Illinois' 9th District congresswoman Jan Schakowsky introduced HR 1124, a bill she's calling the Fairness in Taxation Act. The legislation would create a new series of tax brackets for the country's very wealthiest earners. The current tax code, Schakowsky writes in Huffington Post-Chicago, "fails to distinguish the merely 'well-off,' from the 'super-duper rich.' By introducing new tax brackets, we ensure a basic principal of
fairness: those who have benefited the most from the opportunities that
our great country provides should also invest in making those
opportunities a reality for all Americans." Here are the new tax brackets her bill proposes:
- $1-10 million: 45%
- $10-20 million: 46%
- $20-100 million: 47%
- $100 million to $1 billion: 48%
- $1 billion and over: 49%
According to the Tax Foundation, the current top income tax rate of 35 percent starts for heads of households, wealthy individuals, and married joint filers with incomes up $379,150, a rate pushed by ex-President George W. Bush and temporarily extended by the lame duck Congress and Obama administration last December. The top rate is down from the 39.6 percent during the Clinton White House years.
There's no chance HR 1124 will gain traction in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, but with a battle about the Bush tax cuts looming, Schakowsky's effort seems aimed at starting to shape that debate. "Despite GOP cries for austerity and fiscal restraint, they continue to
defend corporate subsidies like tax breaks for big oil companies and
more tax breaks for the wealthiest," she writes.
A stagnant economy has pushed nearly one in ten Illinoisans to remain on the unemployment rolls, including 11 percent of unemployed workers in Cook County. The numbers do not take into account the people working part-time or the so-called 99’ers. National figures put real unemployment north of 16 percent. Slow private sector job growth combined with public sector job losses have left many workers competing against hundreds of other applicants for a small pool of jobs.
The radical changes to Medicare as proposed by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan
(R-WI) in the Republican 
One year ago yesterday, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The landmark legislation is already restructuring the country's insurance system and providing benefits to millions of youth, seniors, private health care consumers, and 
Illinois' neighbors to the north are having quite a week on the national stage. As many as 50,000 people are said to be rallying at the capitol in Madison today, protesting Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan, which essentially eliminates collective bargaining for almost all public employees (