Bernie Sanders proposes $15 Trillion in tax increases

[FAH1223]

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has proposed $15.3 trillion in tax increases, according to a new report, and would raise rates on virtually everyone, including the politically all-important middle class.

Not surprisingly for a candidate who has made income inequality his central issue, Sanders’ plan would wallop the wealthy, an analysis released Friday by the Tax Policy Center shows.

The top 0.1 percent would see their tax bills go up by more than $3 million, the report said, which would cut their aftertax incomes by almost half.

But Sanders, going where few politicians dare, would also raise taxes on middle- and low-income families, with those in the dead center of the income spectrum facing a $4,700 tax increase. That would reduce their aftertax incomes by 8.5 percent, the report said.


The report underscores the stark choice facing Democratic primary voters when it comes to tax policy.

Rival Hillary Clinton has proposed a number of tax increases as well, but she has targeted the wealthy and on businesses, and plans a tax cut for those further down the income ladder.

“There is a very, very clear choice,” said Len Burman, head of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “They really couldn’t be more different.”

“Bernie Sanders is very open about raising taxes on everybody, with the argument that people at all income levels are going to be benefiting from the new spending programs that he’s proposing,” Burman said.

The group, which has issued a string of independent assessments of the presidential contenders’ tax plans, said yesterday that Clinton’s plan would raise taxes by $1 trillion. The Clinton campaign told the group she plans a tax cut for middle- and low-income families later in the campaign, though TPC said it didn’t have details.

Sanders wants tax hikes to pay for a raft of new government benefits, including health care for everyone, free college tuition, paid family and medical leave, and increased infrastructure spending.

There is a risk that Sanders’ tax increases won’t be enough to cover all the additional spending, worsening the government’s already dire long-term budget outlook, the TPC said, though it didn’t examine that question in detail.

Nor did it examine whether, for some taxpayers, the value of Sanders’ new government benefits would outstrip the cost of his tax increases.

“We do not account for the effects of the new government programs on income,” Burman said. “We focused on the tax side, and we’re not really experts on the spending component.”

The report underscores how Sanders is a rare presidential candidate in either party who is willing to spell out in detail how he’d finance his legislative agenda. By contrast, the Republican candidates have proposed tax-reform plans that would cost trillions, saying they would be financed by thus-far unspecified spending cuts and economic growth.

Russell Simmons, left, and Lucy McIntosh attend the 2016 All Def Movie Awards held in Los Angeles.

In all, Sanders has proposed more than two dozen separate tax increases, the report shows, and in every major class of taxes.

He’s called for multiple increases in the income taxes paid by individual Americans that would push the top rate to 54 percent, from the current 39.6 percent.

At the same time, Sanders would create and expand payroll taxes. He's proposed a new 6.2 percent tax on employers as well as an additional 0.2 percent payroll tax on both employers and their workers. He would also apply the current 12.4 percent Social Security tax to incomes over $250,000.

Corporate taxes would go up, mostly by going after multinational corporations using accounting maneuvers to slice their tax bills. Sanders would end so-called deferral, which allows companies to postpone paying taxes on overseas profits; target tax-advantaged corporate inversions; and place new limits on the credits companies receive for paying taxes in other countries.

Sanders would almost triple capital gains taxes to 64 percent, a level unseen since World War I. At the same time, he would shut off ways the wealthy have long used to avoid paying the tax, such as “stepped up basis at death,” which allows them to pass assets onto heirs tax free.

And he would create two big new excise taxes, including a carbon tax, the first time that’s been proposed by a major presidential candidate.

Sanders would charge $15 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions in 2017, with the fee ramping up to $73 per ton by 2035. That would raise $900 billion over the next decade, after accounting for rebates he would give to people of middle and low income, who presumably would be hit with higher energy prices, the Tax Policy Center said.

He would also create a new financial transaction tax that would charge 0.5 percent on stock sales. That would produce an additional $692 billion, according to the analysis.

The top 1 percent of earners would bear 38 percent of the total tax increase proposed by Sanders, according to the analysis, while those in the top fifth of incomes would pay 68 percent of his levies.

That top quintile, which includes those earning more than $142,000, would see taxes go up by an average $44,759. Those at the very bottom of the income ladder would see their taxes go up by $165, and those in the second quintile of incomes — between $23,000 and $45,000 — would pay an additional $1,625.

Many of Sanders's tax increases are so big and novel that it tested the ability of the Tax Policy Center to predict their likely effects.

“It was a difficult estimating task,” said Frank Sammartino, a senior fellow at the group. “For changes of this magnitude, we’re really going into unknown territory."


