Taxes Need To Be Raised On The Richest Americans

The top chart shows the national debt since 2000. In 2000, the debt was about $5.67 trillion. At the end of 2018, it was $21.52 trillion (see chart above). And thanks to a huge increase in military spending and large tax cuts for the rich, it is growing larger by at least a trillion dollars a year.

When he was campaigning in 2016, Donald Trump promised to eliminate the national debt in eight years. He has done just the opposite -- growing that debt by $2 trillion in his first two years in office.

One of the biggest causes is the tax cut for the rich. He cut the top corporate tax to 21%, and the top tax rate for the richest Americans to about 37% (see chart below). Neither was warranted (since corporations and the rich were doing very well -- making record profits and income).

How much national debt is too much? This nation has had a national debt since its inception, but that debt is now getting out of control. Republicans will tell you that government programs (except for military spending) must be cut. That won't work. Thanks to the austerity they have imposed for the last couple of decades, most of those programs have already been cut to the bone. More cuts would hurt the Americans who need help the most.

The only reasonable solution is to raise taxes on the richest Americans (and cut out all subsidies to corporations making huge profits). Rep. Ocasio-Cortez had suggested initiating a new top tax rate of 70%, which would apply only to income over $10 million.

It's not a bad idea at all. The top marginal tax rate has been much higher than that in the past, and the economy did very well. We can argue about what the top rate should be, and at what level it should kick in, but the truth is that it needs to happen -- and it needs to happen sooner than later.

Republicans like to say that lowering taxes for the rich trickles down and benefits everyone. That has never been true. Nothing trickles down. The rich just get richer.

Tax policy should be fair, and not just beneficial for the rich. Government must be paid for, and the national debt brought under control -- and that requires taxes. It's time for those who have benefitted the most from this country to pay their fair share in taxes.