TAX THE RICH…. A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll was released late yesterday, with a variety of quirky questions. CBS News described the poll as intended to be “topical, fun, amusing, illuminating and most importantly, interesting.” Some of the queries were more compelling than others.
One result, however, stood out as politically relevant.
If the Obama administration proposed a tax of 50 percent or higher on the incomes of the very wealthiest millionaires, would you support it, or not?
A 51% majority endorsed the significantly higher rate, 45% did not.
Of course, the Obama administration intends to return the top rate to 39.6% — the pre-Bush rate — which is obviously nowhere close to the 50% (or higher) rate a whole lot of Americans seem to be comfortable with.
By the way, for most of Reagan’s presidency, the top rate was 50%. As I recall, society functioned, people resisted the urge to “go Galt,” and according to conservatives, the economy thrived.
