Economic Growth Stalls by Higher Top Tax Rates

WHO KNEW? JUST WHAT DO THE POLITICIANS THINK PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DO WHEN OTHERS COME AFTER THEIR MONEY? THEY WILL "TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN". Higher Top Tax Rate Will Slow Economic Performance Source: Daniel J. Mitchell, "A Victory for the Laffer Curve, a Defeat for England's Economy," Cato-at-Liberty.org, April 4, 2011. A new study from the Adam Smith Institute in the United Kingdom provides overwhelming evidence that class-warfare tax policy is grossly misguided and self-destructive, says Daniel J. Mitchell, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute. The authors examine the likely impact of the 10-percentage point increase in the top income tax rate, which was imposed as an election-year stunt by former prime minister Gordon Brown and then kept in place by his successor, David Cameron. They find that boosting the top tax rate to 50 percent will slow economic performance. And because of both macroeconomic and microeconomic responses, tax revenues over the next 10 years are likely to drop by the equivalent of more than $550 billion. President Obama wants to impose similar policies in the United States and there is every reason to expect similarly poor results, says Mitchell.