Yeah, the rich get off easy say the progressives, and even Trump. Sanders proposed plan raises taxes for all, ALL, the poorest families taxes would go up $165. The Tax Policy Center has put out data, http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/.
Today 88% of income taxes are paid by 20% of households, 12% by the rest and 45% of income earners pay NO income taxes.
Bernie Sanders and his wife pay an effective rate of 13.4% on their income of $206,000. The average “wealthy” income earner pays and average of 23.4% in income taxes. This is not including medicare, FICA, state income or sales taxes.
So what is “fair?” Some would say an equal, flat tax is fair. Some would say a VAT, or tax on all sales is fair. France tried to levy a 90% tax on millionaires, upon lots of threats to leave they backed off. Some would say let’s spend and borrow the deficit is fair, an eternal question about pros and cons (Fact, if interest rates go up 1%, the federal debt service goes up $180 BILLION a year.) Fair is such a lousy word, very relative to each speaker. What is fair to you may not be to me. Paying taxes is patriotic, Joe Biden, I agree. What we don’t agree on is how much and how well are our dollars spent.
All of this walks past the root cause, not enough economic growth to fund the governments’ policy decisions. Meaning, the folks we elect spend more money than they take in, and we actually pay them $170,000 a year to do it!
Solution. 1. Stop spending so much. 2. Get out of the way of the economy so it can grow (tax rates-regulations-F.U.D. (fear-uncertainty-doubt)).