Business: What Steiger Would Do

Time Magazine ^ | July 10, 1978

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Would the Steiger amendment benefit chiefly the rich, as the President says? Not really.

Undeniably, a cut in the capital gains tax below the present top rate of 49% would help mainly people in (or above) the 50% tax bracket, who are more likely to own stock and other assets. To be in that lofty bracket, one needs taxable income of about $40,000 or more. But a lot of "average" taxpayers leap into the higher brackets a few times in their lives—when they sell a house, a farm, or the stock that Aunt Tillie left them; or when they collect profit-sharing or stock-purchase funds from their employers. For them the benefits of Steiger could be significant. Examples:

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946820,00.html#ixzz1YVBZm5D4

[ReleaseTheHounds]

With all of the demagoging (sp?) on "tax the rich" and "the capital gains tax is unfair", I thought this article seemed timely: set during the Carter Administration when another illustrious Demo President was pounding away at capital gains rate cuts favoring the undeserving rich.

The history also shows that one of the few bright lights of economic growth during the Carter Administration followed William Steiger's Amendment that reduced the tax rate on Capital Gains from 49% to 24.5% (when tax REVENUES from capital gains soared and more venture capital started pouring into new companies like Apple Computer). Consider this a "blast from the past".