,,,Reversing the Great Tax Shift: Seven Steps to Finance Our Economic Recovery Fairly

Reversing the Great Tax Shift: Seven Steps to Finance Our Economic Recovery Fairly


 

Publication Date: April 2009

Publisher: Institute for Policy Studies

Author(s): Chuck Collins; Alison Goldberg; Sam Pizzigati; John Cavanagh

Research Area: Banking and finance; Economics

Keywords: socioeconomics; income; inequality; tax policy

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

To address our nation's economic crisis and maintain our nation's fiscal health, the United States desperately needs new sources of federal revenue. Without additional revenues, we as a nation will either have to shortchange long-overdue investments in infrastructure, health, energy, and economic opportunity or leave an unsustainable debt to generations ahead.

The Institute for Policy Studies has identified a package of practical and politically viable policies that could raise the revenues we need. These policies, taken together, would:
collect over $450 billion in revenue from those with the greatest capacity to pay; discourage financial speculation; strengthen the overall economy; and introduce greater transparency, fairness, and simplicity to the tax code. We cannot undo the damage wrought by the reckless tax giveaways to America's rich that have multiplied over recent years. These giveaways have turbocharged the concentration of wealth that sits behind our current economic meltdown.

But with the tax changes we outline in these pages, we can take steps toward restoring the greater equality and prosperity that Americans enjoyed in the 20th century's middle decades.