I'm going to (as a conservative) depart from the conventional conservative line on this. There are people so rich, Warren Buffet being one, and by rich I mean wealth not earnings, that nothing would be lost in the economy by taxing them at a much higher rate. By a much higher rate I mean the ordinary rate for individuals.
These people create foundations which are supposedly "non-profits" or "not for profits," and further more supposedly they are charities. These are shells for their wealth which allow them to avoid paying taxes on the growth of their wealth, and what taxes they pay are as capital gains or dividends.
After some amount of wealth is accrued– and at present the government/IRS doesn’t look at wealth at all – the growth on that wealth should be taxed at regular rates like apply to anyone else. There should, perhaps, be a $100-million wealth threshold, or if we don’t want the feds looking at wealth (after all wealth is a private issue requiring the filing a financial statement), then when dividends or “gains” to an individual are greater than some threshold amount, all after that amount would be subject to the higher rate.
The foundations mentioned above are almost always liberal institutions, and the money goes to liberal causes, used to grow the liberal establishment. Instead there could be some sort of tax abatement allowed only when the wealth grows from seed money for new inventions, seed money for small business start-ups, or to educational institutions, and others of the sort.
There are many variations on the amounts and thresholds, but we need to encourage the channeling of these earnings into the economy for useful endeavors instead of political and philosophical schemes. That would apply to “Think Tanks” of both the left and the right which foundations give money to.
How about just stopping the money to all lobbyists and stopping all the subsidies?
Reforming our tax code and reforming how we hold our elections?
The fund raising and length of time has become insane.
Fair Tax ends all lobbying.
Fund raising for candidates is free speech.