While I agree that raising taxes kills jobs, I question your figures. Self-employed individuals do not get taxed on the “employer” portion of the 15% social security tax. And medicare is not 6%, it is 1.45%. The top tax rate of 39% does not apply to entire income, the tax tables are tiered rates. Before you use a 60% tax burden in an argument with a liberal, perhaps brushing up on the with-holding tax calculations would be beneficial.
I stand corrected - I was using a comment by Bob Brinker on Money Talk and forgot that part of his 6% number was state taxes. Now the IRS does have this data “The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance).” This plus if you are in the Top bracket - 140K (?) then it is now 39% and we are at 54.3% That seems like a lot to me - how about you?