Brooks Says He Is A Sap

[nathanm]

You know Nate, yesterday the AP basically called BS on Obama's remarks about the rich not paying their fair share.

That was one of the smoothest transitions from talking about total tax to "federal tax" I've seen yet. The poor pay more as a proportion of their income in sales tax and other state/local tax than higher income earners.

Regarding punitive tax, I was thinking more along the lines of a 100% tax on illegally gotten gains, for those times when fines don't cause the disgorging of all the illegally obtained profit. Or, for example, not that I'm advocating this, a punitively high tax on profits derived from offshored labor. There are scenarios where taxation is more effective at curbing certain types of behavior than the criminal code. As long as we recognize punitive taxation for what it is, I don't have a big problem with using the tax code that way. Of course, with the Tax Courts the way they are, I wouldn't advocate using that stick at present.

And please explain to me how capital gains are double taxed at the federal level. The investment was either sold within a year, in which case it is taxed as ordinary wage income, or it was not, in which case it is only subject to capital gains tax. IMO, capital gains should get a lower rate, but only to the extent that the total tax bill is of a certain percentage (less any losses, of course).