Dem Senator Wants to Tax Unrealized Gains

At least Democrats are out of the closet now, so that we know what we are dealing with. There is no limit to how massive and overbearing a government they would impose, because there is no limit to their pathological greed. Ron Wyden confirms it by wanting to tax unrealized gains:

If progressives aren’t satisfied with Elizabeth Warren’s proposed “wealth tax” of 3% a year, AOC’s 70% income tax, Bernie Sanders’s 77% estate tax, or Rep. John Larson’s uncapped payroll-tax increase of 2.4 percentage points, they now have a fifth option. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden wants to tax capital gains as regular income, meaning rates up to 37%. He would also tax unrealized gains, perhaps decades before the investor sells.

Currently capital gains tax rates go up to 20%, which is bad enough.

The lower rate [compared to income tax] encourages investment and productive risk-taking. It reduces the harm from double taxation after corporations already pay income taxes.

Raising capital gains taxes is merely bad. Taxing gains before they have been realized is insane.

Wyden’s plan would tax gains that exist merely on paper. Imagine a doctor investing in stocks in a taxable brokerage account. In good times he’ll have to divert money to pay the annual tax, since the unrealized gain isn’t in his bank account. Then what if the market crashes as he retires, erasing the gain—or turning it into a sudden loss? Could the doctor call the IRS to get a refund for years of taxes?

Not likely. By then the money will already have been blown on free healthcare, spending money, and sociology degrees for illegal aliens from every corner of the planet.

Given that the Democratic strategy is to attack wealth creation, Mr. Wyden’s idea is impossible to count out. Another day, another window on what Democrats would do if they regain power.

The collapse of formerly prosperous Venezuela did not scare Democrats back from the edge of the socialist abyss because the abyss is what they long for. Liberal propaganda alone will not cause a wealthy, healthy America to succumb to totalitarian collectivism. Progressives think that crippling the economy with confiscatory taxation, punitive regulation, and profligate spending will give them a better chance. The worse, the better, as Vladimir Lenin is said to have said.

The more power Democrats have, the faster America will be destroyed.

On a tip from Varla.

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