Taxing Reality 0
At Bloomberg, David Abromowitz points out the the history of the Boys from Bain directly undercuts Republican orthodoxy that taxing capital gains deters investment:
Bain’s haul is further evidence that fair tax rates don’t hold back profit-seeking capitalists, at least until those rates reach a point that no one is proposing. From 1984 until 1999, the top rates on capital gains — the profit from investments as opposed to compensation for work — were often at 28 percent, and never lower than 20 percent. Indeed, in 1987, under President Ronald Reagan, the 20 percent rate rose to 28 percent — a 40 percent increase in potential taxation of Bain investment profit. (Yes, Reagan did raise taxes, even on capital.)
This will, of course, have no effect on Republicans, since their tax policies are founded on one principle: the principle that wishing will make it so.
