Rangel Wants To Cut* Taxes!

Sounds like good news.

New York Representative Charles Rangel said he's revising his tax overhaul proposal to reduce U.S. corporate tax rates to 28 percent, down from the current rate of 35 percent.

On its own, that would be tremendous.  The U.S. corporate tax rate is the second highest in the world.  Add in state-level corporate taxes and it's frequently the highest.  Lowering this superlative disincentive to corporate productivity would do wonders to fuel economic growth, attract capital to our shores, and create countless jobs.

Sounds like a neat trick, but it's precisely what would happen - and precisely what we need, especially during tough economic times.

But Charlie's got another, far less crowd-pleasing trick up his sleeve.

The down-side of Rangel's tax package, of course, is tax increases on individuals. Rangel intends to raise individual tax rates to a marginal 44 percent on people making over $200,000.

44% would be the highest top marginal rate in 23 years, eliminating even the fallacious "we did well enough with higher taxes under Clinton" argument.