As we all know, Bernie Sanders is a declared Socialist with very blunt intentions of raising taxes for everyone. He recently displayed his tax plan if he is elected. Shockingly enough, there are significant increases across the board. The goal of the plan is to fully cover the costs of his single-payer healthcare plan that he claims would cost $1.4 trillion, with others claiming it would cost up to $2.8 trillion. His tax plan only is supposed to bring in $1.4 trillion annually, leaving a massive deficit of $14 trillion over a span of ten years.
To begin, Sanders’s proposal leads with an increase of the income rate to 52% for the top tax bracket. Included in this plan would be increases in all of the tax brackets, not only the ones for the wealthier Americans. This is due to his new tax on healthcare premiums of 2.2% that will force another unaffordable tax upon American households. In fact, only those making $28,800 or less will be exempt, leaving whopping total of 74% of the households paying higher taxes.
Unfortunately, he continues with this tax extravaganza with a new payroll tax of 6.2% that would be applied to employers. A very big caveat is the understanding of the effects of such a tax would have on wages and workers. By this, it means that the wages could either decrease or stay stagnant, even though Sanders’s claims that workers will be taking home 6% more after taxes. I’m going to put my money on the economists over the socialist on this one.
And that still is not all either, he continues to increase the capital gains and the death tax too. Under his plan, capital gains will now be subject to an increase from 23.8% to 52%, a gross increase. There is already a current problem with the double taxing of capital gains and will only harm further business endeavors and economic growth.
It makes sense though, a socialist tax plan to pay for a socialist healthcare system. This tax will only hamper economic growth in a still fragile economy whilst at the same time slamming the ever evaporating middle class with new taxes that they cannot afford, specifically, over $1 trillion dollars in new taxes levied against the American people to fund his flawed agenda.
Photo credit: Brookings Institution