At the beginning of September, I wrote a column explaining how Kamala Harris's proposed tax policies don't actually affect the rich people they are supposed to punish for making too much money. I explained how to make that argument in a way that makes sense to a leftist, and this is essentially a "sequel" to that column.
Earlier today I came across a claim from Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who said that Donald Trump's tax cuts brought in a record amount of revenue.
An old House GOP Ways and Means Committee post from April 2022 backed that claim by suggesting, "Total federal tax collections, including payroll and other taxes, are on track to reach $5.04 trillion in FY22, or 21.0 percent of GDP. This would be a new all-time high in both cases."
To your liberal friend or relative, such a number does not make sense. How does reducing taxes make more money for the government?
It's quite simple. Just ask: "Would you rather collect 20% of $100,000 in taxes or 20% of $1,000,000 in taxes?"
If they say 20% from one million, say that you, as the government, should incentivize people and businesses to make that million dollars as easily as possible. And thus, to do that, you should not tax them as heavily.
As a result, because everybody is making more money, the amount of money they pay in taxes is greater, even if they are all paying at the same rate, which also makes a flat tax more sensible than a progressive one.
After all, leftists might say people like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and especially Elon Musk, now that he's a Trump guy, won't miss a few million considering how much money their companies take in.
You can turn that argument against them by saying, "Sure, they won't, but don't you want them to keep being able to pay that amount in taxes every April?"
When they agree, repeat what I said above: Incentivize their ability to keep making those billions in revenue by not taxing it so much. It will not matter how low the tax rate is when they can still bring in a ton of government revenue.
This is essentially the old "grow the pie" argument in economics: Rather than trying to figure out how to adequately make sure everyone gets a piece of the pie when it may not be big enough to feed everyone, figure out how to make the pie bigger (although my wife's aunt has an uncanny ability to cut cake in such a way that everyone gets a slice).
I know this is just common sense to PJ Media readers. However, as we continually see, there are still people out there who genuinely believe that tax hikes will make everyone richer; boys can become girls and vice versa; appeasement of our adversaries will make them back down; abortion is a human right and an expression of women's autonomy; gun control works; people should be hired based on gender and race over merit; open borders are good and unfettered immigration should be encouraged; electric vehicles are good for the environment; and anyone in opposition to any of that is not opposed to it out of principle but by malice.
Also, that is the gist of Kamala Harris's campaign.
