The Whole Enchilada
"Opinion"08/03/2012
Paul Munnis
So far ending the Bush Tax Cuts has concentrated on revised tax tables. These will revert to the taxing amounts in use during the Clinton era when government had enough money to run a balanced budget and payoff our debt burden.
But there is more than that involved in ending the Bush Tax Cuts. By revising the tax table the Bushies moved the goal posts on the Alternative Minimum Tax designed to assure that people could not avoid paying taxes by using tax loopholes. When they did that they prevented huge amounts of taxation by the rich.
The other biggie had to do with a revision to the Capital Gains taxes. It is this provision that allows the rich to really pocket the big bucks and compared to the revision of tax tables this is the big enchilada, the one that Republicans seek above all to keep from coming back.
So as you can see there is more to this than just revising tax tables.
To truly work right the Tax Tables need to be revised as Obama has described, keeping them the same for those making under $250,000 and restoring the formula for the AMT, and by reinstating the Clinton era capital gains taxes.
Right now speculators can make a fortune on betting on futures contracts and derivatives and avoid paying much, if any, taxes on their gains. That is wrong. That is why Wall Street needs to be cleaned up, that is why the government can’t balance its budget; that is why we have budget deficits. The rich want to avoid paying taxes on capital gains so they can pass their fortunes on to their kids and start family dynasty’s here in America.
When we end the Bush Tax Cuts, let’s make sure the whole package is properly revised.
I expect that when the Congress resumes in six weeks that they could come back ready to compromise on tax cuts, be willing to address the tax tables, and say NO to restoring the AMT and the Capital Gains taxes. We must have the whole package kept and then revise the tax tables. The order it is done in is critical.
This stuff matters to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year of taxpayer relief for the middle class.