In an effect to fund the trillion dollar Obamacare healthcare takeover/boondoggle, President Obama recently proposed increasing the Capital Gains Tax, a tax on job-creating investment.
Raising taxes is a bad idea at any time, raising taxes in the middle of an economic downturn is even worse. But increasing taxes on investment is especially destructive to our economy. The immediate result will be a decrease in investment, meaning a decrease in economic growth, more unemployment, and a further fall in our living standards. It's almost as if the Obama Administration is looking at what would be good for our economy, and then doing the exact opposite.
Rather than increasing the capital gains tax, in order to kick-start our economy, boost economic growth, increase employment and improve our international competitiveness, Congress should instead be looking at reducing it. Preferably to zero.
Dan Mitchell from the Cato Institute has this great video explaining why: