I did a little googling right now and here are my conclusions. I am looking at Japan's taxes, another relatively lightly taxed country.
Japan's gasoline tax is $1.5 per gallon higher than US. Increasing the US gas tax by $1.50, will bring in about $210 billion.
The Japanese marginal tax rate on incomes more than about $150,000 is 40%. Adopting a marginal rate of 40% for incomes greater than $150,000 in the US will bring in an extra $70 billion.
Japan has a 4% national sales tax on goods and services. Assuming at only 7 trillion out of the 13 trillion US GDP will be subject to this tax, it will bring in about $250 billion.
So, doing all three of the above, will bring in an additional $530 billion in US tax revenues, resulting in a surplus of $300 billion -- more than covering Social security funding requirements. Heck, we can even throw in national health insurance.
And this without touching the Iraq war or the rest of the military -- which, I agree, need stopping and heavy trimming respectively.
Finally, it is a common misconception that Clinton's budget balance was due to capital gains taxes from the stock market boom. In fact, in the biggest year of the bubble, 1999, capital gains taxes were only about $60 billion more than average. |
