In case you didn’t see what Ted Cruz was responding to as shown in my previous post Making Machine-Gun Bacon with Ted Cruz, here is Rand Paul in all his glory.
Instead of a motto of “Unleash the American Dream”, maybe he should change it to “Unleash an oligarch’s wet dream”. 14% flat tax indeed. Would a one-page tax code allow for deductions?
If $15/hour is a barely livable wage – equivalent of $30,000 per year, let’s see what that flat tax rate is on various salaries above the barely livable wage.
| Gross Wage |
Wage in excess of the poverty line |
14% tax on gross income |
Tax rate for income in excess of poverty |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $20,000 | $7,000 | 35% |
| $100,000 | $70,000 | $14,000 | 20% |
| $1,000,000 | $970,000 | $140,000 | 14% |
| $1,000,000,000 | $999,970,000 | $140,000,000 | 14% |
Does it still sound fair to you?
Now think of the huge increases in wealth from unrealized capital gains that are not even counted as income and which people at the $50,000 level have hardly any of. This increase in wealth, not recognized as income, is many multiples of the amount of money counted as income for the billionaires. This is the way the wealthy arrange for their compensation, not income, to be paid. Is this still sounding fair?