Tax Policy Recommendations

I'm totally unconvinced by those shills for Big Business who argue for lower corporate taxes or continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, particularly their notion that this is how one helps the recovery and the reduction in unemployment.

I would argue the opposite: we should raise the taxes on both of these groups, while providing opportunities to offset tax increases with credits if they perform useful services to our society. Examples of those would be investments in renewable energy, in reducing emissions, in education and re-training, and for hiring new American workers. The Federal government should assist small business lending by taking on some of the risk for banks making new loans to smaller companies and non-profit organizations (the latter, in particular, have been decimated by the credit freeze). I would suspend the tax deductibility of personnel restructuring costs: there are some productivity improvements we can do without.

We need not worry about an increase in capital gains taxes: those who have them are going to be few and far between. Tax increases for the wealthy and for corporations with bad social habits are the perfect answer for those who are worried about our deficits growing out of control.