On August 11, 2012, Matthew O’Brien writes in The Atlantic that Paul Ryan’s plan is a path to prosperity for Mitt Romney and the other elite ownership class who OWN America.
Because the vast majority of Romney’s income came and continues to come from capital gains, interest, and dividends via his productive capital ownership holdings, we must demand that Romney release his FULL federal and state tax returns for numerous past years in order to determine the extent of his ownership holdings and the loopholes he took advantage of. This is a matter of presidential and personal character. And now with Ryan on board, the plan is to eliminate all taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends, which will further enrich the 1 to 2 percent who now OWN America!
During the presidential campaign, Romney has called for lower taxes almost across the board. He wants to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent; end the estate tax; end taxes on corporate profits reported offshore; cut
the top personal income tax rate to 28 percent and eliminate taxes on investment income for people with adjusted gross income below $200,000.
In its “Believe in America” jobs plan released last year, the Romney campaign criticized federal policy for fostering corporate tax avoidance: “Corporations, for their part, are subject to rules and regulations that all too often encourage tax gamesmanship while discouraging reinvestment in the American economy.”
Tax and investment stimulus incentives can be excellent tools to strengthen economic growth, but without the requirement that productive capital ownership is broadened simultaneously, the result will continue to further concentrate productive capital ownership among those who already own, and further create dependency on redistribution policies and programs to sustain purchasing power on the part of the 99 percent of the population who are dependent on their labor worker earnings or welfare to sustain their livelihood. By stimulating economic growth tied to broadened productive capital ownership the benefits are two-fold: one is that over time the 99 percenters will be enabled to acquire productive capital assets that are paid for out of the future earnings of the investments and gain greater access to job opportunities that a growth economy generates.
Starting with the business corporation, a legal entity created and sanctioned by state and federal government and judicial law, the government should provide tax incentives for full-dividend payouts to its stockholders, or alternatively dictate that from now on 100 percent of all profits be paid out fully as dividend payments to stockholders (thus, eliminating the corporate income tax), and be subject to progressive individual taxation rates during the short term. This would effectively prohibit retained earnings financing of new productive capital formation (reinvesting the corporate earnings already earned). The government could also limit debt financing by imposing some ratio formula to annual revenue under which a corporation could debt finance new productive capital formation with borrowed monies. Both retained earnings and debt financing only enhance the ownership holding value of the existing corporate ownership class and do nothing to create new owners. Thus, the rich get richer systematically and capital ownership concentration is furthered, facilitated by financing further productive capital acquisition out of the earnings of existing productive capital.
