FORBES: CLINTON AND SANDERS PROPOSE HIGHEST CAPITAL GAINS TAX RATE IN HISTORY.

If there was a prize for the most complex capital gains tax platform, it would assuredly be awarded to Hillary Clinton. She proposes many new capital gains rates than today, based on the duration one owns an asset sold and one’s income the year of the sale.

By contrast, the Sanders plan on capital gains is pretty simple. All households above a small exemption have to pay a 2.2% tax to help pay for his “Medicare for All” single payer socialized healthcare system. This effectively makes the 3.8% surtax a 6% surtax for families making at least $250,000 per year.

If a household makes more than $250,000 per year (where most gains occur), it pays ordinary income tax on its capital gains, plus the 6% surtax. Sanders raises the top statutory income tax rate to 54%. Add in the surtax, and you’re at a 60% top capital gains rate.

Each plan would result in a very large increase in the capital gains top rate. According to the Tax Policy Center, the highest this rate ever got was just under 40% in the late 1970s, which precipitated the supply side revolution and the Reagan tax cuts.

Glenn likes to say that Atlas Shrugged has been a how-to manual for the Obama Administration, but Clinton and Sanders are looking to the Malaise Era for their inspiration.

So where’s our Reagan?