Who Pays for Bernie’s Tax Increases?

Had Enough Right Wing BS

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Monday April 25, 2016 · 10:10 AM PDT

2016/04/25 · 10:10

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I have recently questioned who would actually pay the tax increases Senator Sanders proposes. In my personal experience, multinational corporations and the richest individuals (be they the top .1%, 1.0%, or 10.0%) will not hesitate to pass additional taxes—or any other costs—down to lower income levels.

Since this sounds like one of the right’s claims against minimum wage hikes, it’s automatically rejected by some—although they can’t or won’t refute it. Certainly nobody so far has wanted to insist that these wealthy groups or individuals will simply absorb the costs of Bernie’s tax hikes, but I’m not seeing a third alternative.

Would Bernie’s tax increases amount to trickle down tax increases, would the corporations and the rich folks be willing to have their income reduced and not try to grab their loss back from the rest of us, or is there some other way this could play out that I’m not seeing?

For the record I don’t mind paying taxes and I never have resented it, but I don’t think it should be a shell game, either. I’d much rather hear an honest statement of what I should expect to pay and an explanation of what benefits that level of support will pay for. I view our taxes as being one of the best investments any of us makes—I just want an honest accounting.

In the same way that right-wingers like to pretend that capitalists “built that” rather than recognizing the vital contribution of labor, pretending that the rich will fund Bernie’s enhanced social safety net seems dishonest. Unless, of course, they really will step up and pay the costs out of their profits rather than shifting the burden onto those who can’t resist paying.

Who do you think would ultimately end up bearing the cost of Senator Sanders’ proposals?

Poll
59 votes Show Results
The tax increases necessary to fund Bernie’s added spending:

Would only come out of the profits of the wealthiest

The wealthy would find ways to shift all—or most—of the costs to the rest of us

Other (which I’ll explain in the comments)

59 votes Vote Now!
The tax increases necessary to fund Bernie’s added spending:

Would only come out of the profits of the wealthiest

16 votes

The wealthy would find ways to shift all—or most—of the costs to the rest of us

32 votes

Other (which I’ll explain in the comments)

11 votes

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