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Tax The Rich? Okay. But How?

Feb 13, 2019
by Caroline Miller
Bernie Sanders, Democrats, Donald Trump, flat tax, Kamala Harris, Malcom Forbes, Republicans
2 Comments

monopoly

An interesting poll came out the other day. (“Poll Watch,” The Week, Feb 8, 2019, pg. 17)  Fifty-five percent of Americans favor receiving a health care plan through Medicare, but only 37% would be willing to raise taxes for it.  Presidential aspirant, Kamala Harris, and Senator Bernie Sanders imagine they can make the rich pay — even as they propose a tax cut on the middle class.  Unfortunately, the bill they submitted in Congress went nowhere.  People with sharp pencils concluded their legislation would cost $33 trillion dollars in the first decade.  (“Talking Points,” The Week, Feb. 8, 2019, pg. 17)

“Taxing the rich” to pay for universal health care is jingoism much like the old, “a chicken in every pot.” Proponents forget the rich are adept at avoiding taxes.  Didn’t Donald Trump admit as much during the 2016 campaign?  Largely, they secure their money by putting it in illiquid assets such as property, art, or privately held companies, enterprises that aren’t taxed like income.  (“Taxing the rich” The Week, Feb. 8, 2019, pg. 16.)

As they don’t need it, I’m not surprised the rich don’t want to pay for universal healthcare.  Unfortunately, the middle class is averse, too.  Given the universal reluctance, how are Harris and Sanders to fund their project?  Simple.  A Flat Tax.   Malcom Forbes, a two times Presidential candidate, proposed it a while ago but, except for a few Republicans, no one listened.  The Democrats haven’t touched the idea, mainly because the Republicans liked it.  Even so, the idea is far from revolutionary.  Both Medicare and Social Security are flat taxes.

True, a flat tax  lies heavier on the middle class than the rich, but as a buffer against increasing healthcare costs, it might be a fair trade-off.  Some states have already adopted the idea and reaped financial benefits. It’s simple math. When tax loopholes disappear, everybody pays.

 

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2 Comments
  1. Susan February 13, 2019 at 12:32 pm Reply
    The cost is a non-issue. Most studies show a net savings for the country. The money that employers now pay for health insurance would go into the medicare for all pot. Same with all the other money being paid for private insurance. The US Department of Labor found that something like five cents of every dollar paid into medicare goes to administrative overhead while private insurance companies rake off 33 cents out of every dollar. US health care is one of the most expensive in the world while we rank quite low in every objective criteria of health care outcomes when compared with first world countries with universal health care. Until Ronald Reagan, the rich were paying 70% and the whole country benefited. That said, flat tax is a very old idea and I'm not sure how it would work. As I understand it, if everybody paid 30% of their income it seems like it would be a dire burden on the working poor and have little impact on the rich who would still try to find ways not to pay.
    • Caroline Miller February 13, 2019 at 3:08 pm Reply
      Well, Susan, everyone knows I am but a humble English teacher and no mathematician, but I balk a phrases like ‘most studies show” and before Reagan lowered the tax rate “the whole country benefited.” I’m sure there are studies that show whatever it is a person is looking for, but what is the measuring stick by which you affirm the whole country benefited when the rich paid higher taxes? Curious, I went back to check on the highest rate of income tax the country ever levied. You and I can be forgiven for not remembering when that was. I was still in swaddling clothes and you were yet to be born. However, in the 1940s, the tax rate was as high as 94%. As the nation was deep in a depression, I find it hard to accept the notion that the whole country benefited from those rates. I could be wrong, but at that time, the tax rate seemed irrelevant. What pulled the country out of the depression, was World War II, which created more jobs than the population could fill. Yes, a flat tax does put a greater burden on the middle class than it does on the rich. I pay more for Medicare than Warren Buffet, proportionately. It’s true. But, overall, the system seems to work. It’s also true the flat tax idea has been around for a while. Few of Forbes’s billionaire cronies supported his suggestion. And here, I merely speculate. But I think the tax was too transparent, lacked too few opportunities to hide money, and was too easy for an individual to understand. I think it scared them. As for being old, at 82, I don’t hold that against the idea. “Do unto others,” has been around for a long, long time. It still works for me.

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Contact Caroline at

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Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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