Proposed Tax Reforms
I would be interested in your initial reaction to the more significant tax change proposals being discussed in Washington. Our law makers are saying how so many middle class taxpayers will be helped, but I hear just the opposite from financial pundits. As usual, we are left to ponder in a state of confusion until it's too late and the taxes are filed.
Terry Says
I believe that cutting the CORPORATE tax rate (which is now the highest of all the OECD -- economically developed countries -- would generate corporate investment and growth, and more tax revenues. And if that were true -- then they wouldn't have to make deep cuts in Medicare, and eliminate deductions like student loan interest and excess medical costs. The economic growth would make up for the tax cuts. Many of the proposed cuts are mean-spirited -- and unnecessary if you believe as John F. Kennedy once said: "Paradoxically, the way to increase tax revenues is to cut tax rates!" History proved that to be true -- not only in the Reagan era, but for the Kennedy and Clinton tax cuts, too! And you know the huge Kennedy tax cuts which cut the top personal tax rate from 91% to 70%, and the corporate rate from 52 to 48%, as well as the Clinton capital gains tax cut from 28% to 20 percent, were made by DEMOCRATS! This is not a political issue -- it's an issue of economics. AND, it strikes me as silly to argue that tax cuts will add to the deficit, when we have been adding nearly #1 trillion a year to the deficit anyway. The CBO says that this fiscal year the deficit will be close to $700 billion! So it's like boiling a frog -- slowly! Let's give our economy a chance to grow out of its problems so we don't have to cut government spending.
