Republican priorities: (1) cut taxes on the rich; (2) raise taxes on the poor

[AggregateDemand]

This article was literally written by an idiot with a political axe to grind. If for no other reason than because Paul Ryan's office worked jointly with the White House to draft the most recent iteration of EITC changes.

[AggregateDemand]

Pot meet kettle.

The author seems to think that the key indicator of effective medical treatment is the number of pills federal physicians prescribe. The physician that has his patients addicted to dozens of pills is the best physician.

In theory, the goal of social policy is to eliminate the need for transfer payments, which means that success is measured by massive cuts to social entitlements as the number of claimants declines. For reasons no one can understand, Democrats are 100% dedicated to the opposite outcome. It has become increasingly clear that Democrats don't want to get better, they just want to power associated with dispensing pills.

Besides the obvious failure to reason through the basic structure of social spending, the author is too partisan to support flatter marginal tax rates, which would be a major step towards eliminating the separate-but-"equal" tax system we have today.

[AggregateDemand]

In the same way you're too partisan to support progressive tax rates, I guess.

You don't even know enough about taxes to be wrong. Your post is just irrelevant.

I oppose graduated statutory rates and support progressive effective/average rates. Progressive effective rates are best achieved with a flat marginal statutory rate which gives all citizens the same marginal propensity to work, and eliminates the need for the federal government to segregate the people into adversarial demographics like single, married, head of household, married filing separately, qualifying widow/er, etc. Flat marginal rate also curbs class warfare by poor raising statutory rates on the riches and riches raising statutory rates on the poors. Whatever you do to your neighbor, changes for you as well.

Flat marginal rate is the only humane way to tax.

[AggregateDemand]

1) The "Fair Tax" is the Flat Tax with a corporate focus group rebranding campaign, and nothing more. They are "completely different" the same way 'the death tax' and 'the estate tax' are.

2) Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rashbushka, "Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax" (McGraw-Hill, 1983), p. 58. A taste:

"It is anobvious mathematical law that lower taxes on the successful will have to be made up by higher taxes on average people."

Corporate tax reform is about allowing companies to repatriate profits into the US. Though some lobbyists will surely try to sneak gifts in for themselves, it isn't a conspiracy to reduce the tax burden on corporations, rather to exempt the US from the unintended consequences of dumb tax laws from a bygone era when American companies made virtually all of their money in the US.

Quoting economic regressives isn't particularly persuasive, either. It's a group of people who've staked their claim on the idea that economic functions can never be parabolic. Basically, they've never passed a semester of Calc I, but we'll roll their wheelchairs into the spotlight so they can flap their gums when it suits the flat earth perspective.