What is 'Rich'?

Perhaps you don't know how the tax system works.

If you make $35K a year, someone who makes $388,350 a year pays the SAME taxes as you on his first 35K.

About 15 cents on the dollar. You keep 85 cents.

On the first dollar above that, he pays 25 cents. He keeps 75 cents. (You get nothing.)

On the first dollar above $85,650, he pays 28 cents.

On the first dollar above $178,650, he pays 33 cents.

Above $388,350 he pays 35 cents.

That means that if he's raking in $388,350+ he's still keeping 65 cents per dollar after that. And his taxes don't rise any more no matter how much he makes.

That's the lowest top rate in the Western World.

The top rate in Germany, that is much more prosperous than we are, is 51%.

If you want to pay less than in the USA, you need to move to Singapore. Or Somalia.

This is all ignoring the fact that REALLY high incomes are taxed on Capital Gains, and only pay a flat ~14%.

Twenty Hedge Fund Managers on Wall Street bring in $2,000,000,000.00 PER YEAR.

Yes, $2 Billion per year. Every year.

And they pay 14% or less.

The truth is, your Federal taxes are LOWER than they've been in DECADES.

If you do the math, your statement "taxed to the point of being poor" simply makes no sense.

A guy making over a million dollars a year is going to be third-house shopping, not eating Mac and Cheese.

Reagan set the Capital Gains tax to the same level as the highest tax bracket, then 28%. He said it was ridiculous for a millionaire to pay a lower percentage of his taxes than a bus driver.

The most prosperous times in America, had the highest tax rate at 74%.

This was because the higher rate encouraged the wealthy business owners to avoid the taxes by NOT paying themselves > $3 Million per year.

In a business, you can always re-invest instead of paying yourself. Buy new equipment, do some advertising, expand and hire more people; labor is always a write-off.

And of course, if you buy new equipment and advertise, you'll NEED to hire more people to fill your expanding orders.

And the money you pay your employees flows back into the community; more businesses get started where your employees can spend that money.

People buy houses rather than live in Apartments. Which means Contractors have more work.

By the time you are ready to retire, your business is HUGE.

But... cut the taxes on the 1%... and they put the money they save on taxes in the Stock Market, where it does no good to anybody else.

In fact, Stock Market bubbles form on a regular basis when the taxes on the 1% are low.

President Harding lowered taxes on the 1%, and the Stock Market went wild. Regular people decided to put their Retirement Savings in the Stock Market.

And everybody thought they'd be rich and retire early.

Then the Stock Market Crashed, about seven years after the Harding Tax Cut.

All the money didn't vanish; it was swept into the pockets of the Traders that had been selling short. THEY became VERY RICH.

Everybody else suffered. Businesses closed. Two years later, the Banks collapsed, because Hoover decided to cut spending and do NOTHING.

Breadlines, soup kitchens, people starving. We passed Laws preventing the Banks from playing with Depositor's money.

And the top tax rate was RAISED to 91%, until JFK closed a lot of loopholes and lowered it to 74%.

Reagan cut taxes, over and over, until the top Tax Rate was 28%.

But he RAISED the Capital Gains tax rate.

So while we did get a Stock Bubble, it wasn't quite as bad when it burst in 1987. That, and we had banking regulations that protected people's savings. It was, essentially, the first Bailout.

And then Clinton somehow managed to RAISE the top bracket to 39.6%.

Newt Gingrich shouted that this would cause a Depression.

No... it caused Prosperity.

It moderated the Stock Market a bit. Lower Defense Spending also made it possible, with the extra Revenue, to Balance the Budget two years running.

We were on track to paying down the Debt.

Then of course, the Supreme Court appointed G.W. Bush President.

And he lowered taxes on the 1%.

Funny thing. About eight years later... the Stock Market Crashed and burned.

The laws protecting people had been repealed. Trillions of dollars vanished instantly into the pockets of short-sellers. Retirement accounts were just... gone.

So, that's THREE times that cutting the taxes on the 1% have crashed the Stock Market in the last Century.

And what is the presumptive Republican Nominee promising to do if elected?

Cut taxes on the 1%.