Category: Policy & Legislation
Biden’s New Tax Proposals
The Biden budget would … apply a 3.8% tax to pass-through income of more than $200,000. (Didn’t Mr. Biden promise not to raise taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000?)
Mr. Biden also wants to increase the surtax on earned and unearned income [from 3,8%] to 5% for couples earning more than $450,000 ($400,000 singles). On top of that, he calls for raising the top rate on ordinary income to 39.6% from 37%. This would raise the top effective marginal rate to 44.6%, and it would kick in at $450,000 instead of the current $693,751.
It gets worse. Mr. Biden also wants to apply the top 44.6% rate to capital gains for anyone earning more than $1 million—effectively doubling the current 23.8% tax on capital gains.
Pile on state income taxes—which reach as high as 14.8% in New York City and 13.3% in California—and many Americans would pay nearly 60% of their income to the tax man.
Medical School Graduates Spurned by a Residency: Not a Match Made in Heaven
Today is Match Day 2024 for recent medical school graduates hoping to snag the residency program of their choice. This week the National Resident Matching Program (Match) informed 50,413 medical school graduates whether they matched to their preferred program or have to wait another year (or give up).
Wednesday Links
- Kaiser does a deep dive into doctors billing for email.
- Of eight states that have not recovered job losses for Covid, seven are blue.
- Joe Biden’s budget: like the original (2020) budget, this one would lower output and worker wages. Also the $400,000 threshold (below which no taxes) is not indexed—so eventually the Biden taxes will reach everyone on the income ladder.
- Biden’s budget v. the House Republican budget.
- A completely bureaucratic view of when patient preferences should be honored.
- Claude 3 Opus Fails Steve Landsburg’s Economics Exam.