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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Dietrich who wrote (149066)	12/5/2008 12:50:35 PM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Clinton was able to raise taxes as the economy was in a period of growth. The only reason Bush cut taxes was to spur economic activity after it slowed down at the end of Clinton's final term in office.

To: Steve Dietrich who wrote (149066)	12/5/2008 12:56:53 PM
From: geode00	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 173976

Yes, we should immediately have a very progressive taxation policy that brings back, say, a 75% tax rate (90% didn't hurt us either but that sounds excessive) on incomes over (just throwing out a number) $5 million. That could be $10 million or $2.5 million but it definitely applies to those making $3.7 billion and paying 15%. That would be coupled with the elimination of taxation to (again just a number) those families making $40K or less. There are numbers at which this works most efficiently. These are marginal tax rates that pushes people to stop taking income out of businesses and has them plow it back into them. People on the bottom would spend because they have to anyway but they would be spending more because they have more. People on the top would simply not take as much money out or save less. In either case, consumption would increase and would be more evenly distributed throughout the country. That leads to a bigger and more stable population instead of this corporate serfdom that we have today. When the population as a whole does well businesses do well. This is why, IMO, progressive taxation WORKS. It may not 'sound right' to the ideologically rigid who keep forgetting that the system, made by everyone, is what accounts for the huge disparities IN THE FIRST PLACE. If it didn't, there wouldn't be a single corporate lobbyist in Washington. We should eliminate interlocking Boards of Directors at corporations - conflicts of interest - which would begin to reduce the huge salaries (negatively correlated IMO to shareholder value) of executives. Individual directors would be more personally liable for fraud, negligence and failure to take their fiduciary responsibility seriously. We can start to repair what ails us by being rational.