The Real Third Rail

There's a cliche that social security is the third rail in American politics:  touch it and you're dead.


 I'm not sure how much juice is flowing through that wire these days.  It's become quite fashionable to speculate on all the changes that we need to make to keep social security solvent.  Maybe we have to raise the retirement age or, perhaps, we need to cut benefits.  The libertarians among us will say we need to scrap the whole thing and replace it with individual investment accounts subject to the whims of the stock and bond markets, thus stripping social security of both its social character and its promise of economic security for senior citizens.



But no matter:  I'm not here to talk about social security.  I'm here to talk about the real third rail in American politics:  the high voltage wire that's so dangerous that no one dares to speak its name, let alone touch it.  I talk, of course, about changing the highest bracket of the U.S. tax code.



According to the present rules, a dry cleaner--let's call him Doug--operating three shops and pulling in $250,000 a year is in the same tax bracket as Bill Gates and Donald Trump.  That means that every time we discuss raising taxes on millionaires, we're talking about raising taxes on Doug the Dry Cleaner as well.  And since there are tens of thousands of Dougs in every state in America, there is a sizable swing vote that will ALWAYS be opposed to top bracket tax increases.


Now don't get me wrong:  Doug may have every reason to be opposed to higher taxes.  After all, operating a dry cleaning shop in not easy.  There's high overhead, the cost of labor and the price of all those hangers.  Doug may be a little self-absorbed at times but he's right when he says that he's worked hard and doesn't deserve to be treated like a bloated aristocrat.


The solution to this problem is simple:  change the tax code.  Let's add two more brackets:  one for the Dougs of this country--earning between $250,000 and $1,000,000--and one for Doug's golfing partner at the country club who makes between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000.  Then we could have that final tax bracket for Bill Gates and the Donald Trump, starting at over five million.  Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?  That way we can make sure the mega-wealthy pay their fair share of  taxes while protecting the Dougs of the world.


Oh, wait.  I'm sorry.  If that happened, Zeus would emerge from the haze drifting over Washington, DC and smite all of Congress with sizzling orange bolts.  Not only would senators fry but their skin would turn to ash and their names would be erased from the Book of Life.


That must be the reason why no politician--Democrat, Republican or Independent--has seriously proposed a change to the tax code.  As long as the billionaires of the nation share a tax bracket with Doug the Dry Cleaner, we're safe from the gods.  The Dougs of the world will unite to keep their taxes low--along with Mr. Trump's--and no politicians will be seriously tempted to raise the rates on the super-wealthy.  Besides, if you tried to make it easy to tax rich folk, you'd probably lose most of your campaign funding.

And that would be like being struck by lightning.