Robert Waldmann — who's been on a roll lately — writes about Democratic proposals to shift the AMT burden to the richest 1% of taxpayers. A winning argument both politically and economically. And one opposed by the plutocrat party, who call it “class warfare.” Waldmann quotes Wisconsin Rep. Paul D. Ryan, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, as saying that raising taxes for the wealthiest Americans is a “job killer.”
To which Waldmann replies,
I wonder if Ryan has an actual argument behind his claim that shifting taxes to the rich kills jobs.
I don't know what Ryan would say, but I imagine that at some point raising AMT for the very rich reduces the demand for butlers. So, yes, it is a “job killer” — of a very special sort.
(Yes, yes, I am aware that when taxes become confiscatory there are undesirable economic effects — but we're nowhere near there and no one is proposing we go there.)
