As we pointed out yesterday, House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has proposed a “surtax” (a disguised marginal income tax rate hike) on those making more than $250,000 per year to pay for government-run healthcare.
Today at Cato@Liberty, Chris Edwards points out that “President Obama already plans to increase the top federal rate from 35 percent to 40 percent at the end of 2010. That would push the combined federal-state rate to 47 percent, substantially above the average of other major industrial nations. Imposing a 4-percent surtax on top would push the top rate to 51 percent, which would be higher than many nations that were traditionally more socialist than America, including France (46%), Germany (48%), and Italy (45%).”
If enacted, this would be truly scary stuff.