Michael Hiltzik: Incredibly, GOP senators are demanding another tax cut for the rich
The adage, "Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile" doesn't apply anymore in our modern age. Today, it's better to say, "Give the rich trillions of dollars in tax cuts, and they'll demand hundreds of millions more."
That's the message conveyed by a letter that went out Monday from 21 Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz of Texas, to Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. They're demanding that Mnuchin deliver a new tax cut via executive fiat.
The GOP complains that the capital gains tax isn't indexed to inflation. As a result, the argument goes, taxpayers including "everyday Americans" are charged taxes on gains that are due purely to inflation, not to the real appreciation of their stocks or bonds.
Indexing capital gains for inflation by administrative fiat is plainly an unlawful overrreach of regulatory authority
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