Bloomberg News on the Democrats’ tax plans: Hillary’s plan “seeks to change Americans’ behavior”, Obama’s involves more wealth “redistribution.”
Anyone else reminded of the election episode of South Park?
As the article notes, both Democrats would repeal the Bush tax cuts on the top two tax brackets. This year, that’s any single person making $164,000 or more; for a married couple, that’s about $200,000 or more.
Finally, via Ross Douthat, lefty blogger Ezra Klein recognizes that in some high cost of living areas, a household earning $150,000 isn’t rich. It’s not poor, obviously, but it’s not the champagne and caviar scene that most people picture when they think of “the wealthy.”
Bloomberg notes that both Democrats would “set the estate-tax rate at 45 percent with a $7 million exemption. Obama wants tax rates on capital gains and dividends to rise from the current 15 percent rate to perhaps as high as 28 percent.”
Also in the not terribly reassuring category, “Obama would tweak and augment current laws, while Clinton would introduce even more rules by adding at least nine new credits with complex qualification requirements, phase-outs and sliding scales.”