This is cross-posted at www.StewartAcuff.com
"Our Federal income tax system protects the super-rich on an increasingly grand scale. The current maximum federal income tax rate is 35%. Most of the very rich pay a lower rate on much of their income. Stock dividends are treated as capital gains and are, therefore, taxed at less than half the regular rate. As a result, someone like Warren Buffet sometimes pays a smaller percentage of his income as Federal taxes than do many of the people working in his offices.
It hasn't always been this way. During the heyday of the middle class, Federal income tax rates were many times higher. When President Reagan took office, the maximum Federal tax rate was 70%. Even that was low compared to the 91% top rate during the 1950's. In fact, the last time our maximum Federal tax rate was as low as it is now was... during the run-up to the [Great] Depression. During those years, the maximum rate was 25%."
- An excerpt from Getting America Back to Work, coauthored by Dr. Richard Levins and Stewart Acuff.
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Stewart Acuff is America’s best-known and foremost labor organizer. He is the former organizing Director of the AFL-CIO. Acuff has also written two books: Playing Bigger Than You Are: A Life in Organizing, and Getting America Back to Work, coauthored by Dr. Richard Levins.