"Bring back Reagan's tax wisdom"

[shockingelk]

Rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those making over 200K and giving tax cuts to everyone else can accurately be described as making the income tax structure more similar to what it was like under Reagan.

1987
2004

[lanparty]

1. nice ...

Just remember the "golden days" of the 50s saw the highest tax rates ever. Why do conservatives idolize these times with such high tax rates????

[Anarcho-Socialist]

4. That's a good point

There was a tax bracket of 98% at one time.

[lanparty]

7. They bring up Kennedy's "tax cut" ...

But Kennedy's program was really a tax restructuring. They closed loopholes for taxable income and dropped the rate form 90% to 70%.

Conservatives NEVER like details. Details are messy. Details can interefere with ideology. Facts and details: BAD. Preaching idiology: GOOD!!!!!!

[shockingelk]

9. Then it could be made very simple:

"Sen. Kerry is suggesting rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those making over $200K and giving tax cuts to everyone else. The idea would raise the contributions from the richest Americans from 35% to 39.6% as it was in 2000, just 1% away from where Reagan left it: 38.5%."

The type of objections that would be raised would be bickering over 1.1%, which could soundly be laughed off: "We're talking about providing health insurance to sick Americans and solving the largest deficit problems we've experienced. 1% that applies to 2% of the population is petty."

And for those interested in complexity, Reagan's "cuts" had a lot of shifting going on too: this is a great link to send Reagan worshipers who think the lower the taxes are, the better, period - from National Review: http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200310290853.asp

[girl gone mad]

2. Reagan..

raised payroll taxes significantly, though.

[shockingelk]

3. The fact is, it's accurate to invoke Reagan's income tax structure

The Bush campaign invokes Reagan's legacy frequently. How would they argue that Reagan's tax structure was wrong?

BTW, reagan presided over the largest tax increase in history - but that's not the point - the fact of rolling back tax cuts for those making over 200K/year is making things more like under Reagan.

What those making over 200K/year were contributing in income taxes:
1987: 38.5%
2000: 39.6% <- what Kerry wants to roll it back to
2004: 35%

I think it would be effective to frame it like that.

[cheshire]

5. I recall Reaganomics was coined then I hated him too

[shockingelk]

6. But conservatives love him

More than Bush. Much more.

[Rambis]

8. Bush Sr. Called it "Voodoo Economics"

"don't piss down my back and tell me it's rainin" trickle down my ass-