Preferential Tax Rates On Passive Income Is A GOP Idea— A Bad One
It’s possible to push back on bad policy decisions coming out of the Kamala campaign and still advocate defeating Trump and electing her. On Friday we looked briefly at Kamala’s cowardly and very disturbing decision to break with Biden, not on Gaza, but on his plan to tax capital gains over a million dollars at 39.6%. It’s a figure that should be closer to 70% but 39.6% is a lot better than the 28% Kamala is advocating for. The decision itself is bad enough. What it shows about which way she’ll bend in a storm criticism is even worse.
I want share a letter to the presidential campaign with you that Patriotic Millionaires asked its members to sign on to. All DWT readers are also welcome to sign on. Here’s where you can sign if you want to. And here’s the letter, “Millionaires for Equalizing Capital Gains Rate.”
“We, the undersigned, are American millionaires who believe that people with incomes over $1 million should pay the same tax rates on capital gains income as working Americans pay on their “ordinary” income from their paycheck.
“We urge Vice President Harris to reverse her recent statement in support of maintaining a preferential rate for investment income of the uber-wealthy, a substantially lower rate than the Biden Administration previously supported.
“Contrary to popular mythology, lower capital gains rates do not foster investment. As wealthy people, we can say with certainty that the incentive for investment is to grow our wealth. The alternative to investing is doing nothing, which never results in good returns.
“A giveaway on capital gains income is not how we grow our economy. In fact, recent analysis by the Institute for Macroeconomic & Policy Analysis at American University has found that increasing the capital gains rate to equalize the ordinary income rate on those earning over $1 million annually would grow the GDP, raise incomes for working and middle class households, and mitigate income and wealth inequality, all of which are stated goals of Vice President Harris.
“A lower tax rate for the passive income of those making over $1 million a year is nothing but an unjustifiable giveaway to the very rich. We hope Vice President Harris will reject trickle-down economics and reverse course.”
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