Have you heard of Australian economist John Quiggin? Well, I hadn't, even though he's considered to rank among the top 500 economists in the world, is a professor at the University of Queensland, authored Zombie Economics, and is beloved by Paul Krugman for having been slimed by the Murdoch Evil Empire.
And he has his own web site where I stumbled upon his very interesting response to Michele Bachmann's riposte to Herman Cain's proposed answer to our economic woes, the infamous 9-9-9 Plan, about which the perpetrator knows nothing when questioned on its details.
I give you the liberal 6-6-6 Plan for economic revitalization by John Quiggin. And it goes like this. . .
(a) Reverse pro-rich and anti-worker policy changes of the past three decades to reduce, by 6 percentage points, the share of market income going to the top 1 per cent.
(b) Increase, by 6 percentage points of national income, the personal income tax revenue raised from the top 20 per cent of the income distribution
(c) Reallocate, or use more efficiently, current public expenditure equal to 6 per cent of national income
The aim would be to raise post-tax incomes for those in the bottom 80 per cent of the income distribution by around 20 per cent, while making around 10 per cent of national income available for new or better public expenditure.
Sadly, by virtue of his Australian birth, Professor Quiggin cannot run for president of the United States.
But, unlike a certain Republican presidential nominee frontrunner, he actually knows the details of his own plan.
Part (a) -- Reverses Reagan's war on workers; removes many corporate tax breaks; and (this is the part that won my heart) introduces the Tobin tax on the financial sector.
Part (b) -- Introduces "a more progressive income tax scale"; ends the "concessional treatment" of capital gains, removing favoritism for the top quintile ("5 per cent increase in the marginal rate above 100k and a 10 per cent increase above 250k" does the trick).
Part (c) -- Cuts defense spending to the degree that it saves 2-3% of national income but retains our top-of-the-world status as a military power; "redesign of Bush’s prescription health benefit" returns 1-2%; and
[Scrap] the mortgage interest deduction (in combination with a once-off reset of current mortgage debts as part of the expenditure package), [which] would save about 1 per cent. After that, there is the long list of pork-barrel items like the Farm Bill, bridges to nowhere and so on.
What to do with all that new-found cash? Just ask the professor. Remember, he knows what he's talking about. (Are you there, Herman?)
After a couple percentage points go to reduce state and local taxes to the 80%, the remainder will go toward better spending programs.
Like:
1) Guaranteed minimum income (higher minimum wage)
2) Single-payer health insurance system
3) Upgrade community college education, lower tuition charges in state universites, and expand student loans
4) WPA the hell out of our infrastructure
5) Immediate mortgage relief
6) Raise ODA to Marshall Plan era from current 0.15% to 1%, thus reducing need for even more military spending
7) 1% to solutions to climate/environmental problems
End of details. Beginning of a Progressive Candidate's presidential campaign platform for 2016?
Anything else?
Oh yeah. And thank you, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain for inspiring John Quiggin.