Here’s the New York Times editorial page:
A logical way to help raise the additional needed revenue would be to tax capital gains at the same rates as ordinary income. Capital gains on assets held for more than a year before selling are taxed at about the lowest rate in the code, currently 15 percent and expected to rise to 20 percent in 2013. That is an indefensible giveaway to the richest Americans. . . .
Mr. Obama would be wise to instruct the Treasury Department to start work on tax reform now, exploring carbon taxes, both to raise revenue and to protect the environment; a value-added tax, coupled with provisions to protect lower-income taxpayers from higher prices, to tax consumption and encourage saving; and a financial transactions tax, to ensure that the financial sector, whose profits have substantially outpaced those of nonfinancial corporations, pay a fair share. (emphsis added)
I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read this sort of nonsense. And keep in mind that this is a newspaper that likes to lambast conservatives for not understanding global warming and evolution. Is it too much to ask that they hire at least one person who understands basic economics?
BTW, the cap gains tax is scheduled to rise to 23.8% in 2013, not 20%.
Bonus contest: Let’s see if anyone can find a single news article or blog summary of the fiscal cliff deal, which reports all the tax rate changes accurately. The fact that MTRs for the rich rose to 43.4%. The fact that MTRs for the $250,000 to $300,000 crowd rose by about 4% points, from 35.9% to about 40%. From $300,000 to $360,000 the MTRs rise about 5% to 41%. The fact that MTRs for the lower and middle class rose by 2%. Find one article that gets everything right, and you win the contest. And don’t get cute and submit a link to this post, as I’m sure my data is at least slightly inaccurate. It’s just less inaccurate than the average news article or blog post. I’ll list the winner in an update.