As a middle-class, working, wage-earning, paycheck serf, I get screwed on my Federal taxes via payroll taxes.
While Wall Street Billionaires pay 20% on long-term capital gains, and Hedge Funds pay 0% on "Carried Interest", I pay a much higher effective rate on my wages when FICA and Medicare are included.
My Federal Income Tax rate is 25%.
My Federal Mecicare Tax is 1.45%.
My Federal FICA Tax is 7.65%.
My total simple aggregated Federal paycheck taxation rate is 34.1%. WTF?!
All I want is to pay the same aggregated Federal taxes rate rate as Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, and
other rich people in the politcal ruling class. Either they pay 34% or I pay 20%.
I know I'm getting screwed because the tax code favors capital over wages. The traditional Republican rebuttal is that capital gains is taxed at a lower rate to reward the additional risks they incur. So I, as a brown bag lunch Republican, get punished an extra 14% for working at a job that pays more than minimum wage. I incurred the non-guaranteed, non-backstopped risks of paying for the education and investing time to acquring the skills I have.
Do you know what I get for that 34%? A Federal Government that rewards offshoring that constrains my employment opportunities and depresses my wages. As an added bonus, the Federal Government further supresses opportunities and wages by importing cheaper, foreign knowledge workers on H-1B visas that engage in knowledge transfer to India and China so even more jobs can be offshored.
For all those jobs offshored, the Federal government is incurring the opportunity costs of lost Federal (Income, FICA, and Medicare) taxes, lost GDP, and lost economic activity via reduced velocity of money.
All I want is aggregate Federal tax equity via a Federal Alternative Maximum Tax that would reduce my paycheck's aggregated Federal taxes rate to the same as that of long-term capital gains.
If Wall Street billionaires and DC millionaires don't want to pay my tax rate, how about I pay their tax rate?
The New World Order, WTO, NAFTA, Free Trade (How can there be 'Free Trade' with Communist China?), Internationalist, Chamber of Commerce GOP treats me as a turd. I thought they'd learn when McCain lost - they didn't. I thought they'd learn when Romney lost - they didn't. I thought they'd learn when Trump won - they didn't learn enough.
In 2022 and 2024, the GOP has an opportunities to win if it pursues an agenda that helps working Americans. A Federal Alternative Maximum Tax would do just that.
What else has the GOP to offer me? The GOP flubbed their opportunities 2017-2019 when they had the House, Senate, and White House.
