We Need a Robin Hood Tax—Not Cuts in Food Stamps

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/02-0



I saw a man dressed as Robin Hood on Halloween and I almost begged him to stay around.

We need Robin Hood and his merry band of wealth redistribution specialists not just on Halloween but every day, and this year in particular we need him on November 1.

That’s when $332 million in cuts to the food stamp or SNAP program go into effect. Three point one million low-wage workers, seniors, veterans and children are losing urgently needed aid. And that’s just the cuts the President and Congress enacted in 2010. We need Robin Hood because Congress is talking about taking $39 billion more. And we need Robin because while 1.2 million poor children are going to be eating even less, 400 already rich Americans are enjoying even more.

Take a look at the Forbes 400 List. While the working poor have taken cut after cut, the richest Americans have seen their wealth double in the last ten years.

We need Robin Hood because between them those 400 are worth just over $2 trillion dollars. That’s two thousand billion. We only need the small change on that to stop those food stamp cuts. Robin Hood would know what to do.

[JHB]

1. 55 minus 10

Take all 24 tax brackets that were in effect in 1955, adjust them for inflation, and lop a straight 10% of each rate. the 20% rate becomes 10%, the 22% becomes 12%, etc.

Naturally, the exact rates would be subject to debate and negotiation, but no problem -- there's nothing magical about the precise 1955 numbers.

But "55 minus 10" would underscore what the tax rates used to be, in this country, during the height of the Cold War when we were "leader of the Free World". 24 brackets, 16 applying only to incomes above the equivalent of $250,000, 11 of which applied only to incomes over the equivalent of a half-million dollars. The top bracket kicks in on income over ~$3.5 million.

The people who want to "take our country back"and freely spray around the term "socialism" could use the splash of cold water about what kind of capitalism we had back then.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. If such a tax plan were adopted, how would they be able to afford luxury jets, more expensive cars,

boats or yachts, art works, plus places to live and entertain, lobsters and Kobe beef, rare wines and
whiskeys, other drugs of choice, and politicians?



The problem with low-wage workers, seniors, veterans and children is that they don't realize how expensive
such things are. Especially politicians.