” make it fairer”...
It’s not “fair” that 48% don’t pay any income tax at all. What happened to the rational that everyone must have “skin in the game” or they aren’t pulling their “fair share”?
I have a very clear memory, and the records to back it up, which shows that when working part time for just above minimum wage while going to college, I PAID income tax, i.e., there were no working credits, education deductions and the like. The minimum rate was about 15%. Some would say but but but the SS tax was about 3% and that would be correct, so the tax on my income was 18%, not counting the employers portion, which is a far cry above what it is for a good number of workers today. I would gladly go with a flat tax or a fair tax and frankly today I would pay about the same amount of tax as I would under either of these systems but content in the knowledge that everybody pays.