But they raised the income threshold from 296K (1993) to 415K (2016).
But they should avoid mentioning the Clinton name in the process. It makes not one bit of difference how good the economy was during the Clinton era. Rational thinking aside, that name is a liability in politics at this point.
Inflation. Tax brackets need to be adjusted from time to time, just to account for inflation. $296K on Jan 1 1994 = $499K today, according to the CPI Inflation calculator on the BLS website. The inflation adjust threshold for that bracket is lower today than it was during Clinton’s tenure.
Yeah, I effed it up. It was 250K in 1993. But your point stands. Taxes in 1993 were higher than 2017.
Don’t you think it might depend on the specific details of what you mean by “various other progressive tax preferences”? That’s a tad vague, I would say.
I think you’re missing the premise of the OP. He suggested that the Democrats come up with a tax plan that raises the debt by $1.5 trillion (“This makes me think that the Dems could gain support by taking the same 1.5 trillion and creating a plan that is actually aimed at the middle and working class…”). I said it doesn’t make sense for Dems to embrace the starting position of the debt going up.
You’ve proposed a concept in which the debt would not go up, so we aren’t really talking about the same thing.
So when corporations negotiate favorable tax deals in order to relocate factories or build stadiums or whatnot, you’re saying that these corporations aren’t actually getting a handout, because we cannot presuppose that their money belongs to the government?
Huh.
The taxpayers ARE the government. Government is just a collection of citizens that exists to perform functions too broad for individual citizens to perform or afford.
I prefer proposing a plan over just complaining about someone else’s plan (or the status quo.) But whether the Dems could agree on one…I don’t know.
Are the roughly 47% of the population that pay zero federal income taxes not part of the government, then?
‘Deficits don’t matter.’ - Republican (former) Vice President Dick Cheney
Cheney attributed that discovery to Reagan. The party forgot it under the Clinton and Obama administrations, though.
Is that the only tax in existence?
So would I, but it’s easier to stir up the base by complaining about what the other side does. The GOP is pinning its hopes for 2018 to a tax cut; the Dems are pinning their hopes on complaining about tax cuts for the rich no matter what the bill says.
A better alternative would be too divisive - every Democrat can agree that whatever the GOP wants is bad. In order to get a better alternative, Dems would have to go into the gruesome details of whatever they propose, and people’s eyes glaze over.
“Math class is hard”, says Barbie, and most voters agree with her.
Regards,
Shodan
Which right-wing website do you read that taught you that the income tax is the only tax that entitles an American to be called a taxpayer?
Do you believe that poor people pay nothing in any other kind of taxes?
This is probably true. Though it definitely helps that the plan is, in fact, to massively cut taxes for the rich while raising them on a significant proportion of the middle class.
I figured I faced a lot of risks with complete GOP control of the federal government. But I didn’t think my taxes going up (while ballooning the deficit) was one of them. I thought I’d probably get nuked before that happened. Interesting times!
Romney, is that you?..
What’s your understanding of “a significant proportion” here? Are we talking about 5-10%? 50%?
I don’t know, but I am curious: Has the CBO ever scored a proposal like this? Basically, how did you conclude the debt would go down under this plan?
The Republicans, both in Congress and the White House, have spent the last year demonstrating they are unable to run a government. The smartest thing the Democrats can do is sit back and let the Republicans continue to damage themselves.
If the Democrats stepped forward and put up some proposals, they would have no chance of getting them enacted. All it would do is give the Republicans a chance to do the one thing they’re competent at; attacking about the Democrats.
‘Republicans say the government doesn’t work and then get elected and prove it.’ – Ann Richards, 45th Governor of Texas
Double digits. Hard to say exactly where, obviously, since they haven’t written a Byrd Rule compliant bill yet.
ETA: Meant to add–almost certainly low double digits. But double digits.