.

To be harsh but accurate: the Sanders health plan looks a little bit like a standard Republican tax-cut plan, which relies on fantasies about huge supply-side effects to make the numbers supposedly add up. Only a little bit: after all, this is a plan seeking to provide health care, not lavish windfalls on the rich — and single-payer really does save money, whereas there’s no evidence that tax cuts deliver growth. Still, it’s not the kind of brave truth-telling the Sanders campaign pitch might have led you to expect.

Again, as noted by Prof. Krugman this plan does not add up.

[UglyGreed]

6. I believe this is the fourth

thread

[UglyGreed]

7. .

[tblue37]

9. Taxes are the dues we pay to live in a humane and civilized society, to distribute widely

the cost of services and the safety net, which would be far more than any but the wealthiest could afford if we each had to pay for them individually.

[NurseJackie]

10. It's a recipe for failure.

... that will cost him the nomination. (No complaints from me with regard to that.)

Go, Hillary!

[Perogie]

11. Prove that raising taxes is bad

The meme raising taxes is bad came from the Republicans.

Fact: Higher taxes during the 50's and 60's helped reduce national debt.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/the-long-story-of-us-debt-from-1790-to-2011-in-1-little-chart/265185/

Unemployment rate was no higher in during high taxes


Economic growth during high taxes



You have no evidence to prove higher taxes hurt the economy or people.
Especially since the revenue from these taxes will be used to provide health insurance, education, public assistance which would reduce the burden on people paying the costs of health care

[bvf]

12. Here we go again.

[Autumn]

13. ya think?

Must be Saturday. I hope his tax increase hits me, I would save a butt load on my insurance premium alone.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. EEEK!

[Gregorian]

15. Is this forum going to allow hit pieces and lies against Dems?

[Mufaddal]

16. It's too bad Bernie's campaign won't respond to this

https://berniesanders.com/press-release/tax-policy-center-is-wrong-sanders-tax-and-medicare-for-all-plan-will-save-the-middle-class-3240-a-year/

[Nanjeanne]

17. Here we go again - so many threads to keep posting about this misinformation

I've read the actual analysis and posted the real results (not the soundbite from Politico) in the numerous threads that keep popping up on this so I'm not going to repeat it again. But "non-partisan" TPC is a bit of a stretch considering the two heads are actually:

Robert C. Pozen Former chairman of MFS Investment Management, the oldest mutual fund company in the United States. For 15 years, he was a key executive at Fidelity Investments, ending as vice-chairman. He was Secretary of Economic Affairs for the State of Massachusetts in 2002–03, was a member of President George W. Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security in 2001-02, and chairman of the SEC Advisory Committee on Financial Reporting in 2007-08. Mr. Pozen serves on several boards, including Medtronic, Nielsen and a subsidiary of the World Bank.

William A. Gale. Prior to joining Brookings in 1992, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush.

And Len Burman who's quote is in this article - well he was a member of Bill Clinton's administration. Now I don't know if he's biased or not - but I certainly keep that information in my mind when reading his quote! Plus he is the author of a policy paper encouraging the use of VAT tax to get vouchers for healthcare. Not the kind of guy I want making decisions for me.

Anyway - even though Politico won't do an article about this - for anyone interested in reading the Citizens for Tax Justice analysis (the CTJ is run by ex labor and union officials and is usually highly touted by Democrats as the best analysis for tax proposals) it is here: http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2016/02/bernie_sanders_health_care_tax_plan_would_raise_13_trillion_yet_increase_after-tax_incomes_for_all_i.php#.VtsEQpwrKUk There is a link at the bottom of the linked page which gives you the entire analysis.

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. Report: Sanders proposes reducing health care costs $16,655 per family

http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/family-coverage/

[andym]

19. Single Payer requires collecting tax money that would have gone to premiums and deductibles.

Of course there would be increased taxes. That's one reason single-payer has been difficult to implement. But to get something worthwhile requires money.

Here's what the article says (assuming its correct):
"The top 1 percent of earners would bear 38 percent of the total tax increase proposed by Sanders, according to the analysis, while those in the top fifth of incomes would pay 68 percent of his levies.
That top quintile, which includes those earning more than $142,000, would see its taxes go up by an average $44,759. Those at the very bottom of the income ladder would see their taxes go up by $165 while those in the second quintile of incomes — between $23,000 and $45,000 — would pay an additional $1,625."

How much do people pay for premiums, deductibles and co-pays? Probably a lot more than 1625/year. Still, Bernie probably would want some way to offset this amount, especially at the low end.

[libtodeath]

20. So now we have to embrace no taxes?

[mhatrw]

21. The Tax Policy Center

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Policy_Center

In 2002, tax specialists who had served in the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton administrations established the Tax Policy Center to provide analysis of tax issues.

TPC is funded by individuals, corporations, trade groups, and foundations including the Ford Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

*****

So Rockefeller Republicans lie about Bernie Sanders' proposals.