Americans are constantly demanding more bipartisanship.\u00a0 And we’ve come very close to achieving that kind of unity on one particular issue:\u00a0 an aversion to raising taxes on the wealthy.<\/p>\n
Beginning with President Ronald Reagan, Republicans began pushing back hard against the idea that the wealthy should bear the lion’s share of the cost for paying for government programs.<\/p>\n
Conservatives accused anyone arguing for higher taxes of taking up the banner of “class warfare.”\u00a0 Estate taxes — an accepted part of American taxation for nearly a century — were renamed “death taxes.”<\/p>\n
A lot of prominent Democrats, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, have embraced this policy-approach.<\/p>\n
But the Congressional Budget Office says the deficit next year will top an astonishing $1.5 trillion, another sizable step toward national insolvency.<\/p>\n
I view it as a matter of simple common sense that Americans face a period of Federal austerity, with deep cuts to social programs, infrastructure spending, and the military.<\/p>\n
But we may also find ourselves asking that the rich pay more to help close the gap — I’m guessing a lot more.<\/p>\n
The reasons aren’t ideological.\u00a0 Americans — yes, even most Democrats — love the idea of getting rich.<\/p>\n
But the simple fact is that the wealthy have gotten a lot wealthier the last few decades and at the same time their tax burden has been cut sharply.<\/p>\n
From 1980 to 2006, per capita GDP<\/a> in the US grew from around $22,000 per person to $37,700 per person.\u00a0\u00a0 That represents a massive 60% increase in our ability to create wealth.<\/p>\n But over that same period, average household income only increased by about 15%, with ever-larger shares of newly created wealth shifting to the richest Americans.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the wealthiest households — those in the top .01% — saw their incomes rise five-fold, from around $5.4 million a year to $29.6 million a year.<\/p>\n Liberal and conservative platitudes aside, it’s a simple fact that this trend represents a huge redistribution of tax-paying clout in America.<\/p>\n Yet over the same period, tax rates for the rich were cut roughly in half.<\/p>\n As we think about our current fiscal crisis, it’s important to remember that tax cuts for the rich represent a dramatic departure from the bipartisan consensus that existed from the late 1930s through 1980.<\/p>\n The last time America faced a crisis similar to the one we face today — fighting wars abroad, with our Federal government running up huge deficits — wealthy citizens were taxed at marginal rates that ranged from 70% to more than 90%.<\/p>\n This wasn’t just a Democratic approach to paying for government.\u00a0 During Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency, which lasted from 1953 to 1961, the top marginal tax rate was more than 90%.<\/p>\n