It is absolutely amazing how Republicans and conservative talk show hosts complain about President Obama’s plan to raise the marginal tax rate on the top five percent of the population from 36 to 39 percent. They tell us that Obama is a socialist because of this attempt to make the super rich pay more after years of very low marginal tax rates which have seen the wealth of the country flow ever more into the hands of a small elite, at the same time that the middle class has been collapsing.
When one looks at the highest tax rates on the wealthy throughout the past century, one discovers that the tax rate was above 60 percent from 1932 to 1980 and reached a peak of 90 percent in the Eisenhower (Republican) Presidency! It was only 40 percent or lower since 1988, even being 50 percent in the Reagan years.The only time it was in the mid 20s was in the Coolidge-Hoover years in the 1920s.Â
So, in other words, the only times it was really low was when poverty grew, the middle class shrunk, and corporate corruption and greed and materialism prevailed, the 1920s and the years since 1988. Is that not enough evidence of the need to raise the rate to try to address the horrible inequities that have developed in the last generation? Realize in the two periods just mentioned, the result of the low tax policy on the elite was the coming of the Great Depression in the 1930s and the coming of what is now called by many the Great Recession that we are suffering right now.Â
So my thought is that if the elite rich have a problem with paying more taxes, I would just say "sorry", but to assert that the time for selfishness and greed is over, and it is time to be thankful for the great opportunities this country has presented to you, and you now owe the country your appreciation by paying up at a higher tax rate without complaint!