[Poofler]

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I will assert that excessive taxation of income hurts those who are trying to move up in income brackets

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how about a flat tax which punishes all producers at the same percentage and still accomplishes the task of funding the treasury for those things deemed necessary by society.

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Those two statements are difficult to reconcile. Because our system is progressive, a flat tax would increases taxes for lower and middle classes, while decreasing them for the upper classes. It would hurt more people trying to move up income brackets than the progressive one currently does. This all presumes we need the same $$$, no massive scale down in spending.