Suppose the Republicans Are Right

 I have been thinking a lot about President Trump’s budget proposals and the plans by the Republican majority in Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody, although most of the money would, as usual, go to the rich.

And, a little echo has been going through my mind. I hear the words over and over again. Reward the money-makers, because they create jobs and make the economy grow.

You know, they could be right. That means the only problem with the proposed budget is that it doesn’t go far enough. It’s still Obama-light when it comes to taxes, and it worries too much about revenue, which will increase automatically as soon as our new social order comes into being.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that we probably won’t need an income tax at all. Not when all those exports start flowing out of the country and the rest of the world comes running to us to buy our great - really great - ideas to get their own economies moving at the five or ten per-cent a year growth we should be seeing by 2018 or 2019 at the latest.

So, here’s my new plan. It’s based on the principals we have already accepted in Washington. And, it’s simple. You could fill out your tax form on a post card, and still have enough room left to draw a picture of Paul Ryan.

First, poverty is bad. Really bad. And we encourage it by giving tax credits - really  just a give-away to the poor - to anyone who claims to have an income below some fake news poverty line. Like anyone has ever seen that line on a paycheck.

So, I propose that we tax any individual or family who makes less than $40,000 a year on a sliding scale. They would pay the difference between what they earn and $40,000. And they can’t count welfare benefits as income.

That would give those people a real incentive to go out and get a good-paying job. Nothing like a good incentive to make people work.

Next, anyone who has an income of $40,001 to $80,000 a year would be left alone. They pay no taxes. They are the backbone of our nation, even though they, too, don’t really try hard enough.

Which comes to our third and final tax bracket. Anyone making more than $80,000 a year would get a reverse tax payment from the government. Make $160,000 and you would get a check for $80,000. Make $1,000,000 and you get a check for $920,000.

Now I know some do-good liberals will find this somewhat unfair, and some short-sighted members of the Freedom Caucus will think it might increase the national debt.

But, look what will really happen. All that off-shore money will be repatriated. And the rich will work really hard to spend their money here in ways that will increase their income. That means jobs, lots of jobs will be created. Certainly on Wall Street, at least.

So the poor will find work. The rich will make work. And the middle class will get off their middle class asses and work harder. What could be wrong with that?

Hey, you know what we should be calling the proposed Republican budget for next year? A good start.