Ronald Reagan was More of a Socialist than Obama!
From 1980 to 1988 the top tax rate was 50%! How on earth did we survive? Take a look at the rates during the Nixon/Ford years (69-76), or better yet the Eisenhower years (52-60)… Notice what the rates were in the Republican years of 1921-1932, immediately preceding the great depression. Looks like what the fat cat Republicans are wanting again.
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You can’t just look at tax rates alone. You have to analyze the brackets. The fact of the matter of Reagan is that he inherited a worse economy than we have right now and turned it around very quickly with tax cuts – which is exactly what your graph shows in 1980. The 50% tax rate affected a LOT less people in the 1980s. You had to make $200K+, which is 700K in today’s $!!!! That’s unlike the new definition of rich: married filing jointly over $200K. That’s an attack on the middle class and all small business owners. Like Obama said about Joe the Plumber to continue to rile up his following’s inaccurate wealth envy: “how many plumbers do you know that make 250k?!?”. The answer ? Plenty of them if they own a business taxed as a pass-through (which most are). What’s Joe going to do now that his marginal tax rate just jumped ? Hire some more plumbers ??? I don’t think so.
Actually, in 1980 and 1981, President Reagan left the tax rate the same as it was under Jimmy Carter. In 1982, he did lower the tax rate, to 50% for any household with an income greater than $85,600. He raised that annual income level for the top bracket gradually to $175,250 by 1986. He then lowered the top tax rate to 38.5% (just one % point lower than Obama’s plan) in 1987, and adjusted the income level back down to $90,000.
Source: http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php
As far as your point that plenty of plumbers, or other independent small businesses make over 250k/year, that’s true, but if they have even a decent accountant and financial advisor, their actual reportable income after expenses takes them back down out of that bracket.
The middle class is shrinking, and it is due to the greed of the upper class and corporate elite, not our tax system. It is company’s like Walmart, Home Depot, and Costco that have put small retailers out of business.
It is the national builders that demand that the construction workers (including plumbers) trim their margins so low that they barely make a profit.
It is the Blues, Aetnas, and Uniteds that drive up health care premiums, all the while slashing reimbursement rates to the actual health care providers that has stripped us of an entire generation of general practicioners, forcing medical students to choose specialties in order to make a decent living.
It is the banks and mortgage companies that conspired together to falsely raise the values of our properties, then offer millions of homeowners loans that they never qualified for in the first place in order to strip us of what little equity we had, all in order to makimize profits and enjoy $80M annual bonuses.
The new proposed tax system will go after THOSE people, the truly rich that have been stealing our opportunity for wealth. This idea of class warfare is being espoused by those who have profited the most over the past ten years. They are trying to build an army through lies and manipulation of the truth, but the truth is out there for anyone that wants to find it!