Obama’s Proposed $320 Billion Tax Increase: The 2016 Long Game

President Barack Obama’s proposed tax increases amount to $320 billion dollars over ten years, money he claims will help the middle class at the expense of wealthier Americans. He’s also invoking the name of Ronald Reagan in the process, according to Newsmax.

Raising the capital gains rate, ending the inheritance loophole and tacking a fee on financial firms would generate $320 billion in revenue over a decade, according to administration estimates. Obama wants to put the bulk of that money into a series of measures aimed at helping middle-class Americans.

But Obama’s Reagan-era comparison falls short by a good measure, says Forbes.

His signature ideas would make community college free, and would extend sick leave to working families. But his massive batch of tax hikes is unlikely to be met with applause, even though he has cleverly invoked Ronald Reagan’s name to sell yet another big capital gains rate hike.

During Reagan’s years, Mr. Obama will note, the top capital gains rate was 28%. Today, our top rate is 20%, right? Not really. President Obama already raised it from 15% to 20%, and even that isn’t accurate. Long term capital gains today are hit with 23.8%, 3.8% being the President’s net investment income tax that was enacted to help fund Obamacare. Of course, that 3.8% tax is only one of many taxes imposed by Obamacare.

Obama appears to be doing more to shape the political landscape ahead of the 2016 presidential election than helping the American middle class. And Republicans are already pronouncing Obama’s proposal as DOA in the new Congress, according to Reuters.