2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary Clinton panders to middle-class voters with unrealistic tax promises
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during the Iowa Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner. (Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clinton-panders-to-middle-class-voters-with-unrealistic-tax-promises/2015/11/28/a7e55212-9208-11e5-8aa0-5d0946560a97_story.html
By Editorial Board November 28 at 6:23 PM
IF THERE is a social or economic need, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has a tax credit to match. Shes proposed one for businesses that institute profit-sharing plans (cost: $20 billion over 10 years); another for hiring disabled veterans; and, as of last week, a tax credit worth up to $1,200 to help families defray the cost of caring for their elderly members at home (a $10 billion, 10-year item). Coming soon: changes to Social Security to benefit workers who take time off to care for the elderly.
When it comes to paying for these targeted benefits, plus her other promises such as universal preschool, however, the former secretary of state has a clear principle: none of the 97 percent of U.S. households that earn $250,000 or less per year will be asked to contribute higher taxes.
If this strikes you as implausible the Democratic equivalent of the no-tax-hike pledge Republican candidates regularly impose on themselves we agree. There is simply no way that the federal government can meet its current fiscal commitments, plus the increased demands of an aging population, and provide the new forms of middle-class relief and business tax relief Ms. Clinton promises, while tapping only the top 3 percent of earners.
To the contrary, if the U.S. government is to do all those things and still reduce its long-term debt to a more manageable share of the total economy, middle- and upper-middle-class Americans are going to have to contribute more, not less. Examples: You cant have securely funded national infrastructure programs without increasing the gas tax for the first time since 1993; and one way to shore up Social Securitys trust fund would be to raise the maximum amount of taxable earnings from the current level of $118,500.
FULL story at link.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)FICA tax, she does not want the increase on those earning below $250,000.
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)NO NEW TAXES!
Historic NY
(37,451 posts)of U.S. households that earn $250,000 or less per year will be asked to contribute higher taxes, is pandering. Unlike the way the code is set now that the top 3% pays a far less share of actual income.
Buzz cook
(2,472 posts)So you must hate Sanders
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)bornskeptic
(1,330 posts)From later in the linked column:
But the truth is there isnt really all that much difference between Ms. Clintons promise to soak the top 3 percent and Mr. Sanderss promise to get the money he needs from the billionaire class. Both are selling the voters an unrealistic guarantee; both are ignoring the need for deficit reduction along with a modernized social safety net. Like the GOP candidates, the Democrats are offering ideas poll-tested and calculated to appeal to the party base, rather than creative approaches to the countrys fiscal predicament. Eventually, our leaders will have to stop pandering to the middle class, hopefully before a crisis forces them to face facts.