Thursday, July 07, 2011

Raising Taxes

Liberals want to raise taxes? Instapundit has an exceptional idea:
If I were a Republican member of Congress, I’d be proposing big excise taxes on movie tickets, DVDs, CDs, digitial movie and music downloads, etc. Then let Hollywood scream about how the tax increase would destroy American jobs. . . .
But wait, he has more ideas:
Here’s my proposal: A 50% surtax on anything earned within five years after leaving the federal government, above whatever the federal salary was. Leave a $150K job at the White House, take a $1M job with Goldman, Sachs, pay a $425K surtax. Some House Republican should add this to a bill and watch the Dems react.

UPDATE: Should we also provide that salaries paid to former government officials aren’t deductible for corporations? Or is that going too far? I say: Put it in as a negotiating point!
Sounds smarter than a tax on tanning salons, don't you think? And much more fun. After all, if taxes are there to change behavior, reward friends, and punish enemies, well....

Update, July 8, 2011: Gotta love the Hollywood angle:
Check out the Domestic Production Activities Deduction (§199), created by the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. It classifies moviemaking as a production activity, and gives a tax credit for it (I think 9% or half of salaries paid, whichever is less). (Might PajamasTV qualify, I dunno). Hollywood thus gets a special tax credit of its own, on the theory (which Hollywood types would reject if applied to anyone else) that reducing taxes increases employment.

4 comments:

PeggyU said...

Benefits taxed as well?

Darren said...

Sure, if we're going to go whole hog here....

Mike Thiac said...

Darren

What drives me nuts is the hand the Republicans have right now and they are not using it.

"Ok President Obama, you want to raise taxes we need one thing...before that is discussed Obamacare is replealed."

Obama is in a weak position...make him weaker. Obamacare is hated by the majority of the population and that will put him in a very painful place...give up his the Holy Grail of statist, give up on taxes or loose the budget battle.

Ellen K said...

Republicans are treading on thin ice. If they any taxes, even those on parts of the population that are very well compensated in athletics or entertainment the mainstream media will misrepresent it as raising taxes on "hard working union workers" and "deserving government employees" and Obama will win again. It's a risky thing.