Class Warfare Taxes May Sink Dems

First thing the Democrats are doing in the new Congress is to exempt most taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).  They propose to pay for it by, wait for it, increasing tax rates on the highest income taxpayers.  

Cesar Conda says, careful what you wish for Democrats.  Leaving aside that economists now agree that high marginal tax rates on rich people hurt the overall economy, there is a political aspect to tax rate increases.  Soak the rich tax policy doesn’t seem to have been politically successful in recent years.

For example, in 1988 the Democrat-controlled Congress passed a universal catastrophic health-insurance plan, which was financed by a surtax of 15 percent on upper-income seniors... But to the surprise of the Democrats, senior citizens — even those not subject to the surtax — protested so strongly... that Congress voted to repeal the program and the surtax the following year.

Then there was George  Bush senior.  He reversed his “Read my lips, no new taxes” pledge and was reversed out of the White House.

Then Clinton and the last Democratic Congress raised marginal tax rates on upper income Americans.

Once again, this soak-the-rich tax policy backfired politically. Republicans regained control of Congress in 1994 by opposing the Clinton tax increases and supporting tax relief.

Should Republicans be saying: “Go ahead, make my day?”