This is pretty unbelievable:

“What I believe is the starting place is to go back to the Clinton levels,” Mr. Edwards told reporters after addressing the 2,000 delegates to California’s state Democratic Party convention.

Edwards explained that raising taxes “back to their levels under the Clinton administration is a floor, not a ceiling, and he would consider even higher tax increases.”

Just as a reminder to everyone… here’s what the tax brackets looked like before Clinton got his hands on them:

15% - $0 to $35,800
28% - $35,800 to $86,500
31% - above $86,500

Oh, to return to the simpler times of tax brackets… *sigh* Here’s Clinton’s idea of good tax rates:

15% - $0 to $36,900
28% - $36,900 to $89,150
31% - $89,150 to $140,000
36% - $140,000 to $250,000
39.6% - above $250,000

And Edwards wants rates even higher than those! And finally, here’s what we’ve managed to do with the brackets currently:

10% - $0 to $15,650
15% - $15,650 to $63,700
25% - $63,700 to $128,500
28% - $128,500 to $195,850
33% - $195,850 to $349,700
35% - above $349,700

You can see how devastating going back to the Clinton tax brackets would be. For example, a family making $40 grand a year (pretty close to national average) would fall in the 15% bracket currently, but the 28% bracket under Edwards’ plan! Small businesses that are in the 33% bracket currently would fall into the 39.6% bracket under an Edwards administration.

Of course, I’ve gotta give credit to John Edwards for being up front with his plans and letting everyone know what he intends to do. We know all the Democrats (with the possible exception of Bill Richardson) would raise our taxes but most of them just lie about it. So kudos to Edwards for being honest. And for showing us exactly why we cannot elect him President.

Posted on April 30th, 2007 by David
Filed under: Ron Paul 2008