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Time to talk about tax reform. Talking about money: mine and ours. Private Money. Current private income distribution. Concentration of wealth since 1980. The best things in life aren’t free.
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The best things in life aren’t free The cost of raising a child in a middle-income family has increased by 40 percent since 2000. Every child-rearing expense has steeply increased: day-care, education, food, gas, medical insurance, etc
The 2008 recession was the worst blow Many megabanks brought down the economy by creating and selling risky financial products – with our money The losses were huge • $15 trillion in personal wealth was gone • -- Almost $50,000 for every man, woman and • child in the US • $ 6.1 trillion in housing value disappeared -- As if a hurricane destroyed every house in every state on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida 8.4 million jobs were lost
Too many Americans have not… Milwaukee's poverty rate at 29.4%
Public money creates opportunities for everyone Public money sustains the middle class
Public money sets the groundwork for economic growth and security Sanitation system Port of Green Bay Dane County Airport Highway system Sewage System Chippewa Valley TechCollege
Tax policy moves money • We can decide: • where to collect it • how much to collect • how to use it • how to keep the • public informed City water system The less money we collect, the less we have to use for the public good. The less we get from corporations and the super rich, the more they have to invest in elections and lobbying.
Tax policy now grows wealth for the top 1% “280 consistently profitable Fortune 500 companies paid about half the statutory corporate tax rate while spending $2 billion to lobby Congress on tax policy and other issues” 28% 25% 25% 25% As low as 15%
Top taxes are low-especially for the richest with income over $87 million
House of Rep./Ryan Budget Plan Make all Bush tax cuts permanent Maintain capital gains tax rate at 15%, no Buffet Rule Maintains current FICA cap, no increase above $110k Reduce tax rates for wealthy to 25% - average gain = $175,000 Reduce other tax rates to 10% Cut the formal corporate tax rate to 25% Eliminate taxes on overseas profits Repeal Alternative Minimum Tax and taxes in Affordable Care Act • Estimated Reduction in Revenues over 10 years: $10 trillion
Impact of Spending Cuts in House/Ryan Budget • 17 million people lose access to health care • 21 million low-income Americans lose Medicaid within 7 years. • 8 million people lose Food Stamps • 2 million children removed from Head Start • 1.8 million women, infants, and children lose food and healthcare support (WIC) • Over 1 million students lose Pell Grant support
Making the changes we need Polls consistently show that increasing taxes on the wealthy is hugely popular. In a recent Gallup poll, 62 percent of respondents said “upper-income people” were paying too little in taxes. In a CNN poll, 68 percent of Americans agreed that “the present tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to the ordinary working man or woman,” and 72 percent said they support changing the tax code “so that people who make more than one million dollars a year will pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.”