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/b ... z41xqSNI4G

[AgentOfChaos]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, we know all the REAL America won't stand for that "communism" ideology, and we all know that shit will never happen, so lets not bullshit ourselves. But first lets make one thing clear, all the things Bernie is promising is in reality actually very possible because they're already successfully being implemented in other countries. And let's not forget most of the things he is suggesting requires consent of the Congress, and oh boy is that a fool's errand. The whole tax increase that Bernie mentioned is mainly due to his universal healthcare he proposed, look at Sweden for example, sure they have one of the best universal healthcare system in the world, but EVERYONE pays more taxes then they do in USA.

TL;DR= If something sounds too good to be true then it usually is.

[X.Playa]

The American GDP isn't even 15 trillion , last time I remember it was 11.

[Thuganomics]

Americans have been duped to believe socialism is some sort of a dictatorship system that will enslave and robb them of their assets.While in reality it's free market capitalism that does that.Which is the system they worship.All the best European countries which are voted year in year out the best countries to live in have all been run by socialist governments.
When the banks or big business are in trouble in America they subsidise them ala socialism.But when joe public is in dire straights they refer back to the dog eat dog world of free market capitalism.This figure of 15 trillion is just scaremongering by the people that would loose big time if Sanders won

[Gabre]

lmao fuck this Jew

[GAMES]

Question, where would he get $15 trillions from? Even if he taxes people making less than $20k a yr, he won't be able to come up with that figure.

This Sanders guy isn't really too smart, he is too far left and on the fringes.

LooL no1 would vote for him.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

lmao fuck this Jew

Says the xabashi. Aren't you people meant to be lost jews or something?

Bernie will never get a sniff of power because he is far to principled and intelligent. America hasn't had a president like that since FDR.

[FAH1223]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, we know all the REAL America won't stand for that "communism" ideology, and we all know that shit will never happen, so lets not bullshit ourselves. But first lets make one thing clear, all the things Bernie is promising is in reality actually very possible because they're already successfully being implemented in other countries. And let's not forget most of the things he is suggesting requires consent of the Congress, and oh boy is that a fool's errand. The whole tax increase that Bernie mentioned is mainly due to his universal healthcare he proposed, look at Sweden for example, sure they have one of the best universal healthcare system in the world, but EVERYONE pays more taxes then they do in USA.

TL;DR= If something sounds too good to be true then it usually is.

The solutions are so easy to see but difficult to implement with this current Congress controlled by the rich

[FAH1223]

The American GDP isn't even 15 trillion , last time I remember it was 11.

Question, where would he get $15 trillions from? Even if he taxes people making less than $20k a yr, he won't be able to come up with that figure.

This Sanders guy isn't really too smart, he is too far left and on the fringes.

LooL no1 would vote for him.

It's $15 trillion over 10 years so $1.5 trillion per year.

THINK before you start panicking. Americans spend $2-$3 Trillion per year on health insurance. That's $20-$30 Trillion per decade on health insurance alone. Bernie's tax plan, which will cost $15 Trillion per decade, includes making college tuition free, universal healthcare, and an infrastructure bill that will create 13 million jobs. So do the math. For half of what Americans pay for health insurance, they'll be getting healthcare, free college tuition, and better infrastructure. Bernie's tax plan makes too much sense!

The Tax Policy Center is made up of "tax specialists who had served in the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton administrations" But sure, they're "independent."

Here's an actual independent analysis: Just How Much Would Bernie Sanders Tax Me? – The Datatitian


From Robert Reich, Top Economist, Former Secretary of Labor to Clinton:

1. This doesn't take account of the fact that Bernie is also calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which would (according to the well-respected Citizens for Tax Justice) increase the take-home pay of those at the bottom by almost $1,500 a year, on average.

2. Bernie’s plan would cover the estimated 2.9 million poor adults now ineligible for Medicaid because they live in states that didn’t expand the program under the Affordable Care Act.

3. It would also cover the 8.8 million now eligible for Medicaid but haven’t signed up. They wouldn’t have to sign up under a single-payer plan.

4. Bernie’s plan would eliminate the huge co-payments and deductibles now paid by many lower-middle class workers.

Considering all this, lower-income Americans would come out way ahead with Bernie's economic plan. "

[X.Playa]

15t in a decade is very reasonable, the bailout of wall Street banksters costed more then that.

[FAH1223]

15t in a decade is very reasonable, the bailout of wall Street banksters costed more then that.

Yeah $29 trillion for Wall Street