“Republicans should counter with a proposal to tax accumulated wealth of over $1 billion...”
That would really hurt the economy. The money is not in someone’s back pocket, it is in companies that employ people. Bill Gate’s money is tied up in Microsoft, where real people work. Even Buffet has money invested in companies where real people work. Any taxes — any at all — take money from average people.
If you take away someone’s ability to be a billionaire, they will stop making money at 900 million and ride the rest of their lives. No more Apples, Microsofts... you name it.
To be a conservative means supporting lowering taxes no matter who would be paying.
No, the Republican counter-proposal should be to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax (which is a horror to complete even when you don’t have to pay it), and to replace it with a cap on the amount of income that can be excluded from taxation by any means: the form would be simple, you add up your deductions, your tax-exempt income, and the total of all of your tax credits divided by your top marginal rate, subtract the cut-off (entering 0 if the amount is less than 0) and add the result to your taxable income. (Something like six lines, less than the AMT worksheet.) I’d set the cap at $250,000 for individuals, $500,000 for those married and filing jointly, and $100,000 for those able to be claimed as dependents, though I could be persuaded to go for a different caps.
What’s the point? The point is that this is that limiting the ability to exclude income from taxation is the only income tax measure that will actually improve capital formation and thus job creation while being able to be sold to the folks across the aisle as a “soak the rich” measure: it makes tax avoidance less desirable than higher yields, and thus encourages the wealthy to put their capital to maximally productive use.
I make $12,468 on Soc Sec annually.
I have owned my own home since 1966, altho this is the third home I am in since then. I own all my vehicles, furniture, appliances, etc.
The newest car is a 1979 station wagon.
IF all my assets were declared to be $200,000 in value, that represents a lifetime of accumulation of books, clothes, furniture, kitchen goods, appliances, etc.
That tax would be $3000, which is almost 25% of my entire income. I cannot pay that. I do not think I am alone in this position.