By Dr. Glenn Mollette

Americans pay too much in taxes. President Trump’s idea to eliminate four of the seven tax brackets is an excellent idea. Most Americans are sick and tired of paying everything they make in taxes. If you enjoy paying taxes and disagree with what I am writing simply write the Internal Revenue Service a check every month and mail them more money.
Let’s consider some of the big money people first. A single person making $415,051 dollars is in the upper tax bracket and pays 39.6% of their wages. To make our math simple we might as well say 40% or about $166,000. This would leave the affluent single person with about $249,000. For all the Americans making minimum wage or living on disabled social security they may wag their heads, point their fingers and say, “That’s a heck of a lot of money and those dang people should be paying a lot more tax than that!” The single person paying this much money on the other hand probably calculates that they are probably carrying seven or eight non-working Americans and could feel a bit irritated by how much tax they are paying.
Let’s stay in the upper bracket and consider two married people working, filing jointly and making $466,951 will also pay 39.6% of their income or let’s say 40%. For a round figure they will pay about $186,780 in taxes. This would leave them with about $280,177. This is a lot of money to live on. However, imagine handing the government almost $187,000!
The old adage is if you make it then you should pay it. My contention is who wants to work longer hours and harder and then pay most of it in taxes? We have our Congress people to keep up in their lifestyles. We have roads and bridges to maintain. However, everywhere I go I see tolls for roads and bridges. What about our tax dollars?
Let’s go to the low bracket people. A single person making $9,276 is in the 15% tax bracket or $1,391 roughly in taxes which is a lot of money! This leaves the single person with only $7,885. I realize there are other considerations and possible deductions but this is simply for analysis and thought. The main point is no one can do much on $9,276 and much less on $7,885. If this person is placed in the 10% tax bracket they pay $927 and this is a gain of $464. This is a lot of gasoline money for someone on such a meager income.
However, the standard deduction would nearly double under Trump’s proposal.
“We are going to double the standard deduction so a married couple wouldn’t pay any taxes on the first $24,000 income they earn. So in essence, we are creating a zero tax rate — yes, a zero tax rate for the first $24,000 that a couple earns,” said Gary Cohn, head of Trump’s National Economic Council, during the news conference which introduced the new plan.
The standard deduction for single filers is $6,350 and $12,700 for married couples filing jointly for 2017.
Too many Americans have an attitude that it’s OK for the wealthy to pay 39.6% and even more but realistically every American gets tax weary. We want a strong military and a strong country along with Medicare and Social Security but more and more tax dollars is not appealing to anyone who has to shell it out.
President Trump’s idea will bring some relief to all Americans. Will our country suffer? No. More people will feel like working a little more knowing they can bring more of their paycheck home. His idea of only three tax levels of 10%, 25% and 35% will encourage the current workforce and stimulate the economy with more working people. Less people working cannot carry this country even if they were paying 50% in taxes. A smaller percentage of money from millions more of employed people going to work will generate more money for our government and overall economy in the long run.
Trump’s proposed corporate tax rate of 15% will also help us keep some jobs and bring some jobs back home.
Regardless of your tax bracket, let out a big “hooray for less taxes!” We can only hope.
(Glenn Mollette is a syndicated columnist and author of 11 books. He is read in all 50 states.)