I normally don't do shout-outs to brainy economists like this, but I'm doing this because Robert Reich's blog post made me go, "Oh, hell yes, this is what is needed!" I get excited about solid policy proposals that can energize voters on pocketbook issues and can get them to go, "Oh, hell yes, that's what we need!" That translates into votes we need, and Reich's proposal may just do that.
Here's his blog post below:
So instead of playing defense, Democrats should go on the attack.
Accuse Republicans of being shills for the rich. And don't stop there. Do tax jujitsu. In addition to ending the Bush tax cut for the rich, put forward another proposal for growing the economy that cuts taxes on lower-income Americans.
Here's the proposal that Reich floated forward, and I hope to God that it gets taken seriously, because it's a great idea:
Democrats should propose eliminating payroll taxes on the first $20,000 of income, and making up the revenue loss by applying payroll taxes to incomes above $250,000. This would give the economy an immediate boost by adding to the paychecks of just about every working American. 80 percent of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes. And because lower-income people would get most of the benefit, it's likely to be spent.
Robert Reich ends his blog post with this, "Call it the People's Tax Cut, and let Republicans explain why they're against it."
Indeed, this is tax ji-jitsu, flipping the old paradigm onto the Republicans. They've used this line of attack against Democrats for many years, and it's worked to an extent. However, we can fight back with proposals like Robert Reich's, and also helping make Security Security be perfectly fine with a full lifting of the payroll cap.
So, what do you think, guys? Is this what's needed?