The Politics of Taxes are as Crazy as Tax Policy Itself

Reconcile this!

Consider these policy proposals and associated facts (partial list):

• We tax the rich too much. Democrats seem to agree as they support eliminating or at least doubling the SALT deduction cap.

• We tax high-income people too much. Democrats seem to agree as they support forgiving student loans where most beneficiaries earn more than the average American household and in one large subprogram the average beneficiary earns over $300,000 per year.

• We should raise taxes especially on middle-class Americans. Republicans seem to agree as they are so adamantly in support of tariffs.

• We should let other nations dictate our tax policy. Democrats including economists serving in the current administration seem to agree as they want us to commit to the OECD taxation agreements.

• We should defiantly make sure that we will always run growing and fantastically large deficits financed by debt through dually guaranteeing excessively expensive Social Security and Medicare systems and promising to never have adequate tax revenues to pay for them. Republicans obviously agree as they have no intention to consider any reforms of these programs but also are adamant that taxes should not go up. Less surprisingly Democrats agree as well.

• We should discourage saving (especially by the wealthy) and instead encourage consumption (some might call it conspicuous consumption). Both parties agree by giving no effort to replacing our income and capital taxing systems (income tax, capital gains tax, corporate tax, estate tax, and the still-in-development wealth tax) with consumption taxing systems (VAT or income tax with unlimited IRA contributions).

• We should give the gift of high-paying, nearly-guaranteed employment to tax accountants, tax lawyers, financial planners, et al. Again both parties agree by maintaining an impossibly complex system when so many straightforward alternatives exist including being used in other countries (many of them former communist economies).

There are many reasons that today, April 15th, should be a day of national mourning.