What would the Conservative reaction be to a change in the tax code that says you pay nothing on incomes until you breech the $25,000 a year mark? And once you do, you pay 5% on everything earned up to $35,000, 7% on everything up to $50,000 and 10% on everything up to $75,000.
After that, a graduated tax of 2% per $5,000 up to infinity.
Surely the poor would then pay and the rich (who benefit the most under our current system) would pay as well.
Why is it always screw the poor and middle class but coddle the rich with Conservatives? Are you all that rich or all that heartless?
No we're not heartless. We simply see the facts of the matter. The rich who have earned income pay the highest rate, 35%. Those who have unearned income, that is income from risking their wealth that has already been taxed are, by making that wealth available as capital, creating new jobs and new taxpayers. They can sit out a bad economy or punitive taxes, and largely, they are doing that now. If, for instance, they were taxed at the full earned income rate, they would in effect be double taxed, They could even take their wealth outside the country, and if they chose to remove themselves take all that potential wealth too.
Virtually all the corporations which don't pay federal taxes on income earned in the US do so with loopholes which were designed by our politicaians to serve the greater public interest by encouraging investment by those corporations into sectors the politicians deem productive for our economy. A write-off for accelerated depreciation encourages a corporation to make a capital investment that they probably would put off, but the tax break incentivizes them to move with immediacy.