Free Republic

Perhaps the biggest issue going into the fall’s midterm elections is the elimination, extension or modification of the so-called Bush tax cuts. It affects our wallets, of course, but also our nation’s financial future, as government debt continues to expand to immense proportions While the argument is sometimes framed as tax cuts for the rich, the truth is if Congress does nothing before January, virtually all Americans’ paychecks would shrink. The tax cuts passed under the Bush administration, mostly enacted in 2001 and 2003, substantially lowered what every taxpayer, poor and rich, owes each year. Among the dozen major tax...

This is getting to be a habit, albeit mostly a pleasant one. The government revised its measure of first quarter economic growth again yesterday to 3.8%, up from its previous estimate of 3.5%, which was above its initial estimate of 3.1%. You may recall that the initial estimate inspired a great deal of fretting that the current economic expansion was heading south. But the 3.8% figure -- despite high oil prices -- matches the rate for the fourth quarter of 2004 and means that growth has now averaged close to a 4% annual rate for eight consecutive quarters going back...

...What does this mean for U.S. tax policy? It means that we should stop focusing our attention on the recent tax cuts and, instead, start thinking about tax rates. And that means that we should roll back the 1993 tax rate increases and re-establish those from the 1986 Tax Reform Act. Just as they did in the late 1980s, and just as they would in Europe, these lower rates would increase the labor supply, output would grow and tax revenues would increase.... Some say that the 1993 tax-rate hike was responsible for erasing this country's debt problems because it increased...

Top US Marginal Income Tax Rates, 1913--2003 Introduction This is a table of the top marginal tax rate faced by married couples for most of the last century in the US. Note that these are top marginal rates only, not average effective rates. That is, the rate is not an average rate (total tax paid divided by total income), but a marginal rate (the rate paid on dollars of income over the "top bracket," listed below as "Taxable income over--"); the rate does not take into account all possible exemptions and deductions, so taxes actually paid may have been lower...